Tinc looks like a wonderful VPN tool, potentially a great alternative to the zero-configuration Hamachi and similar services. Tunngle, NeoRouter, Remobo and Comodo EasyVPN are also in the zero-configuration LAN VPN category. But none come close to the freedom, flexibility and security of Tinc. If only Tinc had a GUI or even a command line configuration tool to generate and manage the Tinc configuration files so someone who wasn't a network engineer who knew how to calculate subnets could use Tinc, it would blast Hamachi and the others clear out of the water. I'm no coder. I have tried to learn C, and I simply don't have the gift for programming. I enjoy writing simple crap like IRC bots in python, perl, ruby, object pascal, common lisp, lua, tcl, php (i'm a masochist), erlang, golang, nodejs, haskell (i'm insane as a result), d and java, but I'm no coder. I can't handle anything more complex than a simple IRC bot. Anything with the complexity of a command line tool and I just don't have the gift. Please, someone, make this happen. I know NOTHING about writing GUI interfaces or frontends for things like Tinc, and while I'd prefer someone write it in Qt5, anything is better than nothing. Thank you for your time and patience, and thank you in advance for any wisdom, advice, assistance or insults.
On 3/16/2015 11:33 PM, Coyo Stormcaller wrote:> But none come close to the freedom, flexibility and security of Tinc.Flexibility in particular I think is what would make having a catchall gui solution more difficult to achieve. Nothing comes quite as close to flexibility than editing the configuration files by hand. Gui's tend to get in the way whenever someone wants to try something you haven't anticipated ( as I've experienced both as a user, and a creator of a basic tinc gui ). Freedom and security are certainly true as well. Being opened source, tinc gives you complete control over your network ( which adds more work on your part ). Those other solution ( so far as I can gather ) are not open source, so you trade your freedom for their simplicity. As far as security goes, tinc's code can be reviewed and evaluated for vulnerabilities. With those other solution, you can't really verify how secure you really are, you just have to take their word for it.> If only Tinc had a GUI or even a command line configuration tool to > generate and manage the Tinc configuration files so someone who wasn't > a network engineer who knew how to calculate subnets could use Tinc, > it would blast Hamachi and the others clear out of the water.tinc1.1 does have a command line configuration binary (tinc), and is accompanied by the actual daemon (tincd). It won't save you from having to read the manual though. I can't speak for the tinc maintainers ( and I'm sure they'll pipe up for themselves anyway ), but I've heard other projects say that maintaining a gui would take away time from working on the project's core functionality.> Please, someone, make this happen. I know NOTHING about writing GUI > interfaces or frontends for things like Tinc, and while I'd prefer > someone write it in Qt5Having said all that, I'm sure it's quite possible to create some awesome guis for tinc. It would take a motivated person to do it. Sometimes money helps motivate people if there's none to be found.> anything is better than nothing.Well, since you asked, I have created my own little gui for tinc... for routers. Don't know if it's what you're looking for but it's better than nothing I guess. http://www.linksysinfo.org/index.php?threads/tinc-mesh-vpn.70257/ I had the idea for years before I finally ran with it (Took me a long time to get motivated). It does actually make it quite easy to setup tunnels, between routers that is. Any other type of client (ie, windows, linux, mac) would have to be setup the conventional way.