[tor-talk] What are the PPTOR relays?

[Philipp Winter]

On Sun, Jul 06, 2014 at 10:57:18PM -0400, Soul Plane wrote:
> Last night I noticed my relay path was using two PPTOR relays. I don't
> know much about Tor but from what I've read I thought servers that are
> related are supposed to identify themselves as such. Just because two
> servers have similar names does not mean they are related though. Are
> those servers all run by the same person? Is there a way to tell if
> they are? Is that unusual or not? Thanks

Tor's MyFamily option is used to announce that a set of relays is run by
the same operator.  Sometimes, relay operators fail to configure the
option which could explain what you witnessed.

At first glance, it looks like the PPTOR family correctly set the
MyFamily option (using fingerprints and nicknames).  See for example:
<https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/0C45FAE12326D376997F8A233A402A6B5BB25404>

Among these relays, do you know which ones were part of your circuit?

Cheers,
Philipp