[Freedombox-discuss] FreedomBox experiment & Sister project

Charles N Wyble charles at knownelement.com
Wed Jun 15 07:14:12 UTC 2011


On 06/15/2011 01:54 AM, David Edmondson wrote:
> * charles at knownelement.com [2011-06-15 Wed 05:59]
>>> Running that server, it appeared to me that standard DSL link
>>> reliability is quite an issue.
>> It certainly can be. Especially the dirt cheap plans offered by the
>> telco providers in the USA. I paid 110.00 a month for static ip/no
>> filters/business class DSL in Los Angeles CA. I now run everything on a
>> VPS at my $dayjob for ~50.00 a month.
> My worry about using a VPS is that we lose some of the useful properties
> of the system being physically located at our homes. For example:

You are 100% correct.

>     - Using an encrypted disk is more complex, because I can't easily
>       provide keying material when the system boots,

Right. This is a problem in many applications (for example how does one 
have non static passphrases for encrypted boot drives). Bios is becoming 
smarter and including network stack etc.

>     - The system is no longer under my physical control, so I can't
>       destroy it, move it to another site, etc.

Right.

>     - The company providing the VPS may have a different legal obligation
>       to an individual should a government agency ask for information
>       about or from the system,

Certainly.

>     - Moving large amounts of data to/from the system may be
>       significantly more time consuming (or it may not - it depends where
>       the data is coming from or going to).

Very true.

The stack currently runs on a Centos VPS, but I will be deploying a 
mirrored system on Debian and releasing instructions for that.

-- 

Charles N Wyble charles at knownelement.com @charlesnw on twitter
http://blog.knownelement.com
Building alternative,global scale,secure,
cost effective bit moving platform
for tomorrows alternate default free zone.




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