Re: Box for simple Tor node.

On October 11, 2019 9:53:10 PM UTC, jim bell wrote:

On Friday, October 11, 2019, 02:26:27 PM PDT, John Newman wrote:

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Somebody asked me a question, but because I am far from being an expert, I couldn't answer.   Suppose a person wanted to implement a TOR node, simply by buying some box, and plugging it into his modem, and

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Don't bother with long explanations challenging the usefulness, or

On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 09:05:00PM +0000, jim bell wrote: power.  And NOT needing to become an expert on TOR, or even on computers in general.  And NOT having to follow pages and pages of instructions.   I did a few minutes of searching, and even the 'simple' explanations seemed 'clear as mud'.  trustworthiness of TOR.   Yes, we've discussed them to death.  That's a different subject.                    Jim Bell

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On FreeBSD, it's as simple as running the following commands as root

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# install tor pkg install tor

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# set appropriate variables, there aren't too many to get going and # you can find them all well documented vi /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc

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# update your rc.conf so the service will start at boot, then start it sysrc tor_enable=YES service tor start

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For an idea of what the torrc file should look like, here is mine with a few bits XXX'd out. My node is specifically configured not to allow exit traffic because it was generating a lot of complaints upstream about my host trying to hack peoples shit, etc :) 

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# cat /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc | egrep -v "^$|^#" SocksPort 9050 SocksPolicy accept 127.0.0.1 SocksPolicy reject * Log notice file /var/log/tor/notices.log RunAsDaemon 1 DataDirectory /var/db/tor ControlPort 9051 HashedControlPassword XXXXXXXXXXXXXX ORPort 9023 Exitpolicy reject *:*  # too many complaints :) Nickname twentysevendollars Address wintermute.synfin.org OutboundBindAddress 198.154.106.54 RelayBandwidthRate 3265 KBytes  # playing with this RelayBandwidthBurst 4355 KBytes # ditto ContactInfo 0CA8B961 John Torman DirPort 9030 # what port to advertise for directory connections MyFamily XXXXXXXXXXXXX

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If you were doing this on Linux, it would be much the same. Replace the "pkg install" with "apt-get install" or "yum install" or whatever, you might have to add a tor repo or something. The config file probably won't live under /usr/local/etc/tor, but just /etc/tor, and you'll use systemctl rather than just updating the rc.conf with sysrc.

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I would not recommend you run an exit node from your home ;)

Yes, even years ago I was aware that a person shouldn't try to run an Exit node on a home setup.  Although, I wonder if it has been tried?   Sounds like a good beginning for a Wired article?   After writing that, I found:   https://blog.torproject.org/tips-running-exit-node       No way!!!

But you didn't answer my question.  I said a simple box, and that is precisely what I meant.   Power, Ethernet.  Plug into existing Modem.   Okay, I would understand it if the operator had to link it to the network by accessing a web page and informing them of the new IP address, but that's the level of complexity I was thinking about.  (Except for a box that already "knows" how to link up and start running.) Could one of the problems with the TOR network be that only "experts" are likely to participate? Also note:  I am referring to a situation where a person does not need, and does not want, the benefit of TOR for himself;  Just wants to add his "brick in the wall" to the nodes.  Has a spare $100 or so for the box, and has unlimited-usage gigabit/second Internet service.  (I see that Centurylink provides them for $65/month, probably subject to tax, as well.)                    Jim Bell

What you are describing, if it doesn't already exist, would be trivial to code for Windows (assuming standard tor binaries will run, win10 has fucking WSL or whatever, anyway im sure it does) or MacOS or Linux.. like the tor browser, but even simpler: just a little graphical applet that generates a torrc and starts up the tor daemon. Even makes sure whatever software firewall you are using has the right holes in it ;) I don't know of such an app but kinda surprised it doesn't exist.