[HECnet] Question for PyDECnet users

[Paul Koning]

> On Sep 24, 2020, at 6:23 PM, Johnny Billquist <bqt at softjar.se> wrote:
> 
> Hi.
> 
> On 2020-09-24 23:15, Paul Koning wrote:
>> 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?
> 
> Interesting question. For myself, I certainly do not care or worry. (I sortof encourage the probing of Mim and Magica, since that helps iron out any bugs in my TCP/IP.)
> 
> But I do want to respect if others would want to be more protective of their information. So it becomes a little tricky.
> 
> It would be nice if individuals could tell how they would like it on an individual basis. But I don't have any good suggestion at this time on how to do it.

Peter suggests a configuration option.  That's easy as a global setting, and just about as easy on a per circuit basis.

> Finally, can you really stuff that information into the circuit responses? Are there some free-text field available for this? (Doubt I'll do anything in RSX right now, but if possible, it could maybe be something I'd look into eventually...)

Yes, no problem.  That's why there are implementation specific parameter code ranges available.  There is one in use already by PyDECnet, circuit counter 3900, "Seconds since last circuit up", a 16 bit counter.  Parameters like this can go in that range as well, and thanks to the NICE protocol encoding the data format is explicitly stated.  So strings will show up as text, and integers as integers.

	paul