H-IP h-IP hooray
Posted by Steve Revill Sun, 08 Oct 2017 10:27:00 GMT
Join us in raising a glass to the 20th birthday of the RISC OS network stack last being updated. That’s right – 1997 marked the release of Internet 5 as part of RISC OS 3.70, and a big step forward in its IP networking capabilities.
Times change
They were simpler times, with no ‘always on’ internet outside of a corporate environment, and no WiFi, it was dial up or nothing.
And of course who can imagine a situation where there are more than 4 billion, the limit of the number of addresses in version 4 of the Internet Protocol, connected devices?
Bringing networking into the 21st century
Recognising that the network stack is showing its considerable age, ROOL have embarked on an ambitious 4 step plan to overhaul it:
- Shores up the total lack of any security. The well known Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a means to transfer data, for example bank details, without fear of a man in the middle listening in on the network packets and stealing your details. However, with more and more powerful computers, but now our hearts bleed because even SSL is obsolete (it can be decrypted by brute force guesswork). So this first step adds today’s stronger TLS security method, and prepares developers to handle longer network addresses.
- Updates the core networking modules which are based on the highly regarded FreeBSD networking software. This will also lay the foundations, in terms of internal structure, for the last 2 pieces of work.
- At last brings integrated WiFi support, for example utilising the chips built on the Raspberry Pi 3, to RISC OS and corresponding user interface to configure and connect to a network from the desktop.
- Enables the longer IPv6 network addresses which are an essential extension to the way packets are addressed around the world now all 2 32 of the original IPv4 addresses are used up. Developers will already be prepared for this considerable change, because the preparation was done way back in step 1.
Some facts and figures
In drawing up the four step plan we’ve analysed the existing places where networking is currently involved in the rest of RISC OS, for example ShareFS sends packets over the IP network. This totals 45 components. That should give some idea of how big the task in hand is – it’s not just about updating the Internet module in isolation.
We got in contact with Kevin, who was the lead engineer on the Internet 5 updates in 1997, and found that the task (equivalent to step 2, above) took around 6 months full time. That’s not including the security, WiFi, and IPv6 changes.
There’s clearly a lot to do, and the bounty scheme was set up for exactly this purpose: to save up and fund developments that contributors to ROOL can’t fit around their day jobs. 6 months at UK minimum wage would be £7312.50, or £2.35 for every signed up forum member: perfectly achievable – get pledging!
Sorry, I know I’ve complained about this before, but…
Put the regular donation option somewhere more obvious!
Why is it hidden under the General bounty? It’s not a bounty. Give it its own button and advertise it!
The Select Scheme was £105/year, so a fiver a month would be about half that. If every RISC OS user donated every month you’d be able to employ a full time programmer :-)
I have been duly prodded into making a regular donation via PayPal – it was really quite easy!
Try it yourself!
Just ignoring funding for a moment (or rather, assuming the bounty were fulfilled), how soon could work begin on this please?
I believe the process is:
1. Someone gets in touch with ROOL to say that they want to work on the bounty
2. There’s a negotiation period to define exactly what work the bounty will entail
3. Work officially begins
Of course, there’s no reason why some preliminary work can’t be done during step 2 (e.g. investigating/evaluating which TLS/SSL library would be the best fit for the OS)
https://www.riscosopen.org/content/documents/bounties