[tor-relays] max / burst speed

[markus reichelt]

* Rick Huebner <rhuebner at radiks.net> wrote:

> For slow nodes who've limited their overall Rate to avoid hitting
> bandwidth caps, you might consider using AccountingMax to cap the
> usage to a safe level, and increase your speeds; you may find it
> more rewarding to relay significant traffic for 6 hours per day and
> then hibernate for 18 than to stay on "inactive reserve" status all
> the time.  From the overall viewpoint of the network, is it better
> to have 1000 new relays at good speeds up 1/4 of the time
> (effectively adding 250 new fast relays), or to have them at slow
> speeds all of the time, not being used much?  I'm not really sure,
> but I've noticed that the AccountingMax hibernation feature is
> hardly used at all from what I see on TorStatus, and I wonder why.

I agree to the theory, and yes it's complicated.

I'd like to offer a word of caution though, if a relay is run off a
cheap VPS.  Then it's better to keep a low profile.  That does not
mean one should stick to the calculated daily bw limit.  It's all
about being considerate of your neighbours operating a cheap VPS. 
I'd go as high as four times of the calculated daily limit for the
overall rate when applying your idea of making good use of
AccountingMax.  Some plans are capped anyhow, so repeatedly testing
the max av bw makes sense.

I have been running 8 relays for some time now (all in testing via
cheap VPS, "normally-priced" VPS & dedicated servers), their max
daily bw range from 12 to 160 GB, and so far it's been a hit-or-miss
show wrt maxing out av bw.  And I've yet to encounter a plateau
graph.  ;)

Thus keep in mind that it might just be the overall available networt
connectivity and not your relay configuration per se that is causing
the effects you observe.

-- 
left blank, right bald
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