private vs. public tor network ... any other options ?

[John Case]

Hello David,

On Thu, 24 Sep 2009, David Jevans wrote:

> What we have contemplated is operating the exit nodes, and mixing into 
> the public Tor network for either the middle or both middle and entry 
> nodes.  You could select high bandwidth middle-nodes for this, which 
> would give you reasonably high performance, yet you would have 1-2-or 
> more public nodes in between the user and the exit node.  This would 
> provide increased anonymity, while preserving performance and security 
> of the exit nodes (protecting against mal-nodes).
>
> The thought was also to select those middle nodes based on measured 
> performance.


Thank you - that does help.  So you are always using your own exit nodes, 
and usually using public Tor for hops 1 and 2, but sometimes using 
yourself for entry ?

What makes the determination, for you, whether to use two public Tor hops 
vs. just one (the middle) ?

I suppose a converse of this is that you could put private nodes in your 
"route" so as to run your traffic over four or five hops (instead of the 
default three) without the typical speed/latency costs.  So, increased 
speed for three hops, or no speed loss for 3+X hops...

But that still leaves the undefined anonymity loss, which appears to be 
non-zero...

Thanks again - any additional comments you may have are appreciated.
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