Tor relays

1. What is a Tor relay?
2. Why should I run a Tor relay?
3. Can I run a Tor relay?
4. Why does Tor use 3 relays?
5. How does Tor works?
6. What is a Tor circuit?
7. How many relays are in a Tor circuit?
8. Who maintains Tor relays?
9. What are Tor requirements?
10. How much RAM does Tor use?
11. How is a Tor circuit created?
12. What is Tor bandwidth?
13. Does Tor use UDP or TCP?
14. What are weaknesses of Tor?
15. How does Tor choose relays?
16. What are Tor switches used for?
17. How many relays are in a Tor circuit?
18. How does Tor choose relays?
19. Who maintains Tor relays?

What is a Tor relay?

Tor relays are also referred to as "routers" or "nodes." They receive traffic on the Tor network and pass it along. Check out the Tor website for a more detailed explanation of how Tor works. There are three kinds of relays that you can run in order to help the Tor network: middle relays, exit relays, and bridges.

Why should I run a Tor relay?

By running a Tor relay you can help make the Tor network: faster (and therefore more usable) more robust against attacks. more stable in case of outages.

Can I run a Tor relay?

While the EFF believes running a Tor "exit node is legal," its Tor Challenge stated, "Exit relays raise special concerns because the traffic that exits from them can be traced back to the relay's IP address." Furthermore, the EFF does not recommend running an exit relay from your home, since it's realistic that someone ...

Why does Tor use 3 relays?

Tor uses only three relays by default because that's the bare minimum you need for safety. You can always use more…at a price. One would be pointless, since whoever operates that node you chose will see everything. Two is dangerous, because the entry and exit nodes would then be directly connected.

How does Tor works?

Tor works by sending your traffic through three random servers (also known as relays) in the Tor network. The last relay in the circuit (the “exit relay”) then sends the traffic out onto the public Internet. The image above illustrates a user browsing to different websites over Tor.

What is a Tor circuit?

A TOR circuit is the combination of entry/guard relay, middle relay and the exit relay. Some transmissions also involve Bridge nodes (Such occurrences are only observed when the known entry and exit nodes are blocked by a certain party like a government or a corporate organization)

How many relays are in a Tor circuit?

A Tor circuit is made of three relays: The first relay or entry guard. If you configured Tor bridges, one of your bridges is the first relay. The second relay or middle node.

Who maintains Tor relays?

Tor (aka The Onion Router) is software that allows users to browse the web anonymously by encrypting and routing requests through multiple relay layers or nodes. This software is maintained by the Tor Project, a nonprofit organization that provides internet anonymity and anti-censorship tools.

What are Tor requirements?

It is recommended that a relay have at least 16 Mbit/s (Mbps) upload bandwidth and 16 Mbit/s (Mbps) download bandwidth available for Tor. More is better. The minimum requirements for a relay are 10 Mbit/s (Mbps). If you have less than 10 Mbit/s but at least 1 Mbit/s we recommend you run a bridge with obfs4 support.

How much RAM does Tor use?

All of this said, fast Tor relays do use a lot of ram. It is not unusual for a fast exit relay to use 500-1000 MB of memory.

How is a Tor circuit created?

A Tor circuit is made up of a guard node, a middle node, and an exit node. The client starts the circuit formation process by contacting the node it has chosen as its guard node. The client and guard node negotiate a TLS session, and the client asks the guard node to help it initialize a Tor circuit.

What is Tor bandwidth?

Tor [12] is an anonymous communication overlay network with thousands of relays that forward over 200 Gbit/s of traffic for millions of daily clients [3,24] in order to provide unlinkability between the source and destination of traffic flows.

Does Tor use UDP or TCP?

Tor only supports TCP. Non-TCP traffic to the Internet, such as UDP datagrams and ICMP packets, is dropped.

What are weaknesses of Tor?

The biggest privacy weakness of Tor is that it is possible to monitor your computer and try to correlate the timing of traffic between your computer and Exit Relays.

How does Tor choose relays?

Tor chooses an exit relay which actually allows you to exit the Tor network. Some only allow web traffic (port 80) which is not useful when someone wants to send emails. The exit relay has to have available capacities. Tor tries to choose such exits which have enough ressources available.

What are Tor switches used for?

Among other capabilities, ToR switches handle operations, including Layer 2 and Layer 3 frame and packet forwarding, data center bridging and the transport of Fibre Channel over Ethernet for the racks of servers connected to them.

How many relays are in a Tor circuit?

A Tor circuit is made of three relays: The first relay or entry guard. If you configured Tor bridges, one of your bridges is the first relay. The second relay or middle node.

How does Tor choose relays?

Tor chooses an exit relay which actually allows you to exit the Tor network. Some only allow web traffic (port 80) which is not useful when someone wants to send emails. The exit relay has to have available capacities. Tor tries to choose such exits which have enough ressources available.

Who maintains Tor relays?

Tor (aka The Onion Router) is software that allows users to browse the web anonymously by encrypting and routing requests through multiple relay layers or nodes. This software is maintained by the Tor Project, a nonprofit organization that provides internet anonymity and anti-censorship tools.