[HECnet] Intermittent Connection with PyDECnet?

[Paul Koning]

> On Mar 2, 2020, at 12:27 PM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
> 
> This sounds promising! I am interested in at least running some experiments to find out how well it all works, and to learn enough to configure my future little patch of DECnet. I'd like to have fun participating, but not if it causes problems for my upstream node or HECnet in general. I know that my connectivity situation is unusual.
> 
> I am in southern California as my callsign suggests, just outside Riverside.
> 
> Is there any possibility of connecting through something like an SSH tunnel, and relying on that for a higher level of security and authentication for the link than the DECnet protocols natively provide?

It's not there currently.  SSL would be easy to do in PyDECnet given the SSL library that exists in Python.  SSH tunnel not quite so much.  Would SSL be sufficient? 

> If I'd like to eventually connect several nodes on my local network into HECnet, would I need to consume a whole area number? Or is there a means for further routing within an existing HECnet area? I still have much to learn about DECnet. Looking through the HECnet node list, it looks like I could stake a claim on a batch of dog-related host names without treading in somebody else's naming conventions.

You could certainly live within an existing area as far as the DECnet protocol is concerned.  You'd just need a place to connect.  The main issue with DECnet areas is that they must not get partitioned.  If you have a single point of contact that isn't an issue; if you have two for redundancy it is probably still ok but requires a bit of care.

> I agree that dynamic DNS is probably not quick enough for my dysfunctional use case. Sometimes my connection flaps up and down rapidly. I'm not sure if I could even accept an incoming connection, or if my cell provider is doing NAT and/or firewalling that would preclude that. 

I've never used cellular IP connections so I have no idea what the rules are.  Do you get IPv4 or only IPv6?  PyDECnet doesn't do IPv6 right now, but it's been requested and shouldn't be all that hard.  (Too bad that IP, unlike DECnet, exposes the address format to the application API.)

	paul