Yes, you can throttle bandwidth of your relay (both in terms of overall thoroughput and the amount you let through per second), you can schedule when it runs, and you do not need to adhere to any sort of schedule. None of this needs to be manual aside from the initial configuration. As long as the computer is online and running tor, it will do everything on its own. It will not affect your personal browsing speeds at all.

However, you should be aware of the ramifications of running a relay on your home network. For instance, you will end up with your IP on some blacklists (even if you are not running an exit, some people will annoyingly blacklist all relays). In general, remember that doing this will mean your home IP is publicly listed as a tor relay. You may not want this for a number of reasons. You may consider running a bridge instead, which would not be included on relay lists, although I am not sure what other ramifications that might pose. You should figure out what those would be and discuss it with everyone who uses the network.

If you do decide to set something up, I would look into doing it on a linux vm, or a separate computer running linux. At the very least, would probably be a lot easier to set up. If you decide not to set up something at home, but would still like to try running a relay, a safe and not-too-expensive way to do so is to rent a VPS from a provider who is ok with tor relays and set it up there.

In any case, thanks for your willingness to help the network!

On 21/01/23 02:25PM, ramesh bhootra wrote:

Hi,

I have been using Tor since a decade, always had limited resources and couldn't give back anything to the community. Now I wish to run relays in an effort to give back something.

Right now I have a 100 mbps reliable internet connection on a gaming laptop with windows 10 "HP Envy K204tx", I disabled windows updates, and a good quality ethernet cable. Even though it's a laptop, I use it like a desktop, with hdmi out to a TV, ethernet cable, usb hubs and 24x7 electricity with lots of inverter (home ups) backup.

I keep this laptop always stationary since I have another sleek and lightweight one which I use for portable purposes.

Earlier my internet plan was limited to 500 gb per month but recently they upgraded it for free, now it's 3000 gb per month, which is too much for me and my family, we hardly use 300-400 gb per month.

I was thinking about running a relay for Tor, (maybe a bridge relay) at night since both my laptop and internet are unused at night. I have following queries:

1. Can I run relay on my laptop simultaneously while using other internet

services and browsers normally?

2. Is it possible to schedule everything automatically, say to run a relay

from 1 am to 7 am then shut it down automatically after that? I start using it at 9 am and 2 hours of rest will be enough for the laptop.

3. I have Kaspersky internet security, will it create problems for running

tor relays? Currently when I use tor browser as a client, I don't have any issues, kaspersky doesn't provide a warning, doesn't block any connections.

4. Do I need to be punctual in running the relay every day at the scheduled

time? Is it okay if I can't run the relay on a few occasional days, for reasons like power outage, feeling sick, too busy etc?

5. Can I use a Tor browser (client) while running the relay? If yes, will I

get faster browsing speed with that?

...

---

tor-relays mailing list tor-relays@lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-relays

1. Yes. The relay won't interfere with other applications, although you should be aware that it will consume some bandwidth depending on how you configure it.

2. That depends on which OS you're using. However, running a part-time relay is not optimal. Selection of a relay for middle or guard use is heavily dependent on its stability (i.e. uptime). If it's never being used, it's kind of a waste of resources for the network to continue managing it. A relay doesn't consume a significant amount of CPU time and it's pretty efficient with memory. There are a couple of ways to configure bandwidth so as not to interfere with your personal needs

Here is a description of the life-cycle of a relay. https://blog.torproject.org/lifecycle-new-relay

Here are the bandwidth setting options. https://support.torproject.org/operators/limit-total-bandwidth/

I operate a relay out of my home on a Debian Linux system that I use for occasional software development. I limit its bandwidth so that it doesn't consume too much of what I have. I've never noticed that it takes any kind of toll on my day-to-day use.

3. I'm not familiar with Kaspersky, but many personal security applications will prevent unsolicited connections. By design, incoming relay connections are unsolicited. You may be able to configure it.

4. See answer #2.

5. Yes, you can use the Tor Browser while running a relay, but no, it won't make things faster. The speed of your connection is a function of the bandwidth allotment of three different nodes. I'm not sure whether selection of a guard relay would favor yours, but I kind of doubt it. However, if you run a bridge, you can configure the browser to use it.

Good luck!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No me preguntas nada, no te diré una mentira. Enrollado

Sent with ProtonMail Secure Email.

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Saturday, 23 de January de 2021 3:55, ramesh bhootra ramesh.bh777@gmail.com wrote:

Hi,

I have been using Tor since a decade, always had limited resources and couldn't give back anything to the community. Now I wish to run relays in an effort to give back something.

Right now I have a 100 mbps reliable internet connection on a gaming laptop with windows 10 "HP Envy K204tx", I disabled windows updates, and a good quality ethernet cable. Even though it's a laptop, I use it like a desktop, with hdmi out to a TV, ethernet cable, usb hubs and 24x7 electricity with lots of inverter (home ups) backup.

I keep this laptop always stationary since I have another sleek and lightweight one which I use for portable purposes.

Earlier my internet plan was limited to 500 gb per month but recently they upgraded it for free, now it's 3000 gb per month, which is too much for me and my family, we hardly use 300-400 gb per month.

I was thinking about running a relay for Tor, (maybe a bridge relay) at night since both my laptop and internet are unused at night. I have following queries:

1. Can I run relay on my laptop simultaneously while using other internet services and browsers normally?

2. Is it possible to schedule everything automatically, say to run a relay from 1 am to 7 am then shut it down automatically after that? I start using it at 9 am and 2 hours of rest will be enough for the laptop.

3. I have Kaspersky internet security, will it create problems for running tor relays? Currently when I use tor browser as a client, I don't have any issues, kaspersky doesn't provide a warning, doesn't block any connections.

4. Do I need to be punctual in running the relay every day at the scheduled time? Is it okay if I can't run the relay on a few occasional days, for reasons like power outage, feeling sick, too busy etc?

5. Can I use a Tor browser (client) while running the relay? If yes, will I get faster browsing speed with that?

...