ChunkVNC VPS, What would you like to see?

[supercoe]

I just purchased a fast VPS server with 10TB of bandwidth.

Here is what I was thinking:

1) Move the current website (http://www.walkernerds.com/chunkvnc) to it and setup the domain chunkvnc.com.

2) Host a public repeater for everyone since there is not longer one hosted (that I know of) in the US.


I want to know what others have for ideas as this VPS is just for me to play with.

[guinness]

WOW! That's cool and who said the project was dead?! Wouldn't having a public repeater be a little selfless? I for one would embrace it but this is too much to ask from you. OR Move the project from Google Code to the VPS?

[B]

Great news!

Some quick ideas (not necessarily good or even desired) just "off the top"...

1. Multiple instances of the public repeater(s), just in case of problems. Possibly within separate VMs?

2. If necessary, different versions of the repeater, particularly during any public beta testing period.

3. Possible move of VNC discussions forum. (Better not to create two different forums at this time.) Though I think it makes sense to leave it as a subforum here. So I guess this isn't one I'd "like to see".

4. Publicly editable wiki.

5. Coordination software for hub collaboration with other developers (chat, irc, teleconference, whiteboard, etc.)

6. Possible test beds for similar projects, such as the French Java server/viewer whose name I forget.

7. A certificate authority. This is a biggie (and relatively easy). You can hand out certs in an effort to further secure things.

8. Other flavors to incorporate alternate DSM plugins or methodologies, including public key. As noted, I think the MSRC4 approach has serious drawbacks.

9. Secure relay (such as the fork you already host files for).

10. Dynamic DNS registry. I've mentioned this idea before -- people could not only track theirrepeater.chunkvnc.com, but optionally make that repeater publicly available.

11. Centralized mechanism for tracking friendly names versus repeater ID strings. Essentially, begin to duplicate GoToMyPC/LogMeIn "my hosts" functionality. I see this, also, as being incorporated into standard DNS queries.

12. Video tutorials.

That's enough for now...

[supercoe]

Way cool ideas, I'm finally getting time for my 3 page ChunkVNC to-do text file and wanted the maximum amount of ideas for the future.

I really like the idea of offering subdomains, this way we could be a one stop shop instead of telling people to sign up for a dynamic DNS service. I'm thinking some sort of port forward test would be good as well.

Multiple repeaters would be awesome, my VPS has 512mb ram with a 1gb swap, I'll have to look at how many repeaters could be run.

I would rather keep discussion here, any traffic I can drive to the UltraVNC project is one more way for me to thank them.

Public wiki and developer hub sounds like a winner.

I'll look into a setting up a CA, though I've never done that before. Could you elaborate on how this word make it more secure?

The SecureVNC crash issue should be resolved in 4.0 so we can move on from MSRC4, but it still remains a theory.


11. Centralized mechanism for tracking friendly names versus repeater ID strings. Essentially, begin to duplicate GoToMyPC/LogMeIn "my hosts" functionality. I see this, also, as being incorporated into standard DNS queries

Thats the vision.
3.1 has been averaging 1000+ downloads a month currently and with VPS servers being almost free right now I figured it was the way to go.


I've though about video tutorials, guess I wanted to project to mature a bit more before putting stuff on youtube (which would be a better host for video I think).


For anyone else interested in their own VPS the amazing deal I got was found here:
http://www.lowendbox.com/blog/2host-7-5 ... ive-offer/

[B]

The idea for the CA is that in order to use public key encryption, you need a publicly viewable key that others can encrypt to. Sometimes both ends have such key (particularly in VPN setups). The most obvious example of a public key cert issued by a CA are SSL certificates for web sites.

The reason for public key encryption is to avoid the problems with shared, known, vulnerable private keys like MSRC4, and having to transmit same, or revoke them later.

For ChunkVNC, you would just have the CA running to "facilitate" the creation and management of keys for the viewer and/or server and/or repeater, particularly since you're trying to allow each ChunkVNC admin to control his or her own setups.

But maybe SecureVNC and/or UltraVNC already do this kind of work for you -- I really haven't checked!

Wikipedia and other resources explain all this a lot better.

As to the repeater/directory, I wonder if that's one part of the UltraVNC architecture you'd be better off rewriting than continuing to wrap around. The current repeater seems simple enough to fork? I just get the feeling that layering anything on top of a repeater session that's using numeric IDs may always be fragile. Though of course there's the issue of VNC interoperability...

[supercoe]

Thanks for the info B.

The repeater code is fairly simple but complicated for me because it's in a language I'm not proficient at.
I'm learning Perl now and the plan is to modify Karl's Perl repeater so we'll have great cross platform compatibility.

[Agrajag]

My biggest issue is that I would like to find a way for Chunk and UltraVNC Server to be able to co-exist. As it is now I continually have to shut down the latter and then I forget it's down and then I can't get into my home PC while at work. I use Chunk to get into the work PC from home and for customers to get to their PC's from work or home.

[supercoe]

Agrajag,

I agree and it's on the list of things to get done.
Not related to the VPS though...

[Agrajag]

Oops. My bad. I didn't see the "VPS" part. (we now return to our normally scheduled broadcast already in progress)

[supercoe]

No problem, you can always post feature requests here:
[topic=17170][/topic]

[Rat]

2Host don't allow proxy servers... see below:

"Proxy Servers – Proxy Servers are prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, SOCKS proxies, Squid proxies, Bittorrent Proxies, Tor, and any CGI or PHP proxy scripts."

Karl Runge's UltraVNC repeater perl script is basically a proxy server... so you had better check if 2Host will allow it I guess.

[JDaus]

2Host don't allow proxy servers...

Bummer ... otherwise it looks like a great setup ... where did you find the list of things not allowed rat ???

[Rat]

Its down the bottom of that blog page, although I was quoting someone else's quote, hence my suggestion to check it.

http://www.lowendbox.com/blog/2host-7-5 ... ive-offer/

[Rat]

Here's a direct link to 2Host's AUP:

http://2host.com/AUP.pdf

Here's Wikipedia's definition of a proxy server: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server. It pretty much exactly describes what the Repeater server is doing.

[JDaus]

2Host don't allow proxy servers...

Bummer ... otherwise it looks like a great setup ... where did you find the list of things not allowed rat ???

bummer

[B]

Hmm, the first Google hit for "2host aup" shows an admin there saying that a "pivate VPN router" <b>is</b> allowed. Not sure how that's much different than a VNC repeater (particularly if that repeater is locked down a bit security-wise (as I have suggested in the past) .

By the way, this thread is the 4th hit for that term.

I tend to agree with the above sentiment though -- if they're going to police the bandwidth they're supposedly selling, they may not be the best choice.

[supercoe]

I've posted on their forum and opened a support ticket inquiring about the issue, we'll just have to wait and see.

I also saw the "private vpn" thing during my googlin.

Really at this point I don't care to much, It's not like I'm doing anything malicious with the repeater and bit of security will be added. If they gripe about what I'm doing I'll just move to a different host.

[supercoe]

Good news,

You are allowed to use the software, unless we receive complaints.

In this case we will contact you and request to stop using the software.

Let me know if there is anything else I may help you with.

[B]

Complaints? From whom? That really stumps me. I thought the point was they wanted to control bandwith - wouldn't they themselves be the ones "complaining"?

Anyway, "whatever", glad you got a satisfactory response.

[Rat]

jaydeee,

This may be of some help to you...
[topic=18106][/topic]

Cheers,
Rat

[supercoe]

jaydeee only needs help getting disconnected from the internet.
Link spammers, ugh...

[slighpcs]

We're still here and will continue to provide a US based repeater for all to use. If there are any issues, please post them under the comments section or feel free to email us.

Thanks,
Ted