this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
45 points (100.0% liked)

Privacy Guides

16263 readers
19 users here now

In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.

This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.


You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:

Learn more...


Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We've tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!

Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!


This community is the "official" Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other "Privacy Guides" communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.


Moderation Rules:

  1. We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
  2. This is not the place for self-promotion if you are not listed on privacyguides.org. If you want to be listed, make a suggestion on our forum first.
  3. No soliciting engagement: Don't ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
  4. Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
  5. Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
  6. Don't repost topics which have already been covered here.
  7. News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
  8. Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
  9. No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don't abuse our community's willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
  10. No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
  11. Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
  12. General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.

Additional Resources:

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Hiya, so been on the lookout for different services that I could help host for others to benefit from. I think TOR is a great project, and I'd like to contribute. So been thinking about hosting a TOR relay lately, and wondering how people's experience is with running one? Please correct me if I'm wrong - but as far as I know, it only becomes "scary" to host, if you were to host an exit node? And the only real requirement to host a relay is to have a good internet speed? Mainly wondering people's experiences with running a relay.

Edit: Very well-timed and relevant upload from Techlore, on how to use Tor just dropped: https://youtu.be/K3wmLvny5tg

top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 months ago (3 children)

All you need is a web browser running Snowflake to help people connect to Tor!

https://snowflake.torproject.org/

https://relay.love/

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago

Didnt take long before someone connected, feels good to help!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

This is what I did on a Raspberry since snowflake can run as a normal service without a browser, too. The Raspberry then runs 24/7 and I don't have to care if my browser is running.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago

Good to know! Thanks

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Wow this is neat! Wasn't aware of this. Is this the same as running a full dedicated relay?

Have already installed and activated it, and will do so on more of my devices.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Snowflake acts as an entry point. A lot of official TOR entry nodes are blacklisted in some contries. Since Snowflake can run basically behind any IP anywhere where a browser is, it is hard to block them. In that way users in suppressed countries can still access the TOR network through Snowflake but the official entry nodes.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

Ah I see, good to know. I don't think my country blocks them, but I'll try to do some research. It seems like TOR has a nice overview over good and bad ISPs too, if one were to go the route of hosting through a company: https://community.torproject.org/relay/community-resources/good-bad-isps/

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Too great a chance someone downloads csam through it and I get blamed.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

But as far as I understand, thats only a worry for people running exit nodes? Or?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago (2 children)

You're correct, but I still am not comfortable taking the chance.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

Just don't run an exit node? We need more guard and relay nodes anyway. I fail to see the issue.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

totally fair

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Correct. This is one article that goes over a multi-hop VPN that's sort of relevant regarding how you, as somebody in the middle of this process, would not see what is being relayed even if you're closer to the end-user.

(Obviously this isn't quite as far as Tor goes, but at least it explores the principle.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago

Nice illustration, thanks!

Also: I often see your name in Lemmy posts/comments, and just wanted to say thanks for contributing so much. You come with very valuable and factual information, as far I've seen - and I appreciate that :)

Have a nice day 🌻

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 months ago

Running a middle relay for years with no issues.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago

I did a long time ago and don't remember much about it other than it just worked. But then I tried again recently and couldn't get it to work properly. Although that's probably because I hadn't played with it in years and was missing something with my configuration.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

If you do, do it in a vps. Because, if you do it at home, your isp won't be too keen on your traffic.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 months ago

Mainly true for exit relays. I do not recommend trying to run an exit relay from home at all. If you run a middle relay though you should be mostly fine.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah that might be a good idea

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 months ago