Tor is a free overlay network for enabling anonymous communication and bypassing censorship. It relies on volunteers to run around seven thousand relays worldwide. There are various types of relays, and your choice depends on your hardware (particularly your router) and available bandwidth. We’ll guide you through setting up a relay, from the simplest to the most advanced options, so you can choose the best one for you.
| relay type | requirements | considerations |
|---|---|---|
| snowflake | Any computer with an Internet browser (Firefox, Chrome, Etc). | Snowflake relays will share the bandwidth of your browser with Tor users. This is a perfect beginner friendly way to run a Tor relay and does not require a dedicated machine. |
| standalone snowflake | A dedicated server (any Linux computer / laptop with 4Gb of ram) | Same as snowflake but run continuously. If you are running one of the Bitcoin node-in-a-box eg: Umbrel, etc you can simply install it as an app. |
| bridge | A dedicated server (any Linux computer / laptop with 4Gb of ram) An medium level network router | Bridge are hidden Tor nodes used by people |