more on the Comcast 250 GB/mo. problem

[John Brooks]

There is absolutely value to running tor residentially - the extra nodes add
significantly to the anonymity aspects of Tor. However, it is not true that
1,000 20KB nodes is the same amount of bandwidth to clients as 10 2000KB
nodes. The slowest node in a connection is going to define the maximum
throughput of that connection, so slow nodes will restrict client speeds. In
terms of high throughput, faster nodes are better, but in terms of
anonymity, the slower ones prevail due to numbers. Tor has a healthy mix of
both, which is probably the best solution ;)

 - John Brooks

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 11:12 PM, <phobos at rootme.org> wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 10:22:49AM +0100, eugen at leitl.org wrote 1.0K bytes
> in 19 lines about:
> : There's not much point running Tor on capped residential broadband.
> : Rent a server with a decent traffic plan and throttle your Tor so
> : you're within limits.
>
> Actually, there is value to running a Tor server on residential
> broadband.  Most tcp internet usage doesn't need huge amounts of
> bandwidth; such as instant messaging, email, newsgroups, rss, etc.  I'd
> argue
> that most web browsing doesn't need huge amounts either, on average.  In
> bursts, yes, you want the page to download so you can start reading it.
> I know there is research out there about this topic.
>
> It's not a competition to see who can run the highest bandwidth node.
> Although, I wonder if there is an incentive in there to publish the 10
> highest bandwidth nodes; ala
> http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/top_teams.php.  And if this would result
> in a higher quantity of high bandwidth nodes available to Tor.
>
> I've run a few 20KB Tor nodes over the years, and they do just fine
> consuming 20KB all the time. It's not like they're shunned for lack of
> bandwidth. From my own experiences, my IM, RSS, and email usage ends up
> with lots of 20KB nodes in the circuit.  The apps do just fine, and I
> never noticed any performance loss.
>
> 1,000 20KB tor nodes on disparate residential networks vs. 10 2000KB
> nodes is the same amount of bandwidth to Tor clients, and they'll use it
> quite well.
>
> The fact that you run an exit relay, or any relay, is great.
>
> I long for the day where I own the last mile and ISPs compete on
> services and pricing to get access to it.  Or, give me 100 mb wireless
> at sane prices since you don't have to deal with so much physical last
> mile runs.
>
> --
> Andrew
>
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