I thought scaling Tor meant adding more relays.
What it actually meant was multiplying failure modes...
I now operate 24 Tor relays and bridges across 15 locations, 11 ASNs and 6 operating systems.
Every new relay brings another provider, firewall, IPv6 route, service manager, identity key, backup and recovery plan.
Some things I learned along the way:
🌍 More countries don’t automatically mean real diversity
🔑 The server is replaceable, the relay identity isn’t
🛠️ Linux, BSD and SunOS need the same outcomes, not the same commands
📊 What I configured isn’t always what the Tor network currently sees
A large fleet is easy to count. A resilient one is much harder to keep alive.
I wrote about what operating Tor across 15 locations actually taught me:
🔗 https://brokenbotnet.com/2026/07/17/non-eu-relays/
#Tor #Privacy #OpenSource #SelfHosting #Infosec
rE-Bo0t.bx1 
@r3bo0tbx1@infosec.exchange
Founder and author of https://BrokenBotnet.com 
🦥 I run relays + bridges 🌉 (Shinobi Family) 🥷 
Run your own relay⁉️Check out my Docker image 🐋
infosec.exchange
I thought scaling Tor meant adding more relays.
What it actually meant was multiplying failure modes...
I now operate 24 Tor relays and bridges across 15 locations, 11 ASNs and 6 operating systems.
Every new relay brings another provider, firewall, IPv6 route, service manager, identity key, backup and recovery plan.
Some things I learned along the way:
🌍 More countries don’t automatically mean real diversity
🔑 The server is replaceable, the relay identity isn’t
🛠️ Linux, BSD and SunOS need the same outcomes, not the same commands
📊 What I configured isn’t always what the Tor network currently sees
A large fleet is easy to count. A resilient one is much harder to keep alive.
I wrote about what operating Tor across 15 locations actually taught me:
🔗 https://brokenbotnet.com/2026/07/17/non-eu-relays/
#Tor #Privacy #OpenSource #SelfHosting #Infosec