Public Internet Services I Run
A small constellation of public infrastructure I run from Centreville, kept alive because the open internet is worth tending.
Most of what follows costs more than it returns, and that is rather the point. A healthy internet is a commons, and a commons stays healthy only when the people who can keep a corner of it running quietly do so. Here is the corner I keep.
The Tor relay
I run a Tor relay, tor.smalltownhosting, that carries traffic for the anonymity network. It is fed by a 1gbpsx1gbps dedicated internet access circuit donated by Alabama Lightwave, the local fixed wireless provider, who carry it on their own network as AS395673.
That a small-town WISP would give a full symmetric gigabit to a Tor relay is the sort of thing that keeps me hopeful about the people quietly building independent infrastructure.
This site, on Tor
The whole of this website is mirrored onto a Tor hidden service, built without JavaScript, without trackers, and without a single request to the open web.
If you would rather read it over Tor, the onion address is on the right. Tor Browser will also offer the onion version on its own, by way of an Onion-Location button, whenever you reach the ordinary site through it.
The speedtest servers
I run two public speedtest servers for Alabama Lightwave, both reachable in Centreville on the same machine. The circuit beneath them is a 2gbps DIA that originates in Centreville and reaches the wider internet in Montgomery, at the RSA Dexter Avenue data center, carried there over Uniti Fiber and GigSouth transit.
The Ookla server is selectable in the Speedtest app. The WiFiman server has answered roughly 2,800 tests so far, a quietly satisfying number for a box in a small town. Both exist so people nearby can measure a connection against a server down the road rather than three states away.
Planned services
A few things are still on the bench, half built or merely promised to myself.
Classic Battlefront servers
Dedicated game servers for the original Star Wars: Battlefront from 2004 and its 2005 sequel, Battlefront II, the LucasArts shooters where you fight across the films’ battlefields as ordinary clones and rebels rather than as the heroes. I grew up playing these as a teenager, and they hold a special place in my heart, so doing my part to keep them alive is a glad duty. The pair is back again on GOG, which is wonderful, but the matchmaking routes players over long, high-ping paths that take the shine off a fast-moving shooter. A dedicated server here in the Southeast would put a low-latency option close to a great many players, and I plan to stand one up shortly.
A note to anyone at GOG. I would gladly help optimize routing and matchmaking for these titles, and I will host a server in the Southeast for it at no cost to you. I have tried to reach the right people and come up short, my earlier attempts ended at some sort of proxy, so if you can put me in touch with whoever owns this, drop me an email and we will make it a home run for players.
