On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 4:55 AM, Kyle Williams kyle.kwilliams@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Runa, On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 2:52 PM, Runa A. Sandvik runa.sandvik@gmail.com wrote:
Hi everyone,
DreamPlug is a new plug computer from GlobalScale Technologies: http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/c-5-dreamplugs.aspx. The spec looks good, it runs Ubuntu by default and it doesn't cost too much. I thought that the DreamPlug was going to be very user friendly and a potential candidate for the Torouter project. (Maybe) I was wrong.
I got one of these.
Happy with it so far? Any issues with overheating or something similar?
When the SheevaPlug came out a couple of years ago, it shipped with a web interface that enabled users to change various network options. I thought the DreamPlug would ship with some kind of interface as well (and my plan was to just plug in a Tor page). This is not the case; it ships with lighthttpd by default and displays a static and very simple placeholder page on 192.168.1.1.
If we want to use the DreamPlug for the Torouter, we will have to write a web interface for easy configuration of Tor. The interface should probably also provide options to better secure the DreamPlug. Downloading and installing Tor isn't a problem, but the configuration side of things can be tricky for users who aren't used to the command line.
You don't HAVE to have a web interface, but it sure does make it nice. However, SSH is really the only secure way to ensure you don't have some XSS or CSRF attack from your browser (cause that can be really bad when your browser takes over Tor... ;)
The whole point with the Torouter is to allow more people to run a bridge or a relay, so I see a web interface as something mandatory. So yeah, we'd have to make sure that the interface is secure.
Thoughts? Comments?
I got lots of experience with these types of devices. The DreamPlug is using an ARM processor, much like the Yoggie Open Firewalls did. Maybe you heard of JanusPA(.com)...basically it was a Tor / OpenVPN Router that you could put inline on your ethernet connection, required zero config to make it work out of the box, and worked with any IPv4 device. I have a build environment for the ARM architecture already, and I have a SheevaPlug and a DreamPlug , but I haven't put Tor on it yet due to being way overloaded with my day/night job. If you want, I could probably get all the development stuff tarball'd up and posted somewhere with basic instructions. Or I could probably just take 2 hours, do a build, and stuff it into the DreamPlug , then make a tarball of that.
What is "the development stuff"?