Re: WWW proxies?

["E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>]

From:	IN%"tcmay@got.net"  6-MAY-1996 01:41:12.77

>-- that a model is lacking (I don't mean we don't have some ideas of what's
>important, but that we haven't filled in the details, figured out what
>sorts of correlations an analyst can make by looking at packet sizes,
>sending times, delivery times, etc.)

	Hmm... I wonder if genetic algorithms would be a good way to analyze
traffic. Admittedly, this may be a matter of my having a (potential) hammer
and seeing things to bash with it.

>-- the real world situation with remailers is that message volume is
>probably way too low for comfort (my presentation on remailers at the first
>CP meeting outlined a need for about 10 mixes, each mixing at least 10
>messages of the same size before remailing...and 20 mixes each mixing 30 or
>more messages is much better...we are most likely far, far below this, for
>nearly all remailed messages. Fortunately, most remailed messages are
>either not critical or are being done for novelty, harassment, flaming,
>etc.).

	It should be possible, given a model, to add onto existing remailers
a routine that automatically forwards random messages through a random string
of remailers and back to itself (or into a /dev/null address; I can see
advantages and disadvantages in the resulting loss of information) at a random
frequency whose bounds are dependant upon current traffic levels at that
remailer. This might be supplemented by information based on statistics gotten
from other remailers. I would suggest Raph Levien (sp?)'s remailer list as a
basis for the random string of remailers.

>(PipeNet-type schemes may help, depending on a bunch of details. So would
>"local mixes in cabinets," meaning, Web anonymizers with high bandwidth
>that do their mixing locally. They have to be "trusted," to some extent,
>but would help a lot. There are some gotchas.)

	There is unfortunately a balance between what an operator will be able
to take - in regards to bandwidth - and what is needed for a web anonymizer
or remailer to work. For remailers, this requirement is greatly decreased by
the lack of immediacy needed.
	-Allen