Not using slow circuits (was Re: Tor slow no matter what I do.)

[Csaba Kiraly]

Chad Z. Hower aka Kudzu wrote:
>> By increasing the minimum requirement for a Tor node, you reduce the
>> geographical distribution of Tor nodes, making cross-jurisdiction
>> routing more unlikely; it would be better to investigate ways to reduce
>> traffic overhead (if this is possible) to allow more people to run Tor
>> nodes.
>>     
>
> Does TOR implement QOS or prioritization? That is only use bandwidth when
> other traffic is not present?
>
>   
I don't know if there is already something, but it shouldn't be hard to 
add: Tor runs as a user space application, opening TCP sockets, so it 
could be prioritized as such.

For Windows, I'm using cFosSpeed (not free, but cheap), it does the job 
for other applications (VoIP, P2P, HTTP) so it should do it for Tor as well.

For Linux, I don't know of easy application based solutions, one 
possibility is to:
- set the IP_TOS socket option
- prioritize based on this with "tc", using e.g. class based queuing and 
TOS based filters

My impression is that in P2P these solutions make people more 
cooperative, since resources are sacrificed only if not in use. 
Actually, I think documenting these in the FAQ would attract more people 
to run relays. Let me know if there is interest.

Csaba