[Newbie] Installed relay, but no traffic

[Justin Aplin]

On Dec 6, 2010, at 7:29 PM, andrew cooke wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Thanks for the reply.  Looks like I just need to wait.

Keep an eye on it and let us know if it doesn't pick up after a few  
days. My two exits still have daily latent periods, but spike up with  
traffic pretty regularly.

> My rates are
> RelayBandwidthRate 100 KBytes  # Throttle traffic to 100KB/s (800Kbps)
> RelayBandwidthBurst 200 KBytes # But allow bursts up to 200KB/s  
> (1600Kbps)
> which seems about right.

That should be fine for a residential connection, just turn it down if  
it makes your network unusable at some point.

> Also, when I said "relay" I was a bit vague - it's currently an exit  
> node (I assume those relay too), but I may change that if there are  
> problems.

Yes, exit nodes both exit traffic and relay it. Make sure to read  
through the tips at https://blog.torproject.org/blog/tips-running-exit-node-minimal-harassment 
  and odds are you won't have any issues with your ISP.


~Justin Aplin


>
> Cheers,
> Andrew
>
>
> On Mon, 6 Dec 2010 17:11:52 -0500, Justin Aplin <jmaplin at ufl.edu>  
> wrote:
>> On Dec 6, 2010, at 4:09 PM, andrew cooke wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I installed Tor (v0.2.1.26) on Linux yesterday.  As far as I know,  
>>> I configured it to be a relay.  The log ends with
>>>
>>> Dec 05 18:15:05.509 [notice] Bootstrapped 100%: Done.
>>> Dec 05 18:15:05.509 [notice] Now checking whether ORPort   
>>> 71.192.164.111:9001 and DirPort 71.192.164.111:9030 are  
>>> reachable...  (this may take up to 20 minutes -- look for log  
>>> messages indicating  success)
>>> Dec 05 18:15:13.761 [notice] Self-testing indicates your DirPort  
>>> is  reachable from the outside. Excellent.
>>> Dec 05 18:16:06.835 [notice] Self-testing indicates your ORPort  
>>> is  reachable from the outside. Excellent. Publishing server  
>>> descriptor.
>>> Dec 05 18:16:18.602 [notice] Your DNS provider gave an answer for   
>>> "pmsxxrb3tc7t4", which is not supposed to exist.  Apparently they   
>>> are hijacking DNS failures. Trying to correct for this.  We've   
>>> noticed 1 possibly bad address so far.
>>> Dec 05 18:22:14.185 [notice] Performing bandwidth self-test...done.
>>
>> This is good.
>>
>>> which appears to be correct (Comcast is screwing with DNS).
>>>
>>> However, I don't see any "unexpected" traffic on etherape.  I am  
>>> not using it myself (I just wanted to add a relay to the system)  
>>> and am  on a cable modem with dynamic IP (which is tied to  
>>> acooke.dyndns.org).
>>>
>>> Have I done something wrong?  Is it normal to have no traffic?
>>
>> It can take up to 48 hours of uninterrupted running before you start
>> seeing traffic pick up. As I understand it, public relays will see
>> less traffic than exits, and bridges will see less than public  
>> relays.
>> Since I don't see etherape on https://torstatus.blutmagie.de I'm
>> assuming your relay is either configured as a bridge, or you've  
>> turned
>> it off. Either way, let it run interrupted for a few days and see
>> what  happens.
>>
>>> Also, what is a suitable value for the bandwidth setting?  This  
>>> is  just a "normal" residential Comcast cable modem in CT (the  
>>> Linux box  is connected to the cable modem on one NIC; a wifi  
>>> router running as  a simple hub is connected to another NIC; other  
>>> computers in the  house use wifi routed through this box.  It's  
>>> running opensuse 11.3)
>>
>> It depends on your upload usage. For non-file-sharing purposes,
>> allocating 75% of your maximum upload speed won't cause much of a
>> disturbance in your day-to-day use (residential connections are
>> generally asymmetrical and contain 8 to 10 times more download
>> capacity than upload). Residential connections generally have an
>> upload cap somewhere between 512kbps and 1mbps (64kBps - 128kBps) in
>> my area; if you don't know yours I'd test it out or look in your
>> contract to get an idea. Filesharing (I'm thinking Bittorrent in
>> particular) doesn't play will with Tor on residential connections
>> unless you've allocated each an appropriate share of your upload
>> capacity, and have a router that can handle a large number of
>> concurrent connections (although as I understand it your node is
>> plugged directly into your modem? In that case, nevermind.), so keep
>> that in mind.
>>
>> Also, what are your limits and burst limits currently set to?
>>
>>>
>>> Thanks, and apologies in advance if I am doing something dumb.
>>> Andrew
>>>
>>
>> ~Justin Aplin
>
>