more on the Comcast 250 GB/mo. problem

[phobos at rootme.org]

On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 10:22:49AM +0100, eugen at leitl.org wrote 1.0K bytes in 19 lines about:
: There's not much point running Tor on capped residential broadband.
: Rent a server with a decent traffic plan and throttle your Tor so
: you're within limits.

Actually, there is value to running a Tor server on residential
broadband.  Most tcp internet usage doesn't need huge amounts of
bandwidth; such as instant messaging, email, newsgroups, rss, etc.  I'd argue
that most web browsing doesn't need huge amounts either, on average.  In
bursts, yes, you want the page to download so you can start reading it.
I know there is research out there about this topic.

It's not a competition to see who can run the highest bandwidth node.
Although, I wonder if there is an incentive in there to publish the 10
highest bandwidth nodes; ala
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/top_teams.php.  And if this would result
in a higher quantity of high bandwidth nodes available to Tor.

I've run a few 20KB Tor nodes over the years, and they do just fine
consuming 20KB all the time. It's not like they're shunned for lack of
bandwidth. From my own experiences, my IM, RSS, and email usage ends up
with lots of 20KB nodes in the circuit.  The apps do just fine, and I
never noticed any performance loss.

1,000 20KB tor nodes on disparate residential networks vs. 10 2000KB
nodes is the same amount of bandwidth to Tor clients, and they'll use it
quite well. 

The fact that you run an exit relay, or any relay, is great.  

I long for the day where I own the last mile and ISPs compete on
services and pricing to get access to it.  Or, give me 100 mb wireless
at sane prices since you don't have to deal with so much physical last
mile runs.

-- 
Andrew