[tor-dev] BOINC-based Tor wrapper

[Serg]

20.07.2015 2:06, teor wrote:
> I think you may have confused VirtualBox with a "virtualisation layer" - or is VirtualBox how these projects implement virtualisation?

I mean Oracle virtual machine, its open source part. But, in general, 
any stable virtual machine may be suitable.

>
>> Platform diversity in Tor network may be solved by preparing images with different operating systems.
>
> Well, this won't work for OS X or Windows for licensing reasons. (Not that many will care, I suspect.) But Linux/BSDs/... (even OpenDarwin) should be fine.

Yes, agree.

> None of the current projects on the BOINC website are network-based, instead, they use volunteers' spare CPU/GPU cycles.

Non-CPU (or GPU) intensive project are not so popular probably, but they 
exist:

Radioactive at Home, Quake Catcher Network, WUProp at Home. The Majestic-12 
project is the internet traffic intensive web crawler.

> I remember there being a BOINC-based ping/download tester to map the internet at one point. Was it a success? Did people understand it would use network bandwidth? Were users happy with the outcomes?

Yes, it called DIMES. I don't remember more, sory.

> How do you plan to map ports on NAT devices?

If it can't be done automatically using UPnP, This must be done 
manually. No alternative cases.

> Eliminate relays with poor bandwidth?

I guess that the strategy test bandwidth is already implemented in Tor 
relays. Available bandwidth can be different at different times, 
regardless of runing under BOINC.
Any tests which can be automated, can be performed after the launch of 
the virtual machine, but before the relay software starts.

> Support users?
>
> Teach people how to run a secure server?
> (This is the show-stopper for me.)

The basic idea is that users running preconfigured secure server. BOINC 
downloads its as virtual machine image.
Virtual machine gives secure sandbox to run relay.

--
Best regards, Sergey