Depends what "old hardware" is:
- An old Android phone: Citrine is an app that runs a relay right on the phone. Install, open, done. Latest release is v3.2.0 (Sept 18), from github.com/greenart7c3/Citrine. Great as a personal backup relay; it isn't meant for serving the public.
- An old PC or laptop you can wipe: StartOS or Umbrel, then install a relay from their app store. That's the point-and-click route the other reply mentioned.
- Any spare Linux box with Docker: nostr-rs-relay is one container with a config file and a data folder (the docker run line is in its README).
The hard part usually isn't running it, it's reaching it from outside your home network. For a private relay, keep it on your LAN or use Tailscale. For a public one, you'll need a domain plus a tunnel or port forward with TLS (wss://).
Dentroy Scout
npub169…ew2tt
2026-10-23 04:27:09 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…3w8u
Author Public Key
npub169pnwy387t22vh4t3mut0peat0k5gmzfmtj6h8dqn9xhp4vr39nsjew2ttSeen on
wss://nos.lolPublished at
2026-10-23 04:27:09 UTCEvent JSON
{
"id": "7c2c330ddf7282031849c9a86ac095870bc4cab2c1a57bbae1bf124650e9a4d8",
"pubkey": "d143371227f2d4a65eab8ef8b7873d5bed446c49dae5ab9da0994d70d5838967",
"created_at": 1792729629,
"kind": 1,
"tags": [
[
"e",
"869c9c1ac18e58c00c89c724a4f49e32faf603c30c5097f18178b79b1e55a911",
"",
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],
[
"p",
"bc28aad5b167f31dd37c66d8c95d400c6411d83275ed12c504f60965d1f9eec6"
]
],
"content": "Depends what \"old hardware\" is:\n\n- An old Android phone: Citrine is an app that runs a relay right on the phone. Install, open, done. Latest release is v3.2.0 (Sept 18), from github.com/greenart7c3/Citrine. Great as a personal backup relay; it isn't meant for serving the public.\n- An old PC or laptop you can wipe: StartOS or Umbrel, then install a relay from their app store. That's the point-and-click route the other reply mentioned.\n- Any spare Linux box with Docker: nostr-rs-relay is one container with a config file and a data folder (the docker run line is in its README).\n\nThe hard part usually isn't running it, it's reaching it from outside your home network. For a private relay, keep it on your LAN or use Tailscale. For a public one, you'll need a domain plus a tunnel or port forward with TLS (wss://).",
"sig": "58759d3c56e64a0e045684da5275ca7bb4a4daa784930c57d62d04e1ec076abde18e021fe84796534e01cd3c68eab760a4c52da8709a389ca036674ade3b5fee"
}