[openbeos] Networking Wish-list
- From: "Jean Schwerer" <j-schwerer@xxxxxxx>
- To: openbeos@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 00:12:32 +0200
Hi all,
there's been a lot of talk yesterday on another mailing list about whether it
was a good idea to
launch big discussions about future things to implement (for it would distract
us from coding),
and I know launching that kind of big discussions here has not really been
encouraged ^_^
However I had my reasons to launch this thread on the dedicated network team
mailing list and I
have been requested to move it here, so here it is :o)
I have thought about some kind of wish-list for the network Team. It's quite
easy, just tell us
ALL things you would like to see in OBOS Network layer. Don't mind if it is
feasable at all or
not, just think of a "perfect world".
For example as far as I am concerned I'd like to see:
Protocol-wise:
- IPv6 support
- ATM and PPPoA support
- Full PPPoE and PPTP support of course, with CHAP authentication ^_^
- Token Ring support (yes, I like Token Ring and think it is a well-designed
protocol, and
remember: I talked of a perfect world :P)
Design-wise:
- I wish every protocol would be handled by a separate add-on, then the
necessary add-on gets
loaded when a given kind of network traffic is recognized by the lower layer.
That way it is
easy to add protocols and to update some protocols' support. The add-on doesn't
get unloaded
from memory unless there is a given timer without network traffic observed (if
the timer is
reached however it will be wise to assume the machine has been disconnected
from the network
and warn the user about it :P)
Feature/API-wise:
- An automatic flooding and malformed packets protection for applications
asking for it. e.g. an
application may call a FilterArrivingPackets() function that would tell the
network API to monitor
certain kind of parameters, some kind of built-in firewall working at a lower
level than user-
launched firewalls.
- An automatic non-transparent firewall/proxy support. e.g. an application
opens a connection
(BNetEndpoint, BNetAddress...) and instead of having to care about
firewall/proxy itself it tells
the BNetEndpoint->UseProxyFirewall("socks5"). Then it doesn't care afterwards
whether it's
talking to a firewall/proxy or not, it justs sends the packets as it would to a
given server, and
the net_server handles the "translation" in firewall/proxy protocol for it.
What's the benefit?
Any application can then handle any kind of non-transparent firewall/proxy
supported by the
net_server without having to implement it. Kind of a "translator" function
applied to the network
if you prefer :o)
- I read on OSNews (in Eugenia's interview of some *BSD people) about the
project of BSD
developers to enable sockets to be passed from a server to another one, which
would enable
QoS by ensuring a connection isn't dropped when a server is taken offline for
maintenance of
after a crash. I definitely want this in OBOS :o)
Application-wise:
- I'd like OpenSSL/OpenSSH and Apache to compile right out of the box
(currently not the case,
it's even lacking proper header files)
- I'd like to have a Perl build for OBOS with socket support
From what I wrote I guess you get the picture. Please don't refrain from giving
any kind of ideas,
and don't think of the time it would take to implement, if it is feasable or
not, and how high it
might get on a priority list, this is just a plain "perfect world", "should
be", "would like it to be",
wish list and we are in brainstom mode right now (i.e. push out as many ideas
as you can, be
them good or bad).
If you feel you have too many ideas, if you fear you might get too technical,
if the subject gets
too long or offtopic or whatever please feel free to send any answer privately.
Thanks,
Jean
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