Hello Don;
On Sun, 2013-06-30 at 12:43 -0700, Don Fanning wrote:
I think adding PPTP to the mix would really lower the bar of entry in connecting HSMM/Packet islands (as that is clearly the future). It could then be packaged up and written so that people can setup their Mesh Router to other islands via VPN to get over the "Chicken and the Egg" effect of creating a whole new network which clearly is where we stand today.
While that may not be the best solution (and certainly not the only) we need to keep in mind, a good amount of those we would serve 44/8 connectivity to are probably retired, already done what they want to do, and don't want to fuss with networking protocols. Does that mean we need to shun out our fellow hams? A 70 yr old who's looking to "enjoy" the hobby and has the time to do such could care less about IPv4 vs 6, OpenVPN vs L2TP, and so on. They're probably on a fixed income, purchased just about all they want to purchase and really don't desire to learn any more than they already have. Does that mean we have to close our services down to these fellow hams, many who have already spent time elmering others into the hobby?
Some comments I've heard when polling possible end users is "if it's not in my windows install I don't want to be bothered". That's what makes PPTP attractive. There's web apps (since most of us run a web site) available for end points to telnet into your system, and so on. The security part of it is on us.
The younger hams and especially those with more of a 'geek' side to them would want to dive into the more complicated solutions... and that's fine. From a network point of view our challenge is to try and provide all we can to the entire amateur community while not harming the public services we provide to the entire community. That challenge does not reside only at the lower layers, we have to consider all layers, methods, etc. That's what I was trying to relay in my earlier note.