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Re: recent tor stream timeout errors...



On Thu, Dec 22, 2005 at 08:40:47PM +0100, Thomas Hluchnik wrote:
> Am Donnerstag, 22. Dezember 2005 15:50 schrieb Ben Wilhelm:
> 
> > > Just in case this wasn't clear: the current Tor network is
> > > loaded as it is. P2P operators: please do not use it, and tell other
> > > P2P operators not to.
> > > 
> > 
> > Personally, the P2P aspects are one of the large reasons I'm interested 
> > in this. I haven't actually used Tor for P2P for a very long time, but 
> > if Tor were to somehow remove all P2P traffic from its network I'd 
> > probably shut my servers down and move on to something else.
> > 
> > -Ben
> 
> This is your opinion. Im am not here because of any filesharing. I
> decided to provide bandwith when I read whats going on in the EU
> last week. I am interested in anonymized http to protect the freedom
> of information. I even think it is abuse of tor to use it for
> P2P. There is a project existing for P2P fans called I2P. Maybe you
> are sitting at the wong horse here.

Um. Guys?  Speaking for myself as a Tor developer here:

AWe have nothing against P2P architectures[*], and no current plans to
"remove P2P traffic from the Tor network" beyond how we currently have
the code, by default, not allow exit to certain ports.  The only
reason that we're asking people not to use filesharing over Tor is
because we believe that the current network doesn't have the bandwidth
to handle bulk data transfer.

So our official stance is that we ask people (politely, please!) not
to shove massive traffic through the network until the network can
handle it.  This is to some extent self-regulating: people who try to
download gigabyte-sized files through Tor usually notice that Tor is
far slower for this than they would like, and stop.

The end solution here is not a model where we try to centrally or
collectively enforce traffic merits anonymity and what doesn't: I
think we can all see where that would lead.  Instead, I think we need
to scale better.

But hey, I'm a tech guy.  I look for technical solutions to
everything. :)

> My question to other members of tor who have tor servers running:
> why do you do this.

Well, I *develop* Tor because I believe that privacy is a fundamental
right and a prerequisite for security; and that it's inadequate to
rely solely on the threat of after-the-fact enforcement to keep others
from violating your rights or stealing your information.

But then again, you don't have to believe in all of that.  This is a
software development project, not an ideological organization.  We're
stronger when we encompass people with differing goals.

yrs,
-- 
Nick Mathewson

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