[tor-relays] A general question for relay operators

[Keifer Bly]

Before I started running a relay, one thing I wish I had known was that a relay has to be running for about three months and also continuously be offering 2mb/s network traffic to be used as a Guard relay. This is difficult If running a relay in the United States, as most ISPS in the US (or at least the major ones such as Charter, Comcast, AT&T, etc.) are cable ISPS, making even getting, let alone maintaining this speed to a relay very difficult (or impossible). As a result my relay is only ever used as a middle node. 

➢ For others, there might be a learning curve in keeping a network service
up with decent uptime, while updating the relevant ports and operating
system.

Yes, this is the most annoying thing for me. I had a glitch last night where my relay became unreachable for several hours because my router decided to change what device the port forwarding was for for some reason (I had not logged I the router and done this).

It is also a pain at times keeping the OS, especially on macOS, the newer versions of which my not support older machines, up to date while trying to keep the relay stable, as relay status is changed so quickly (removing relays from the conseoucsus list within 40 mins) which can be troublesome for areas that sometimes experience power outages, which happens during winter where my relay is run. What seems strange to me is that I see there is a “running” flag. This flag seems pointless to me if the relay is just completely removed from the conseoucsus if it’s detected as not currently running to begin with; why not just give an “X” flag if the relay is unreachable for three days or so?

Let me know what you all think. 

From: George
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2018 1:39 PM
To: tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
Subject: [tor-relays] A general question for relay operators

Greetings relay operators.

A question that came up offline for relay operators can be summed up in
one sentence, paraphrased from flexlibris:

as a relay operator, what "things" do you wish you knew before you
started running a relay?

I'm really curious, in particular, to hear from those relay operators
who are less connected to others, and are maybe more isolated physically
from the community.

In the long-ago past, many of us ran exit nodes without giving it much
thought or preparation leading to ISP issues, but that seems less common
today.

For others, there might be a learning curve in keeping a network service
up with decent uptime, while updating the relevant ports and operating
system.

There's no irrelevant answers to this, including more boring issues such
as paying for the relay, choosing a provider or experiences as a
(conscious) exit node operator.

Bonus point for showing relation between your total costs per 1Mbps.

Not only should this discussion be useful on list, but it might provide
more content for the relay operator guide.

g




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