Some networking questions

[Tony]

1. a) Approx 50 metres. Depends on the environment, the cards, the
transmission power and the wireless band / standard being used.
b) No it wont extend it. You need a customised router or software that
behaves as a wireless extender to do that.

2. See www.sveasoft.com for firmware for routers that will do this.

3. a)That would depend on the size of the directory and the load. 
b) Windows XP is not optimised to perform as a server and comes by
default with lots of extra processes and services running. However, If
it is an option then Windows Server usually outperforms Linux at
network, application and fileserver benchmarks on the same hardware. 


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-or-talk at freehaven.net [mailto:owner-or-talk at freehaven.net]
On Behalf Of Leelanau Underground Press
Sent: 02 February 2007 00:25
To: or-talk at freehaven.net
Subject: Re: Some networking questions

First off, number 5 should be "identities" not "identitied". I have some
more questions:

1. Does anybody know the range of an ad-hoc wireless network for an
average wireless card? If an ad-hoc network is run and another laptop
connects near the edge of it, does he extend the network range? For
example, Laptop A and B are on a network. Laptop C joins off laptop B's
connection. Laptop A is normally too far away to see laptop C, does the
connection go through B to get there? Will it get there?

2. Has anybody done anything similar? What experiences did you have?

3. How much memory/CPU on average would a all-purpose server and
authoritative directory server take on an XP or Linux box? Is tor more
efficient in XP or Linux (excluding that linux is more efficient in and
of itself)
Thanks for any help you can give.
-------- Original Message --------
From: "Leelanau Underground Press" <lup at Safe-mail.net>
Apparently from: owner-or-talk at freehaven.net
To: or-talk at seul.org
Subject: Some networking questions
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 19:10:30 -0500

> I have a lot of questions here so please be patient with me. I have
been using and promoting tor for a long time and I'm working on a new
project to create a ready-to-go LAN package of tor (for running tor on a
LAN). Here are my questions.
> 
> Example one: I am distributing tor to all the users on a LAN that has
a restrictive firewall blocking access to some internet sites. SOME tor
servers are blocked, others not.
> 
> 1. If I make an authoritative directory server on the LAN that
excludes non-local IPs from connecting and doesn't advertise to other
directory servers, would it mess with tor connections? The reason I ask
is I think if I have a local directory server it could do all the work
of finding out that certain tor servers are blocked so that the user
doesn't have to go through all the trouble. I'm aware this would lessen
people's anonymity. Is there a way to improve that?
> 
> Example two: I am distributing tor to users on a wireless managed or
ad-hoc network. Inside the cache file is a list of lots of IPs where
servers on the network *might* (since IPs are semi-dynamic) be located.
All tor installs by default run servers (middleman, exit, rond. etc.) as
well as an authoritative directory server. Nothing ever exits the
wireless network as it would only serve to help people use
hidden-services.
> 
> 1. Once connected, how fast will tor transfer data from a hidden
service with unlimited CPU/bandwidth/etc. (assuming normal end-user
machines are all clients and servers and wireless network speed is
around 56 mbps)
> 
> 2. If the default servers list in the torrc contains the entire IP
subnet (let's say for example's sake, this means 1000 IPs), how many
times will tor try each IP in the list before it is deleted, and will it
be put there again if a local authoiritative directory server suggests
it.
> 
> 3. How long will an authoritative directory server consider a node
"down" before it is removed from the list?
> 
> 4. What would be the best way to make this network work on the managed
wireless network in example one but have a local-only tor network as in
example two in case the filter starts blocking ALL the tor servers on
the external internet.
> 
> 5. Since we are working on an extremely high-speed link, would it hurt
to run a tor client inside of a tor client to stop adversaries from
finding user identitied (since on a wireless network all data can be
seen by anybody)
> 
> I will probably have some more questions once some of these get
clarified. Any other related suggestions are helpful. Any help you can
offer on any of these questions is appreciated.
> Thank you,
> A true tor fan