How to Create a Tor Exit Node (2015)

Eridanus2 49 points 24 comments September 04, 2026
madpsy.uk · View on Hacker News

Discussion Highlights (9 comments)

p0w3n3d

I wonder, according to law, what are the outcomes of maintaining an exit node, apart from having, I quote, _balls of steel_

functionmouse

best not, lads

tamimio

>harrased by ISP Or the FBI setting you up and jail you for 3 years https://rockenhaus.com/ Not to fear monger, in fact, the more people run exit node the harder it will be to go after individuals.

braiamp

Wow.... > I’ll go with Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty) This is extremely old. I am aware that the Tor project tries to keeps their defaults sane for any use, but someone has checked that the configuration here is still valid for this use? Also, running tor as a root is bad idea, I don't think the client allows you to anymore (or at least warns you)

a34729t

So let me ask this: How hard is it to create a temporary exit node that is basically a rasberry pi with a sim card or wifi connection say from a cafe, or any other public wifi, ans are online for say na hour or two? If we had enough of these scattered around, would it matter?

Fergusonb

I got in huge trouble hosting one of these when I was a kid. I saw some call-to-arms post that got me excited for the free internet and set it up on my parents' residential service. You can imagine the fallout. No permanent damage though.

thcipriani

I note that Linode will still let you run exit nodes on their infra (though they may ask you to respond to specific complaints to reduce the exit policy).

amiga386

Oh boy. The first line of any blog post on how to create a Tor Exit Node should be: DON'T. If you really want to, first do a metric shitload of legal and commercial prep work, including picking a specific ISP for the exit node, registering an LLC or equivalent to be the legal entity that owns the exit node, and all sorts of steps that mean when the inevitable deluge of traffic from hackers, bittorrenters and so on come through your exit node, you're at least somewhat insulated from the blowback you'll get. Prepare for answering legal queries about your exit node being your full time job. Read https://blog.torproject.org/tips-running-exit-node/ first, and note that even that post is 8 years old. If you merely want there to be more Tor exit nodes in the world, I recommend you donate to an existing operator of them, like https://torservers.net/ -- if you read their blog, https://torservers.net/blog/ , you'll see the latest entries (also from 8 years ago) are about seized servers and arrested operators. If you want to donate your ISP bandwidth for improving the Tor network, do it by running a guard relay or middle relay, that is relatively straightforward.

vivzkestrel

stupid questions for a guy with no idea about TOR - how is it better than a VPN - how is it untraceable - what makes you think you dont get tagged by 3 letter agencies when are you trying to download it for the first time?

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