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According to Tor Relay Guide:

ORPort 443 is recommended because it is often one of the few open ports on the public WIFI networks... Port 9001 is another commonly used ORPort.

I am running an exit relay.

If I am unable to use both port 443 and 9001, will other ports decrease the amount of traffic to my relay? Let's say I am also using a port that's commonly open on public networks.

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Using other ports should be fine if you can't use the usual ports, especially for exit relays. Tor clients will rarely, if ever, connect directly to an exit relay, so you shouldn't have any decrease in bandwidth by using different ports. (I have seen some relay operators add firewall rules to prevent outgoing traffic on ports other than 443 or 9001, but relay operators should not do this, and you shouldn't worry about them.)

If you were running a non-exit relay or a bridge, then it's more important to use ports that are typically unblocked. Otherwise you might see a reduction in client traffic.

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  • Thanks for your answer. But how does the middle relay knows which port to connect to to the ezu relay?
    – Algo7
    Commented Sep 27, 2020 at 0:36
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    @AvivLo The middle relay can know this in two ways. All relays upload information such as the ports they use to the directory authorities. The directory authorities combine this information into a network consensus document, and many server descriptor documents. All relays later download these documents and learn the IP address and ports of every other relay. Clients also download a form of these documents, and typically send the relay's IP address and port in the RELAY_BEGIN cell (see section 5.1.2 of the Tor spec).
    – Steve
    Commented Sep 27, 2020 at 0:53
  • I was wondering if these info come from the relay descriptiors as well. Thanks for your clarification :)
    – Algo7
    Commented Sep 27, 2020 at 1:05

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