Gawd, this is getting tedious. How many times do you need to repeat the same arguments?

PRO : There's nothing illegal about Tor exit nodes (or at least that's what EFF says); therefore the risk of criminal prosecution or other adverse consequences is negligible. Therefore, every host should allow Tor exit nodes.

CON : It's still a hassle for Linode to handle the extra DMCA notices, which might cause prices to increase. Also, Tor exit nodes might increase the chance of server seizures and other inconveniences. You'll need to find a host that is willing to take the risk.

CRITICISM of Linode : They said Tor exit nodes were OK, and then hassled me when I actually ran an exit node. Now they're telling me I can run an exit node only if I prevent all abuse, which is virtually impossible. Liars! Hypocrites!

DEFENSE of Linode : This policy might still be more reasonable than a blanket ban on Tor exit nodes. With strict firewalls and close monitoring, it may be possible to run an exit node without running up against Linode's TOS.

Does anybody have anything new to say? If not, stop bumping this thread. Please.

bump

thump

As I already said:

As somebody who's planning to setup a linode in the next few weeks I've read through most of this thread and I'm happy to see that linode offer the level of customer service I'm expecting, they remained polite and professional throughout.

I spent quite a bit of time reading lots of threads (and of course the ToS) before even considering signing up for a linode or joining this forum and I got the the impression their AUP can be summed up by "Do whatever you want as long as it's legal and doesn't create extra work for us" which I think is fair enough. Having to deal with abuse reports and DMCA takedown notices certainly creates more work and doing anything that's obviously going to attract these then taking the "just ignore them" attitude to them doesn't strike me as reasonable.

Tor is a nice idea in theory, just like world peace, but it only works if people don't abuse it which I suspect is what it's mainly used for. I've had a look around the Tor network, checked out some Onion sites and most of them seem to be dedicated to drugs (such as the infamous silk road), the assasins market place (which I doubt has ever really been used), links to what claims to be child porn (which I'm obviously not going to follow), blowing stuff up, piracy, wikileak mirrors and some pages about how important privacy is.

If you want a host that'll ignore abuse emails, DMCA takedown notices, DDoS attacks (to a lesser extent) and let you do whatever you want go to one of the many providers that promote such services.

From what I can see, linode are a business who care about their customers, but they're still here to make money, they're not a political movement and they're doing what's in the interest for the majority of their customers. I doubt many people care what nodes they share a server with as long as those other nodes don't bring the server or provider unwanted attention that could jeopardise their own node.

I'm glad there's people running Tor servers, relays, exit nodes etc. I'm glad there's still people out there who run and support anonymous servers, but I'm not naive enough to think they're just being used to give voices to oppressed people or to allow whistle blowers to act in confidence and because of that I'd rather not share a server or a network with them as they do attract a lot of unwanted attention.

Hi TIA568B, welcome to Linode forum.

Linode technical support is excellent, every time I have an issue I am surprised how fast they answer support tickets and how competent support personnel are.

Regarding TOR exit nodes: ignoring abuse complaints would indeed be a very bad idea for any reputable hosting provider, especially a US based provider like Linode. But there are other US based hosting providers which support TOR exit nodes, and I don't think they are doing this by ignoring abuse complaints. What they probably do is send out standardized reply after they establish the complaint is related to TOR exit node. And judging by the fact that not a single operator or his hosting provider was ever sued for running TOR exit node over many years of operation, this strategy works well enough.

Also, I don't agree that TOR "would only work if people don't abuse it". You could say pretty much the same thing about Internet as a whole, and yet I think you would agree that overall Internet works pretty well despite enormous amount of abuse.

I was about to set up a Tor node on my linode but thought of checking the forums first. Good thing I did that.

Now I'm giving up on that idea, or at least for the time being till(if) I learn how to handle all these problems specially the legal ones.

Problems discussed in this thread apply to TOR exit nodes only. Regular non-exit TOR nodes are fine.

The only breach of privacy I saw here was the original poster posting a conversation that had taken place in a private medium (trouble ticket system).

It is generally better to ask the other party's permission first.

Now I did see enforcement of policy, but that is not a breach of privacy.

Did someone here accuse Linode of "breach of privacy"?

Sorry to raise a semi-old thread from the dead, but I'd just like to add my two cents.

I've been running a Tor exit node on my Linode for the past three days and followed Tor's "Tips for Running an Exit Node with Minimal Harassment" along with a reduced exit policy. I've only received a single complaint (which wasn't really even valid- and in fact was almost certainly completely automated), which was promptly resolved in one post by me and simply blocking traffic from exiting to the site in question for 24 hours.

Throughout the abuse complaint (both mine and the original poster's), Linode remained respectful and professional. Overall I'd say that Linode handles the situation well. I recommend them to friends and co-workers daily.

"Only"? I can't help but think that receiving the first abuse complaint within three days sounds rather terrible!

I like to look at it the same way as Tor. If I'm making a constant ~80Mbps of traffic for 3 days and I receive a single, automated complaint of "ripping a website" I'd say it's pretty successful when you consider the legitimate amount of traffic and the amount of traffic that caused the complaint. (About 0.00003% abusive.)

Bwahahahahahaha - legitimate traffic - that's funny.

If you're doing a constant 80 mbps of traffic, you're going to get a bill from Linode at the end of the month for a minimum of $2569.