Tor and download speed

Question

I downloaded Tor some time now, just to try it, it turned out that resolved a problem that was not exactly the anonymity, but speed. I'm from Venezuela, and ISPs here are affected by the economic problems of the country, so they can not improve their platforms, so the internet service is lousy, reaching sometimes be null.

In a research I did through the internet, I found out that several people were testing their internet connections through pages of speed test and came to the conclusion that the service providers were limiting the internet connection to those who use torrent and download programs like jdownloader, and those who just surf the internet, had his speed to maximum.

I download Tor to avoid government restrictions about a website, and discovered that my internet speed had increased from 10% of what I pay to 100% and was constant, without loss, then I continue using Tor, I recommended it to my girlfriend, and download it at work, and worked perfectly.

What I think was happening was that Tor prevented my IP from being tracked by my ISP and managed to limit my download speed.

But the trick no longer works, both in my work and in my girlfriend's house and in my house, so I guess that they detected the trick, I guess they tracked all these IPs, and also restricted.

Well sorry for the long story so much, and for my bad English, but could be a way to make it work again?

Answer 1

What I think was happening was that Tor prevented my IP from being tracked by my ISP and managed to limit my download speed.

Generally Tor nodes are public, so it would be a matter of time before an ISP figure out you are using Tor and decide to speed limit that if they wish to do so.

I download Tor to avoid government restrictions about a website, and discovered that my internet speed had increased from 10% of what I pay to 100% and was constant, without loss, then I continue using Tor, I recommended it to my girlfriend, and download it at work, and worked perfectly.

This phenomenon depends on the relative speed of your service from an ISP and the speed of Tor nodes (entry node, middle node, and exit node). If the speed of all three Tor nodes used in your circuit individually are larger than the speed of the service you receive from your ISP, then you may obtain 100% of ISP speed. However, if the speed of any of nodes in Tor circuits that are build for you is lower than the service you obtained from your ISP, then you will observe a limitation is your speed. Thus, the weakest link in your network will limit your speed.

Could be a way to make it work again?

There may or may not be a way to make it work again depending on your situation. To me it looks like that the ISP is the responsible party for your situation and probably mostly for conserving the bandwidth and reducing the cost, instead of government for any political reason. But in any case, you may use bridges and test if they help you. Bridges are unlisted entry nodes that are more difficult to block. The problem with that is if the bridge's speed is lower than your ISP speed you may encounter a speed limitation, not due to ISP but due to bridge's speed limitation. Bridges are in general much slower than regular entry nodes. On top of that bridges are not as consistent as regular entry nodes. Meaning they are less dependable than regular entry nodes as far as when they are on and when they are off. You may test in your own situation, and figure out if bridges are worthwhile in your case or not. One last thing, When you use bridges, do not expect same level of anonymity as when you use regular entry nodes as relatively small number of folks use bridges compare to regular entry nodes and it seems from published material that bridges are under more sever surveillance than regular entry nodes.