[tor-talk] Reliable server hosting company for Tor exits?

[Roger Dingledine]

On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 08:37:16PM +0200, Rejo Zenger wrote:
> On 22 aug. 2012, at 16:07, Robin Kipp wrote:
> > I've already been running a Tor relay on that for quite a while,
> > but sadly had to find out that the server's IP subsequently got added
> > to several EMail blacklists - despite the server only being a relay and
> > not an actual exit node!
> 
> This is interesting. Did they provide any explanation for this? 
> 
> Your root server, did they have access to the server as well? How did
>they know you were running a relay, other than looking on your server
>for a Tor process, or looking into your traffic? What problem did they
>try to solve by adding your server on a blacklist?

Tor relays (regardless of exit policy) are listed in the Tor consensus,
which is public -- it has to be so clients can get the list.

As for the problem the blacklisters were trying to solve, at best
they were thinking "I want to block Tor, I'll scrape this page I found
and block all the IPs in it." At worst, they were taking the path all
blacklists eventually take, of "I will punish everything associated with
this thing I hate, in hopes that it will die or at least its neighbors
will pressure it."

See the link at the bottom of
https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq-abuse#TypicalAbuses
for a fun read.

--Roger