Got this in a email from the good people over at EFF:
Dear Anarchy,
We use Tor to access our website and to publish to our blog, which is blocked inside of our country. — Iranian human rights activist
If you could do something to make the Internet safer and more private for activists, investigative journalists, and humanitarian aid workers around the world, would you?
You can.
Today EFF is launching the Tor Challenge—a campaign to encourage Internet users all over the world to support the Tor network by operating relays.
Tor is a service that helps you to protect your anonymity while using the Internet and allows you to circumvent Internet censorship. When you use the Tor software, your real IP address remains hidden. Activists all over the world depend on Tor to maintain anonymity when communicating and accessing websites that have been blocked by their governments.
The Tor software depends on the Tor network, which is made up of Tor relays operated by individuals like you. The more Tor relays we have running, the faster, more secure and more robust the Tor network becomes.
Are you ready to help Internet activists all over the world?
Click here to see how and learn more.
Defending your digital rights,
The EFF Activism Team
This is a great idea and more ppl should run tor exit relays, but it does not come with out some pains. I kept on getting DMCA notices so i had to employ a few exit policy rules on my relay. Here is the ones im using.
ExitPolicy accept *:20-23 # FTP, SSH, telnet
ExitPolicy accept *:43 # WHOIS
ExitPolicy accept *:53 # DNS
ExitPolicy accept *:79-81 # finger, HTTP
ExitPolicy accept *:88 # kerberos
ExitPolicy accept *:110 # POP3
ExitPolicy accept *:143 # IMAP
ExitPolicy accept *:194 # IRC
ExitPolicy accept *:220 # IMAP3
ExitPolicy accept *:443 # HTTPS
ExitPolicy accept *:464-465 # kpasswd, SMTP over SSL
ExitPolicy accept *:543-544
ExitPolicy accept *:563 # NNTP over SSL
ExitPolicy accept *:587 # SMTP
ExitPolicy accept *:706
ExitPolicy accept *:749 # kerberos
ExitPolicy accept *:873 # rsync
ExitPolicy accept *:902-904
ExitPolicy accept *:981
ExitPolicy accept *:989-995 # FTP over SSL, Netnews Administration System, telnets, IMAP over SSL, ircs, POP3 over SSL
ExitPolicy accept *:1194 # openvpn
ExitPolicy accept *:1220 # QT Server Admin
ExitPolicy accept *:1293 # PKT-KRB-IPSec
ExitPolicy accept *:1500 # VLSI License Manager
ExitPolicy accept *:1723 # PPTP
ExitPolicy accept *:1863 # MSNP
ExitPolicy accept *:2082-2083 # Radius
ExitPolicy accept *:2086-2087 # GNUnet, ELI
ExitPolicy accept *:2095-2096 # NBX
ExitPolicy accept *:3128 # SQUID
ExitPolicy accept *:3389 # MS WBT
ExitPolicy accept *:3690 # SVN
ExitPolicy accept *:4321 # RWHOIS
ExitPolicy accept *:4643
ExitPolicy accept *:5050 # MMCC
ExitPolicy accept *:5190 # ICQ
ExitPolicy accept *:5222-5223 # XMPP, XMPP over SSL
ExitPolicy accept *:5900 # VNC
ExitPolicy accept *:6666-6667 #IRC
ExitPolicy accept *:6679
ExitPolicy accept *:6697
ExitPolicy accept *:8000 # iRDMI
ExitPolicy accept *:8008
ExitPolicy accept *:8080 # HTTP Proxies
ExitPolicy accept *:8087-8088 # Simplify Media SPP Protocol, Radan HTTP
ExitPolicy accept *:8443 # PCsync HTTPS
ExitPolicy accept *:8888 # HTTP Proxies, NewsEDGE
ExitPolicy accept *:9418 # git
ExitPolicy accept *:9999 # distinct
ExitPolicy accept *:10000 # Network Data Management Protocol
ExitPolicy accept *:19638
ExitPolicy reject *:*
So anyway, yes everyone should run a tor relay and should also use the above for your tor relay config. On ubuntu boxes just search for ExitPolicy in /etc/tor/torrc and past it in. Be sure to comment out any pre-existing exit policies. Ok go set up a tor exit relay already!!
tor=amazing