[tor-relays] Email Blocked by ISP

[Roger Dingledine]

On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 10:31:09AM -0700, K. Besig wrote:
> I've run a home relay on and off for several years and recently, for the
> first time, had my email blocked by the ISP rendering it impossible to login
> into my 3rd party mail sever.
> 
> When I contacted support I was informed my email password had been reset due
> to activity that resembled e-bombing/mass mailing. Only after submitting to
> a system scan while the rep waited on the phone,was I able to reset my
> password.

Was this an exit relay, or a non-exit relay?

https://2019.www.torproject.org/docs/faq#ExitPolicies

The current advice from EFF and us and others is that you shouldn't
run an exit relay at home, because there's always some fresh new law
enforcement person wanting to make a name for themselves looking for a
door to kick down.

See e.g. "Should I run an exit relay from my home?" on
https://2019.www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq

> Wondering if anything other than lowering my tor bandwidth would keep them
> off my back...

Assuming it's a non-exit relay, I wonder what behavior might have
triggered their detectors. It might have been total bandwidth used, or
total number of connections open, or a brief period with many outgoing
connection attempts. Lowering the rate limiting (bandwidth) for the
relay could help with all of those. Or could also be that a few relays
listen on common email ports, and if you ever try to connect to one of
those, their detector freaks out. Lots of variables, unfortunately.

--Roger