It is a proxy that connects people into Tor. It is designed to be hard to block since many people run snowflakes
Comment on TOR asking to run snowflake to help Iranians with internet access
ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 hours ago
I’m willing to do this but frankly tor intimidates me big time. I don’t know anything about it other than……. Yep that’s it.
I read through the mastodon post, and the project page, and cumulatively I didn’t get any answers.
I assume this is a dark web node sort of thing? Is it safe for me to run the browser extension, like I’m not putting a target on myself or anything? If yes to question 1, but no to question 2, what does put a target?
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 9 hours ago
Danitos@reddthat.com 21 hours ago
Not a node, but a proxy. Entry node’s IPs in Tor are publicly known, so they are easy to censor. With Snowflake you create a proxy (bridge) between a censored user and an entry node, and since your IP is not listed as a node, you help the user bypass the censorship.
In theory, nope. But if the user is doing something bad, a prosecutor could argue you helped them to do so. I don’t know about any case like this involving Snowflake, and I am not a lawyer. You could be a target if you were to host material, which is not the case with Snowflake.
possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 9 hours ago
Don’t run a snowflake in countries with heavily liability
ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 hours ago
Well I spent the time between when I posted and when you replied looking into various things related to tor, legality, and snowflake more specifically, as well as a bit after your reply since you gave me a couple extra things to look into… (like if there’s a risk of running alongside self-host software like Plex and jellyfin, I didn’t find anything about it so I sort of assume it’s fine…?)…
I didn’t see anything overly bad other than if you yourself use toe, maybe, so took the plunge and… have had a whole two connections already, so yay, I’m a snowflake!
I feel slightly better about myself, like when I started using boinc. :)
Danitos@reddthat.com 19 hours ago
I don’t see why there should be any problem, as they use different ports. Plus I’ve had no troubles running a Jellyfin and Navidrome instances, plus some other self-hosted services alongisde Snowflake.
I’m really glad to have helped you :). Tor is very mystified, but an awesome tool, and very neat from a technical point of view. In case you haven’t seen them, I recommend these 2 amazing videos from Computerphile: How TOR works and TOR Hidden Services
Arkhive@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 hours ago
Thank you for your explanation and info. Will be setting this up later tonight.