Running a Tor Server


The Tor network is made up of volunteers all over the world who donate some of their spare bandwidth by running a server. Vidalia helps you do your part by making it easy to set up a server of your own.

Basic Settings

If you decide you want to help the Tor network grow by running a server, you can follow these steps to get started:

  1. Open the Configuration Dialog by selecting Settings from the tray menu or Preferences from your system menubar on Macintosh systems.
  2. Select the Server configuration page.
  3. Check the box labeled Relay traffic for the Tor network.
  4. Enter the following information:
    • Nickname: The name which your server will be known as on the Tor network. An example of a server nickname is "myVidaliaServer".
    • Contact Info: Your e-mail address. This address will only be used to contact you in case there is an important Tor security update or something goes wrong with your server. You might also include your PGP or GPG key ID and fingerprint.
    • Server Port: The port on which your server will listen for traffic from clients or other Tor servers.
    • Address: Enter an address at which your computer can be reached by other Tor servers on the Internet. If you don't know your public IP address, you can click on Get Address and Vidalia will contact an external site (e.g., http://www.vidalia-project.net/iptest/ip.php) to find out what it thinks your public IP address is.
  5. If you would like to mirror Tor's directory of servers for others on the network you can check the box labeled Mirror the Server Directory. If you do not have much bandwidth, uncheck this box. If you do decide to mirror the server directory, make sure the Directory Port is different than the Server port you entered above.

Bandwidth Limits

Running a Tor server can consume a large amount of bandwidth; however, Tor allows you to limit the amount of bandwidth that you are willing to contribute to the Tor network. You can run a server, while still keeping your network connection usable for your own use.

You should select the option in the dropdown box that best matches your connection speed. If you select Custom, you will be able to specify your own limits.

Custom Limits

The maximum rate is a pool of bytes used to fulfill requests during short periods of traffic higher than your specified average rate, but still maintains the average over a long period. A low average rate but a high maximum rate enforces a long-term average while still allowing more traffic during peak times if the average hasn't been reached lately. If your average rate is the same as your maximum rate, then Tor will never exceed the specified rate. Your maximum rate must always be greater than or equal to your average rate.

The average rate is the maximum long-term average bandwidth allowed (in kilobytes per second). For example, you might want to choose 2 megabytes per second (2048 KB/s), or 50 kilobytes per second (a medium-speed cable connection). Tor requires a minimum of 20 kilobytes per second to run a server.

It is important to remember that Tor measures bandwidth in bytes, not bits. Also, Tor only looks at incoming bytes instead of outgoing bytes. For example, if your server acts as a directory mirror, you may be sending more outgoing bytes than incoming. If you find this is the case and is putting too much strain on your bandwidth, you should consider unchecking the checkbox labeled Mirror the server directory.

Exit Policies

Exit policies give you a way to specify what kinds of resources on the Internet you are willing let other Tor users access from your Tor server. Tor uses a default list of exit policies that restrict some services, such as mail to prevent spam and some default file sharing ports to reduce abuse of the Tor network.

Each of the checkboxes represents a type of resource that you can allow Tor users to access through your server. If you uncheck the box next to a particular type of resource, Tor users will not be allowed to access that resource from your server. If the box labeled Misc Other Services is checked, Tor users will be able to access other services not covered by the other checkboxes or Tor's default exit policy.

If you do not want to let other Tor users make connections outside the Tor network from your server, you can uncheck all of the checkboxes. Even if you uncheck all of the checkboxes, your server is still useful to the Tor network. Your server will allow other Tor users to connect to the Tor network and will help relay traffic between other Tor servers.