[HECnet] Question for PyDECnet users

[Paul Koning]

Gentlepeople,

Currently the details of what PyDECnet circuits connect to are not displayed.  So you can see that a Multinet circuit is up and the other end is node 42.73, but you don't see the IP addresses or the like.

When things are working that's fine; when they are broken it might be helpful to see what something is trying to talk to.

On the other hand, hiding IP addresses is arguably a security feature.  So I have this question:

1. Should the addressing info (basically, what's in the --device config argument) be shown in the PyDECnet web interface?

2. Should the addressing info be visible via NCP / NML?

The difference is that #1 can be limited to be local only, if you use an internal address for the web service.  That's what I do for my nodes except for the mapper, though perhaps there isn't a strong argument why it should be so restrictive.  #2, on the other hand, is visible to all HECnet users assuming you haven't disabled NML in your config settings.

I'd be interested in comments.  Am I too concerned about hiding information, or is it sensible to be cautious?

	paul