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CipherStream Tor Relay: Running Strong From 2025 to 2026!

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By Ranger
3 min read
CipherStream Tor Relay: Running Strong From 2025 to 2026!

Happy New Year! The Relay That Spans Two Years!

That’s right - my Tor relay CipherStream has been running since 2025 and is STILL going strong in 2026!

Technically that means it’s been up for an entire year… right?

(Okay fine, it’s been about 12 hours, but it DOES span two calendar years!)

The Stats at Midnight

As the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve, here’s what CipherStream was doing:

MetricValue
Uptime12 hours (spanning 2 years!)
Data Sent689.23 MB
Data Received705.27 MB
Circuits Open10
Connections Served1,043
NTor Handshakes109/109 (100% success!)

What CipherStream Does

CipherStream is a middle relay in the Tor network. This means:

  • It helps route encrypted traffic for users worldwide
  • It sees neither the source nor destination of traffic
  • It contributes bandwidth to the Tor network
  • It helps journalists, activists, and privacy-conscious people stay anonymous
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User → [Guard Relay] → [CipherStream] → [Exit Relay] → Internet
                            ↑
                     You are here!

The Heartbeat Logs

Every 6 hours, Tor sends a “heartbeat” showing the relay’s health:

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[NOTICE] Heartbeat: Tor's uptime is 12:00 hours, with 10 circuits open.
I've sent 689.23 MB and received 705.27 MB.
I've received 1043 connections on IPv4 and 0 on IPv6.
I've made 275 connections with IPv4 and 0 with IPv6.

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[NOTICE] Circuit handshake stats since last time: 0/0 TAP, 109/109 NTor.

100% NTor handshake success rate - the relay is performing perfectly!

Bandwidth Accounting

I’ve configured CipherStream with a 40GB monthly limit to avoid killing my internet:

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[NOTICE] Heartbeat: Accounting enabled.
Sent: 697.36 MB, Received: 801.97 MB,
Used: 801.97 MB / 40.00 GB, Rule: max.
The current accounting interval ends on 2026-01-03 15:00:00

Only 2% of monthly quota used - plenty of room to help more users!

The Setup

Running on my M4 Max MacBook Pro with this config:

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# /opt/homebrew/etc/tor/torrc
Nickname CipherStream
ORPort 9001
ContactInfo your@email.com

# Bandwidth limits
AccountingMax 40 GB
AccountingStart month 3 15:00

# Relay type (middle only, no exit)
ExitPolicy reject *:*

Monitoring with Nyx

I use nyx (the Tor relay monitor) to watch the relay in real-time:

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# Install
brew install nyx

# Run
nyx

It shows beautiful real-time graphs of:

  • Bandwidth usage
  • Connection counts
  • Circuit information
  • Log messages

The IPv6 “Issue”

You might notice this in the logs:

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[NOTICE] Unable to find IPv6 address for ORPort 9001

This is NOT an error! It’s just Tor noting that I don’t have IPv6. The relay works perfectly fine on IPv4 only.

To silence it, add to torrc:

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ORPort 9001 IPv4Only

New Year’s Resolutions for CipherStream

For 2026, my Tor relay goals are:

  1. Increase bandwidth limit - Maybe bump to 100GB/month
  2. Get the Stable flag - Requires 7+ days uptime
  3. Get the Guard flag - Requires good uptime and bandwidth
  4. Help more users - Every connection counts!

Why Run a Tor Relay?

Every relay makes the Tor network:

  • Faster - More bandwidth for everyone
  • Stronger - Harder to attack or surveil
  • More anonymous - More relays = better privacy

If you have spare bandwidth, consider running a relay too! Check out my full guide: Setting Up a Tor Relay on macOS

Cheers to 2026!

Here’s to another year of:

  • Privacy for everyone
  • Fighting surveillance
  • Helping people communicate freely
  • Making the internet a better place

CipherStream: Running from 2025 to 2026 and beyond!

Quick Stats Summary

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╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║           CIPHERSTREAM TOR RELAY                     ║
╠══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║  Status:        ONLINE                               ║
║  Uptime:        12 hours (2 calendar years!)         ║
║  Fingerprint:   908581586DCB67BBEC17D2D5DCE69A2D... ║
║  Sent:          689.23 MB                            ║
║  Received:      705.27 MB                            ║
║  Circuits:      10 active                            ║
║  Connections:   1,043 served                         ║
║  Quota:         2% used (801 MB / 40 GB)             ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Happy New Year from CipherStream! Here’s to privacy, freedom, and a great 2026!

Remember: Running a Tor relay is legal, ethical, and helps people around the world access information freely. Be part of the solution!

Privacy, Milestones
tor relay privacy new-year cipherstream nyx networking
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.