From ICT4D Wiki
DIMES is a distributed scientific research project, aimed to study the structure and topology of the Internet, with the help of a volunteer community (similar in spirit to projects such as SETI@Home).
The DIMES agent performs Internet measurements such as TRACEROUTE and PING at a low rate, consuming about 1KB/s. The agent DOES NOT send any information about its host's activity/personal data, and sends ONLY the results of its own measurements. Aside from giving a good feeling, running the DIMES agent will also provide you with maps of how the Internet looks from your home (currently) and will (in the future) provide you with a personalized 'Internet weather report' and other user-focused features.
