[tor-dev] How does a hidden service select introduction points

[George Kadianakis]

Richard Dennis <mad_raptor at hotmail.com> writes:

> Hi guys, 
>
> i have been doing a bit of reading recently about hidden services, and
> i am just wondering how exactly a hidden service selects its
> introduction points, i understand there are two methods, one where the
> H.S picks its own set of I.P's and one where this is done for the
> H.S., is this correct?
>

AFAIK, HSes pick their own set of intro points.

> If so is there an algorithm for automatically selecting introduction points for a hidden service and is one method recommended over another, if so why?
>
> Finally how many introduction points does a H.S. usually have, can a larger H.S. have more I.P's to deal with the traffic or is this not advised ?
>

See this thread for some more information on IPs:
https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2014-August/007335.html
and specifically the "==How many IPs should an HS have?==" section.

FWIW, the relevant function is rend_services_introduce() in src/or/rendservice.c .