[tor-talk] More Questions

[mirimir]

On 10/08/2013 09:50 PM, Crypto wrote:

> On 10/8/2013 4:45 PM, sam wrote:
>> On Tue, 08 Oct 2013 16:34:19 -0500
>> Crypto <crypto at jpunix.net> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Here ya go!
>>>
>>> Oct 08 16:02:01.769 [Notice] Bootstrapped 100%: Done.
>>> Oct 08 16:02:01.769 [Notice] Now checking whether ORPort
>>> 184.75.214.178:21357 and DirPort 184.75.214.178:9030 are reachable...
>>> (this may take up to 20 minutes -- look for log messages indicating
>>> success) Oct 08 16:02:04.644 [Notice] Self-testing indicates your
>>> ORPort is reachable from the outside. Excellent. Publishing server
>>> descriptor. Oct 08 16:02:13.379 [Notice] Performing bandwidth
>>> self-test...done.
>>
>>
>> Woo-hoo! Check out https://atlas.torproject.org/. Search for your
>> relay's Nickname (if you set one) or the fingerprint/IP and you will be
>> given its statistics, flags, etc. It's great. Beware, it may take some
>> hours to update.
>>
>>>
>>> So if I can live without Dirport then I guess I have an exit node!
>>>
>>
>> Awesome. Thank you. :)
>>
> 
> And another nicety is that I can change the exit node on a whim. All I
> need to do is select a different forwarding VPN and point there. Right
> now I have it set for Toronto Canada because they have the best
> published bandwidth. But I can make my node report that it is in Romania
> if needed. :)

Congratulations! That is very cool. I've long wondered how this might work.

However, there is the concern that traffic will be linked to you through
the VPN provider, unless you've paid anonymously and masked your IP
address somehow. That's also an issue when running hosted exit relays.
But with the VPN approach, the exit traffic traverses your computer
through the VPN, instead of merely traversing a remote server that
you're renting.

Also, why did you go with the VPN approach, instead of just running an
exit hosted at, for example, Voxility in Romania? VPN services are less
expensive than hosted servers, even VPS. But are there other reasons?