<#part sign=pgpmime> On Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:57:54 +0000, Alistair Davidson <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 6:23 PM, Mathieu Jourdan > <[email protected]>wrote: > > > Hi Alistair, > > > > Le 15 février 2012 15:06, Alistair Davidson > > <[email protected]> a écrit : > > > So, let's move towards some user stories. > > > > > > I'm a coder but not so hot at routing etc, so I'm going to act like a > > dumb > > > designer who is ignorant of technical limitations ;) Here are a few of my > > > ideal stories, and some technical questions: > > > > > > Alice is concerned about privacy. She wants to buy a device that will > > > automatically manage this for her. She buys a Freedombox, and following > > the > > > instruction sticker on the plug, she plugs an ethernet cable from her > > modem > > > to the freedombox, which then acts as a router using sensible default > > > settings. (is this the correct process?) > > > > She also has to plug one more cable to link her freedombox to her > > personal computer, in order to configure it. > > > > But other people may have multiple computers directly connected to a > > switch-router-modem appliance, then routing may not be needed and DHCP > > may be pointless. > > > > Could you describe the planned network topology a bit more? Does freedombox > sit 'between' me and my router? Physically or just virtually? :)
We're trying not to lock the topology down until we have to. We want it to work in as many configurations as possible. In my mind, though, the most oft-used case will be putting the FreedomBox in place of or just upstream of your router. > > Does the computer need configured to proxy through freedombox or can we > force that? I think we have to config that. > > > Bob is like Alice, but has a USB-only ADSL modem his ISP gave him. How is > > > Linux USB modem driver coverage looking these days? > > > > > > Carol wants fine-grained control of her privacy. Following instructions > > on > > > the sticker, she types "freedombox" into the address bar of her browser > > ( do > > > we have control of DNS at this point?) This takes her to a top-level > > page. > > > She clicks the "Privacy" button and is presented with a simple interface > > for > > > controlling privoxy etc. An "Advanced" button allows her to access more > > > complicated features when needed. > > > > If Carol's network topology is the same as Alice, I would say > > freedombox could answer DNS requests in most cases. But for having > > properly configured DNS resolution, Alice's computer may get network > > parameters from freedombox DHCP, meaning she may have to (re)boot her > > computer after plugging it. > > > > Anyway, having to configure privoxy is a pain. Configuring freedombox > > shouldn't be more complicated than creating an account on any service > > provider. I think Carol just wants to tell her box who she is, get her > > data back from service providers and enjoy. > > > > Personnaly, I know lot of people having access to the Internet through > > « a box », but no one except computer engineers having tried to > > configure anything on it. Most people never heard about IP address or > > domain name, while using it every day. Maybe freedombox could teach > > them, I don't know, but it can't ask them anything about network or > > security if we truly aim to rule the world. > > > > Progessive disclosure :) For example, if I click the wireless icon on my > PC, I see a very simple list of networks to connect to. If I click on the > network configuration option, I see a list of devices, and if I click to > configure one I can force an IP or DNS server if I really want to. But the > proverbial non-technical user never sees that in ordinary circumstances, > and a modem-router their ISP gave them handles it all. > > I completely agree that our routing functions should Just Work (tm) with as > close to zero configuration as possible. Yes. Maybe it just tries dhcp and hopes for the best. Indeed, we can make that a requirement of the early release with a todo of something more complex down the line. _______________________________________________ Freedombox-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss
