Unprecedented Spike In TOR .Onion Nodes (profwoodward.org)

Martin S. writes: The Tor project is reporting an unprecedented rise in unique .Onion nodes, rising from around 40k to 60k in just a few days, says security researcher Professor Woodward. I wonder is this could possible be related to Shari Steel plan to push Tor mainstream, as reported on /. a few days ago.

Comments

Sites, not nodes

[Anonymous Coward]

The number of hidden services (.onion sites) has increased, not the number of exit or relay nodes.

Personally, I don't see 20k more hidden services as a big number: I'm surprised there are so few total (60k). Tor hidden services are a great way to run a server with a dynamic IP address and solve NAT and fire wall issues all at once for free when trying to run a personal server. It also solves several other problems people generally care less about (hides your IP to prevent traffic DDOS attacks, and protects your identity), provides an easy mechanism to have multiple servers serving the same address for redundancy, provide end to end encryption (if the client is also using tor) and makes your service more accessible to clients using TOR (they don't have to go through an exit node).

Tor hidden services are great for low-bandwidth latency tolerant random services you might want to serve off your laptop or phone from time to time. I found it easier to setup most alternatives for solving any one of these issues: I set up a tor hidden service on the first try with no issues. It was easier than getting my dynamic DNS working, and also easier than forwarding a port through my router. (You can host a tor hidden service without port forwarding since all the connections the server makes are actually outward to the poxy nodes).

Really I think the only big issue with them is the latency, and lack of IPv6 support. On that note, I recently had an IPv4 outage for a while and it was interesting to see what worked on IPv6 only.

Re:Sites, not nodes

[Anonymous Coward]

As with any TCP/IP connection, only one side of each connection needs to be listening. In the case of TOR, the user doesn't need any open ports, only the relays need to have open ports. The major misunderstanding I've seen of TOR (especially recently) is that it isn't a "swarm" in the sense that not every user is a relay and even less are exits, you have to specifically enable those settings.

Potentially caused by IM application

[WoOS]

According to TFA (yes, I know, I am not supposed to read it) this could be caused by the anonymous messaging application Ricochet which apparently creates a hidden service for each user.
Would have expected that that information was mentioned in the summary.

Re:Smells like Government plan to me...

[gweihir]

These are hidden servers, not entry- or exit-points.