Re: Paid performance-tor option?

[Scott Bennett <bennett@xxxxxxxxxx>]

     On Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:44:44 -0600 macintoshzoom
<macintoshzoom@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>Thank you for your post.
>
>Michael Holstein wrote:
>> 
>>> [much text deleted  --SB]
>
>TOR from the coffee shop's wifi
>> is a lot harder to trace.
>
>Probably most if not all coffe shop's wifi are at this time under strict 
>orwellian surveillance. And most of their servers and firewalls are for 

     People connect to the coffee shops' wireless access points anonymously
in many cases and are given private IP addresses via DHCP.  Granted, some
coffee shops do have security cameras that *might* make it possible to
figure out which person's computer got which IP address by noting DHCP
server logs and viewing the tapes after the fact.  To do so would be so
expensive that it would only be done in cases where someone specific were
already being surveilled.

>sure poorly setup. I'm not sure that communicating via tor from any of 
>those wifi could be safe globally regarding anonymity/privacy/security, 
>mostly if the coffee shop wifis are located at your adversary country.
>
     But even if they knew which person got the IP address that opened
connections to tor servers, they still wouldn't know what that traffic
contained.  If the adversary agency were that serious about it, it would
simply do a black bag job and be done with it.

     [much political dogma deleted  --SB]
>
>I am tired of tor gurus aiming to forbidden P2P. Really. Hiphocresy.
>I will research some day on this list archives about this matter to 
>publish the results on a blog, and to open a new tor+p2p thread that can 
>be beautifully hot.

     So open the port on your exit server.  There's no technical reason
that you can't.  Most people don't do that because a) it can also open
the operator to endless legal hassles from powerful entities like RIAA,
law enforcement agencies, etc. and b) the P2P bandwidth in use over the
open Internet might well swamp the limited tor network bandwidth, thereby
rendering tor useless for everyone else.
>
>Tor must be prepared for the revolutionary P2P technology, anything else 
>is stupid, retarded minded, coward.
>
     Nice attitude toward those who simply want to stay out of jail, not
have their computers and homes taken from them, etc.  Must be nice to have
all the power from which you appear to speak to defend yourself.  Keep in
mind that universities typically block known P2P ports on the open net,
anyway, for both legal and bandwidth reasons.  If their administrations
believed that a significant fraction of tor's bandwidth were being used
for P2P stuff, some of them might order their tor servers be shut down.
     Just out of curiousity, how much bandwidth are you currently donating
to the tor network?  Given that most people don't change routelen from 3
to a larger value, would 1/3 of the bandwidth that you contribute be
enough to cover your P2P needs?


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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