[Mixmaster-devel] Mixmaster II Reliability Issues & Test Results
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[Mixmaster-devel] Mixmaster II Reliability Issues & Test Results
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From: Samizdatt <Sam...@ea...> - 2003-10-27 02:49:05
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The major issue currently plaguing the Mixmaster remailer network is the true reliability of the LAST remailer in a chain. A considerable number of these remailers habitually act like "Black Holes" for email messages destined for "alt.anonymous.messages" and other news groups. Unfortunately, most of these "Black Hole" remailers also happen to be listed as among the most reliable remailers in mixmaster stats, with ratings ranging from the upper 90's to 100; consequently, it's highly probable that messages sent to newsgroups will frequently hit one of these demon remailers, never to reach their intended recipient. Over the past 2 months, I've sent & tracked over 5,124 email messages consisting of either 4 or 6 copies of 1,220 unique messages, each routed through 11 Mixmaster type II remailers, to the "alt.anonymous.messages" news group. --------------------------------------------------------------- Last Remailer Lost Msgs Delivered Msgs % Reliability --------------------------------------------------------------- antani 63 0 0 bigapple 3 104 97 bog 3 14 82 bogg 1 52 98 cripto 65 0 0 dizum 2 106 98 edo 27 9 25 freedom 3 45 94 frell 0 34 100 futurew 33 9 21 george 31 7 18 hastio 41 0 0 italy 7 10 59 itys 7 9 56 jmbcv 1 59 98 liberty 2 51 96 metacolo 3 99 97 panta 3 69 96 paranoia 41 10 20 randseed 0 3 100 starwars 54 29 35 tonga 5 106 95 --------------------------------------------------------------- Sub-totals 395 825 68 --------------------------------------------------------------- Total 1,220 --------------------------------------------------------------- Surprisingly - at first - I found that sending messages through chains of remailers rated, in mixmaster stats, at 98% or greater was FAR LESS reliable than sending messages through remailers rated at 50% or greater. This is because the "Black Hole" remailers were almost always rated, in mixmaster stats, at 98% or greater reliability, while the remailers that were the most successful at delivering my messages were usually rated, in mixmaster stats, at reliability ratings of 90% or lower. For those of you yelling, "it's the broken chains, dumbass!" I strongly disagree. Messages sent through broken chains were more than twice as likely to successfully reach the intended news group than were messages that failed. -------------------------------------------- Messages Sent Through Broken Chains (copies of the same message) -------------------------------------------- Copies Lost Delivered -------------------------------------------- 4 13 31 3 40 92 2 94 218 1 154 325 -------------------------------------------- Sub Total 301 666 -------------------------------------------- Total 967 -------------------------------------------- Broken chains were somewhat reliable predictors only after all the "Black Hole" remailers were removed from the remailer chains selected to send messages. Even then, the broken chain stats were marginally reliable only on the infrequent occasion that broken chains changed little from day to day. The difference I found in the actual ability of a remailer to successfully deliver email was completely at odds with the mixmaster remailer stats and broken chain data, rendering them of little value in selecting a remailer chain that insures a successful delivery. The remailer network screams for a testing methodology that stresses the success of actual messages delivered to their destination, as I've done in this test. Basically, the network needs to be auditable, and the current method of evaluating remailer reliability needs a complete re-think because it's not working well, at all. Additionally, Quality of Service standards need to be established and maintained. Remailers that consistently fail to deliver messages need to be removed from the network. I consistently achieved a 95% success ratio by removing the remailers, listed above, that failed to deliver email messages less than 94% of the time. It would also be helpful for there to be better communication between remailer operators. Example: "Italy" abruptly stopped accepting mixmaster messages on the morning of Monday, October 20, but did send an email, that morning, to the remops mailing list announcing its action to permanently leave the mixmaster network. At least two days later, italy was still listed as a working mixmaster remailer, and not even listed as a broken chain for most remailers. I hope this helps improve the reliability of a network I've come to rely upon over the years... Keep up the good work! |
