OT RE: Limiting hops

["Marc Erickson" <marcerickson@xxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks everyone for the replies.  It's now apparent to me that Tor isn't
designed for the purpose I'm using it for and I would be better served with
a different solution. Is a VPN what I should be looking for?  I'm looking
for a no or low cost solution.  If this discussion should be carried out off
of this list, feel free to contact me directly.


Thanks,
Marc

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-or-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-or-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Gregory Maxwell
Sent: November 18, 2008 7:11 AM
To: or-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Limiting hops

On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 6:46 AM, Erilenz <erilenz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> * on the Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 01:05:27PM -0800, Marc Erickson wrote:
>
>> I use Tor on my laptop to encrypt wireless packets when connecting to an
>> unsecured wireless network.  Is there a way to limit the number of hops
the
>> packets take through the servers so that I can better the speed?  I only
>> need one hop.  I'm running Windows XP.
>
> By using Tor for that purpose, all you're doing is making it so people
> running Exit Tor nodes can sniff your traffic, rather than people watching
> the unsecured wireless network.
>
> I wouldn't automatically assume that reduces your chance of having your
> traffic sniffed. It might even increase the chance of that occuring.

I think we can safely say that for most people using Tor makes it
*more* likely that their unencrypted traffic will be sniffed.

But TOR would usually change who is sniffing the traffic:  Some guy in
his basement, some foreign government, or some spammer/scammer
harvesting email addresses and credit card numbers from your traffic
may be preferable to the person's school, employer, or government all
of which may have a more direct and specific interest in the person's
activities.