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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?

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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
    Commented Apr 4, 2016 at 1:44

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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.

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  • Thanks for the links but as it is this long is useless and it's hard to find the info. If you have any specific thread(s) that would be better than this.
    – Ron
    Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 7:45
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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

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