On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 10:53:48PM -0600, Jim wrote:
I connect to the Internet with dialup. I have been successfully using
Tor clients for 4+ years. One of the issues with using Tor over a slow
connection is the amount of time it takes to update the information
about the network when Tor is first started after having been off-line
for a while. Depending on connection speed and how long the client has
been off-line, this typically takes about 3 to 10 minutes. Perhaps a
bit longer. My experience is that during this time the connection is
pretty much useless for any other purpose.
Yep.
While inconvenient, this situation is certainly manageable. My concern
has been what happens as the Tor network grows. At some point the delay
would start being a serious problem.
Here's some reading:
https://blog.torproject.org/blog/overhead-directory-info%3A-past%2C-present%2C-future
We haven't gotten the "microdescriptor" out in practice yet, but
it's on its way:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/1748