[tor-relays] Doubt related to Bridge relay

[Imre Jonk]

Hi Ismael, welcome to tor-relays! Great to hear that you are helping
the Tor network grow.

On Mon, 2020-04-06 at 11:07 -0500, Ismael Castro wrote:
> 1. Can I use tor browser from the same computer the bridge relay node
> is set up? Navigation will remain anonymous (at least similar than
> when using only tor browser)?

You certainly can, the Tor Browser software will still be picking
three-hop circuits through regular (non-bridge) relays. Your traffic
therefore won't loop around and back through your bridge or something.

If you were to run a regular relay on your computer, then you should
consider telling Tor Browser to avoid building circuits through your
own relay. You can use the ExcludeNodes option for this, and maybe
StrictNodes as well if you want to be extra safe. You can set these
options in Tor Browser's torrc file.

> 2. Will I notice any decrease or increase in tor network navigation
> speed? (understanding that I'll previously set up a max bandwidth to
> the node)

You will not notice an increase in Tor Browser navigation speed, and if
you do, it won't be because of your bridge. You could notice a decrease
in navigation speed if your bridge is taking up too much bandwidth,
especially if you are on a poor Internet connection. If that happens,
consider decreasing the bandwidth available to the bridge with the
RelayBandwidthRate option. Note that bridges are recommended to have at
least 1 Mbit/s (0.12 MiB/s) of available bandwidth.

> 3. Any other concern I should be aware of?

Keep the IP address of your bridge private to make it harder for
censors to add it to their blacklists. Also, configure your firewall to
allow inbound connections to your bridge so it is actually usable.
Those are your most important concerns, the rest should all be
documented here: https://community.torproject.org/relay/.

Have fun running your bridge :)

Imre
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