Ability to use DAppNode as a wifi router

[uniconstructor]

I want to replace my old wifi router an I have an idea to use the DAppNode for this. I have only basic knowledge about network administration - so I have some questions: 1) Does this idea make any sense? From the one hand - some routers have a very bad firmware support and often contain old non-updated Apache2 or nginx packages (for their web UI). This is bad for security: your router can run a botnet and you can even don't know about it. From the other hand router is a separate device that do some work with the network packages (routing, splitting traffic between several devices, I don't know what else): it may be a bad idea to put this work on the DAppNode. 2) Do I need a special hardware for establishing a wifi network from ordinary PC or standard wifi-card will be enough for this? 3) What actions should I perform to turn my DAppNode PC into WiFi router? What should be changed in VPN config, network interfaces and so on? What should I read for this, or what things I should google first?

[vdo]

A few comments:

• You will need a 'standard' router for your WAN connectivity anyway
• The DAppNode has a wifi feature by default. If you don't use it to connect it, it will serve it as a HotSpot.
• A common wifi card should be enough for few clients or a home network, but YMMV
• The comments above apply to our latest 0.2.x ISO

[Shelpin]

Hi @uni!!! are your doubts solved ?

[uniconstructor]

Hello, @Shelpin No, I am failed to build wifi drivers for the my home server for Debian, so now I have a wifi module that cannot work with my system. I plan to use different (more popular) wifi card, so now I am decided to use a different solution. I did some research, checked out existing solutions, and decided that machine running the DAppNode is probably not the best point for the wifi router in my home network. Currently I focused on single-board hardware solutions (like Raspberry Pi), and task-specific software (like OpenWRT project).

After reading a LOT of docs, discussions and manuals I defined a more clear vision of the problem for myself. Here is my key ideas: 1) WiFi router is an entry point for my home network. It has a public IP (static or dynamic). Security takes priority here, so It should ran a most simple and secured OS, that handles all the possible attacks. 2) I am also want to use my router as a central point of all my internet connections. If I use VPN - I want to set up it in one place (on router), and not for all my home devices separatley. 3) I wanted to use DAppNode as a router for one main reason: the apps inside it (IPFS, VPN and so on) will not work property when DAppNode machine is connected to the WAN via router (not directly). I think there is a problem of DAppNode - it should work fine with any type of connection (but it may need additional setup steps for different connection types during install - it's ok). 4) Network management, routing, securing all my traffic via VPN, processing "ipfs://" links and resolving ".onion", ".i2p", ".bit" and other non-standard domains is also a router task. DAppNode should run Apps, router should, you know, route. :)

Finally: I currently don't know how to combine router-based VPN, I2P, TOR, and blockchain-based domain resolving, but I suspect this is possible. The closest solution that I found is implemented in FreedomBox project. It has some very important features that worked out-of-the box:

• OpenVPN (personally tested)
• TOR node
• Fail2Ban (personally tested)
• I2P node
• Matrix Synapse server (personally tested)
• BitTorrent (personally tested)

FreedomBox running on Raspberry Pi, is a best candidate for the new router in my home network, but even this project still lacks some features:

• no ability to set up L2TP connection (I need L2TP for my Internet provider)
• problems with network configuration after setup: I failed to setup a wifi hotspot on it
• hardware problems: if I run FreedomBox on Raspberry Pi 3, I will have a weak Wifi signal. Of course there is possible to extend Pi with external WiFi antenna but I am suck in DIY and have no skills required to choose, connect and set up external modules for Raspberry.

Also: I am don't know what to do to make my router support ".bit" or ".eth" domains. Raspberry definetly will not able to run a full Etherum node - so it need some exchange mechanism with DAppNode to make a DNS resolution. A am even not close to the solution here. My knowlenge about network management is poor, I don't even know what wrong with ".eth" domain zone now and why it cannot be resolved by modern browsers out-of-the-box.

Another question that is not clear for me for now: do I need an OpenWRT if I use FreedomBox as a router? If yes - how to combine those systems together, is it possible at all, what is the best way to separate tasks between them?

So, finally: still need more research here, don't have a working solution yet, but definitely have progress in this task.

[uniconstructor]

I see my desired solution as home network, having this list of nodes:

• WiFi router (connects to WAN). Single-board device. Running OpenWRT or FreedomBox. Main task: routing, non-standard DNS resolution, security layer, seamless access to TOR/I2P networks.
• Basic internet services. "The apps of the present". Separate node (email, messaging, contacts, web-hosting, wiki, file storage and sharing, so on.). May be separate FreedomBox instance if router running only OpenWRT and doing only network-specific tasks. No blockchain or p2p apps. Strong hardware not needed: all services can operate normally at Raspberry Pi 3 with 1GB of RAM (tested personally).
• Advanced services. "The apps of the future". Here is the DAppNode comes in! :) Etherum node, all blockchain-based apps, alternative blockchain engines (holochain, byteball, hyperledger, some other mad science). Web3-based apps. Self-sovereign identity node (your, personal!). More powerful hardware needed for running several different blockchains and several dapps on each of them.
• other home devices (notebooks, standalone PC, tablets, phones, guest devices, etc.)

My main idea and final goal: I want to achieve complete self-sovereignty in my digital life. That's what I need a DAppNode for. Full data ownage. Full data control. No piece of my data can be used without my (revocable) permission. Zero-knowledge proof is your friend. Privacy by design. Say goodbye to the dark ages of Internet and welcome to the digital humanism era, motherfuckers! :)

Any thoughts about this network architecture? Comments, feedback and ideas are welcome.

[stale[bot]]

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