Running a middleman node is comparatively less risky because the middleman node is unlikely to draw the kinds of complaints that a public proxy might, since the IP address of a middleman node will never appear on log files. Running an exit node is particularly helpful because exit nodes are comparatively scarce. Running either kind of node is helpful to the Tor network as a whole. A middleman node forwards encrypted traffic only to other Tor nodes, and does not allow anonymous users to communicate directly with sites outside of the Tor network. However, a Tor node is typically set up in one of two ways: as an exit node or as a middleman node (sometimes called a non-exit node). Risks of operating a Tor node (Tor relay)Ī Tor node is a kind of public proxy, so running one can have the general risks of running a proxy mentioned in the 'Risks of Operating a Proxy' chapter of this manual. Even if an ISP is filtering connections to all the known Tor relays, it probably will not be able to block all the bridges. To help people using Tor bypass Internet censorship, set up a bridge relay rather than an ordinary relay.īridge relays (or bridges for short) are Tor relays that are not listed in the main (and public) Tor directory. The more people run relays, the faster and more secure the Tor network will be. The Tor network relies on volunteers to donate bandwidth.

If you live in an area with little or no Internet censorship, you may want to run a Tor relay or a Tor bridge relay to help other Tor users access an uncensored Internet.

What is tor bridge