[tor-relays] Home Tor Middle Relay Blacklisted

[Gary C. New]

Zorc and Sebastian:
I appreciate you sharing your experiences and solutions. Presently, I have a couple of Reverse Proxies (domain based using dnsmasq) already routing to dedicated Split-Tunneling VPN's to Off-Shore Exits on my router (for other purposes). I'm not sure why it didn't dawn on me to implement an On-Shore configuration for Tor Blacklisted Sites. My only concern is latency, with this type of configuration, but it's better than the current forbidden situation.
I appreciate the heads-up related to Tor and IPv6-only being a non-starter. It sounds like if I were to migrate to a Tor Bridge, I would need to have my IPv4 refreshed to a new IP. I think I'd prefer to contribute as a Tor Relay, though. I could possibly continue to operate my Middle Relay on the IPv4 address and then use the IPv6 address as my default gateway, but then I'd have to migrate all my private network devices to IPv6.
Hmm... Fork in the road. Which to take?
Respectfully,

Gary—
This Message Originated by the Sun.
iBigBlue 63W Solar Array (~12 Hour Charge)
+ 2 x Charmast 26800mAh Power Banks
= iPhone XS Max 512GB (~2 Weeks Charged) 

    On Monday, January 10, 2022, 4:41:50 AM PST, zorc via tor-relays <tor-relays at lists.torproject.org> wrote:  
 
 > Fellow Tor Operators:
>
> After about 9 months of running Tor as a Middle Relay from my home network, I'm beginning to experience signs of my public semi-static IPv4 address being blacklisted with 403 Forbidden errors from Reuters and Venmo. I've confirmed by successfully accessing both sites with my mobile internet connection.
>
> I'm not surprised that Venmo is blacklisting, but extremely surprised I'm being blocked by Reuters. You would think such a organization would be a proponent of free speech. I wouldn't be surprised if Reuters used Tor in some capacity. It doesn't make sense.
>
> When Googling my public semi-static IPv4 address, it appears in several Tor blacklists. That being said, I'm at the point that, at a minimum, I will have to ask my ISP to freshen my public semi-static IPv4 address.
>
> Previously, when speaking with my ISP, they mentioned offering a static IPv6 address at no cost. I'm wondering if that offer was with the expectation that I would have to give up my existing IPv4 semi-static address? If they provided both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, at no cost, I'd like to run a Tor Bridge using the?semi-static?IPv4 address and configure my existing Middle Tor Relay to use the new static IPv6 address. That way, I'll be able to browse unimpeded through the?semi-static?IPv4 address and not have to be concerned with the static IPv6 address being blacklisted.
>
> Are other Tor Operators experiencing similar issues? Will I continue to experience blacklisting issues, even after migrating to a Tor Bridge? What are best practices in moving an existing Tor Relay to a new address, while avoiding the loss of flags?
>
> As always, I appreciate the feedback.
>
> Respectfully,
>
> Gary?

Hi Gary,

I'm having a similar experience. My main solution is (somewhat ironically I guess) to use a VPN. The sum of the two work reasonably well. When the VPN is blocked by something, my residential IP is usually not. What I also did once is directly contact a service I am paying for, and tell them to please use the Tor exit list instead of the Tor all-relays list if they really need. After some back and forth, this site started working again, although I never heard anything back from them whether this was indeed due to my enquiry. Maybe this could work for Reuters too if you explain to them how Tor is helping especially journalists?
As for the IPv6, my understanding is, that currently IPv6-only relays are not possible, i.e. your IPv4 would still show up on the blocklists. In addition, it would also show up as a Tor relay, i.e. your bridge would become blocked too. Not 100% sure on this, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Cheers,
zorc

PGP 64c416e08f0575609d6212c075c6b8e01967b659

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.
_______________________________________________
tor-relays mailing list
tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays
  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-relays/attachments/20220113/3b11b8f6/attachment-0001.htm>