[tor-dev] The Torouter and the DreamPlug

[Runa A. Sandvik]

On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 12:55 PM,  <andrew at torproject.org> wrote:
> On Mon, May 30, 2011 at 01:56:25PM +0100, runa.sandvik at gmail.com wrote 2.9K bytes in 75 lines about:
> : 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.
>
> Right, so we have two torouters, an expert model which is the dreamplug,
> and a non-expert model which is the excito.
>
> Experts use ssh and follow some instructions for configuring their
> device.  Plus, they get some cheap hardware to do whatever else they
> want to do with it.

Do you think we should ship the plugs as they are, or should we
re-flash and harden first?

> Non-experts get the excito with the web interface: point, click,
> configured, done.
>
> I have 10 dreamplugs with US power config arriving soon.  Once Excito
> has their new version ready, we can get 10 of those.  Then we find 20
> volunteers willing to test the default configs and provide feedback.  In
> exchange, they get to help censored users and get free hardware.

We should probably discuss how we want users to provide feedback and
what kind of data we'd like to see (i.e. we want more feedback than
just "yay, it works" or "it doesn't work and I'm giving up").

> Rather than arguing about web interfaces that do not exist, we should be
> figuring out how to update the routers, make sure new tor packages are
> updated timely, and how to handle support issues from the simple "it
> doesn't work, at all" through "your router ate my cat and soured my
> milk".

We're going to need a web interface sooner or later, and I guess users
will also start asking about client mode and a hidden service at some
point. But we don't need all that to kick off the test phase.

How to update the routers:

- Excito: they roll out their own software updates and users can
point-and-click to update via the interface.

- DreamPlug: good question, I wonder if users would have to re-flash
with a new image.

Make sure new Tor packages are updated timely:

- Excito: we'll need to drop them an email whenever there are new
packages available so that they can update the Excito package repo.
Users can also add the torproject Debian repo to their
/etc/apt/sources.list if they don't want to wait for Excito.

- DreamPlug: default OS is Ubuntu, so I guess users will want to add
the torproject Debian repo to their /etc/apt/sources.list. Or we can
do it for them.

How to handle support issues:

We should probably set up a mailing list, such as torouter at lists... I
already have a B3 and a DreamPlug, so I should be able to reply to
most (if not all) of the support requests.

-- 
Runa A. Sandvik