Is there a plan for TOR servers to be able to announce several OR-ports and DIR-ports?
I have been running a server now for a year or so, with the purpose of being an entry server for people behind restrictive firewalls. I choose port 995 which is a port often used by SSL-email servers. I choose this port because I didn't find any tor server back then that had a server on the port 995. Many TOR servers used ports 9001, 9030 or 9031 or other ports usually blocked by restrictive company/organization/educational firewalls. And some servers used port 80 or 443, both ports that also are often blocked by restrictive firewalls. Many companies instead have one proxy that handles all 80/443 traffic, blocking traffic to ports 80 and 443, while they often allow direct connection to email ports 110 and 995. If it was possible to announce several listening ports on both directory servers, authority servers and normal TOR servers, it would greatly improve the possibility for people behind restrictive networks to use TOR. Many people behind restrictive firewalls can't use TOR firstly because the TOR network's authority servers have unreachable ports, and secondly because many servers use the same (often unreachable) ports 80, 443, 9001, 9030, 9031. If it was possible for servers to announce many OR-ports and DIR-ports, it would improve the situation for people behind company/educational firewalls. It would probably also help people in countries that block things on the Internet like China and Saudi Arabia, but perhaps those countries are quick at blocking all TOR-servers by IP. I can configure my router/gateway to listen on many ports, and direct all ports to TOR's OR-port. But it won't help anyone, as the current directory V2 doesn't allow servers to announce many listening ports to the DIR-authorities. If servers could simultaneously announce ports 20, 21, 25, 80, 110, 115, 119, 443, 458, 465, 537, 554, 587, 995, 2979, 4000, 5190, 5010, 7070, 8080 and other common ports, it would really help people behind restrictive firewalls. (Of course not every server admin will configure their router/gateway this way, but if only the authorities and a few servers did, it would allow a big group of potential users to be able to use TOR.) Will there be a change in the future to allow servers to announce many OR-ports and DIR-ports? When will this happen? /Viking server admin
