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I'm running a Tor non-exit relay on a network with a dynamic IP that changes every day. What is the update on how this can affect the metrics of my relay (mainly the stable flag, uptime, consensus weight, etc.)?

While searching I found some good information in this thread, but it looks quite old.

Any recent updates on how Tor calculate the metrics?

Ron
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    While I don't have an answer, I remember seeing a discussion on the tor-relay mailing list a while ago. IIRC, they said that if your IP is constantly changing, it's almost impossible to get "stable" and "guard" flags. They also said that running a bridge might be better, since a constantly changing IP is almost impossible to block. – SuperSluether Apr 04 '16 at 01:44

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I would have to say that having a dynamic ip can hurt your relay in the metrics over a static ip. While I cant pick out specifics I can give you the links to the tor-relay email discussions which took place recently with some great info and much more up to date then the trac issue https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-relays/2016-December/thread.html https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-relays/2017-January/thread.html

so to conclude if you decide to read much of that I would have to say yes dynamic ips can screw with the metrics of your relay much more then a stable one, and in those situations say where you are running from behind a personal NAT based network a bridge might be better. Bridges are not used much until they are needed and therefore can see less traffic then a normal relay exit or not.

leviataint
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As long as your ip rotates less often than every 3 hours, you can be of some use. That's about how often the consensus is updated.

However, generally speaking, you should probably set up a static IP. If you keep switching ips, you will become unreachable a lot, and never get the "stable" flag and potentially gain the "not recommended" flag

If needed, consider running a bridge. A dynamic ip would be less harmful there.

Personally, I recommend running a VPS or dedicated server in a data center with a dedicated ip - most hosting provider offer one or more for free with a plan. Running a relay on a personal network is usually not recommended, as a lot if ISPs limit Tor relays and it isn't as anonymous

unixandria
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