[tor-bugs] #4483 [Tor Client]: If k of n authorities are down, k/n bootstrapping clients are delayed for minutes

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#4483: If k of n authorities are down, k/n bootstrapping clients are delayed for
minutes
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 Reporter:  arma                                  |          Owner:                    
     Type:  defect                                |         Status:  new               
 Priority:  normal                                |      Milestone:  Tor: 0.2.4.x-final
Component:  Tor Client                            |        Version:                    
 Keywords:  performance bootstrap dos-resistence  |         Parent:  #2664             
   Points:                                        |   Actualpoints:                    
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Comment(by rransom):

 Replying to [comment:3 mikeperry]:
 > There seem to be two high-level ways to solve this issue:
 >
 > 1. Reduce the timeout for dirport connection establishment to be very
 small.
 > 2. Ask k directory requests at once (perhaps until we start getting
 answers, then slow down).
 >
 > Are both good ideas, assuming we could do them right? Can we do the
 first easier as the second?

 Reducing the timeout would break Tor completely.  See #1297 (comment 11
 and below) for how I cleaned up one part of the mess you made the last
 time you had Tor's timeouts lowered.

 > Is some form of the second one already done? I swear I've seen my client
 do multiple tunneled dir conns in the Vidalia window and on the control
 port... If it is done, why does this bug still cause us problems? Is
 bootstrapping somehow different?

 Tor performs descriptor (and microdescriptor) fetches over many directory
 connections in parallel.  (Too many -- arma may have opened a ticket for
 that.)  As far as I know, it does not launch multiple attempts to fetch a
 consensus in parallel.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/4483#comment:4>
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