[tor] Re: Hosting relays in the Netherlands
- From: grarpamp <grarpamp@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: torservers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 19:11:25 -0400
[sorry, same note, right tor-relays address this time :-]
>> I got to a point where I want to make an active contribution to the
>> Tor cause starting with running some nodes of my own, but I'm having
>> difficulties on finding hosting companies (vps/dedicated) that allow
>> running Tor services.
>>
>> I know that you've been resuming your servers in the Netherlands
>> Would like to hear what's your experience with that.
>
> There is not much advice I can give you. I do not want to recommend any
> of our ISPs, not because we're not happy with them (to the contrary),
> but because it makes no sense to put more and more Tor exits into few
> places. My strategy always is to find appropriate offers (cheap high
> bandwidth) and then contact the ISP. This has evolved into a pretty
> standardized two-step approach: First, I ask if they were okay "with
> Tor" and reassigning IP space, and telling them that we're security
> researchers and that we have worked with many ISPs successfully in the
> past. Because the reassignment is somewhat of a special case, this
> usually helps in reaching someone higher up in the support chain who can
> make such decisions. Once they get back to me, I explain Tor a little
> more and only then tell them about the caveats, but reassure them that
> we have a volunteer team handling abuse around the clock etc.
>
> Depending on what you're able and willing to spend, a good approach
> would be to look for data centers, and ask there for potential partners.
> I wrote a small script that puts the GeoIP location of Tor nodes on a
> map, which is somewhat helpful in finding "empty spots". A good idea
> would be a script that extracts ASNs, sums up "their" Tor bandwidth, and
> then not go with those that already have a high bandwidth exit, but
> maybe some other AS in the same datacenters?
Yes! Far better to look for new diverse holes and fill them than to
essentially duplicate existing nodes.
Bringing in tor-relays on this, as this topic comes up there
once in a while too.
I'll add that AS path info is available from route views looking
glasses. Think of it like traceroute, but for BGP. It's quite handy.
A node map showing current GEO, AS, and provider would be a cool
idea. Lots of cities have datacenters and moms/pops of some sort. People
could then find a gap near them, then poke around the phonebook,
webhostingtalk, datacentertalk, [NA]NOG's, etc to find a diverse fill.
Other related posts:
