From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 3 01:40:01 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 408D716A4DD for ; Thu, 3 Aug 2006 01:40:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mikhailg@webanoide.org) Received: from overlord.navalradio.cl (overlord.navalradio.cl [201.236.67.146]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9A0B443D49 for ; Thu, 3 Aug 2006 01:40:00 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mikhailg@webanoide.org) Received: from [192.168.0.4] (ppp108-110.static.internode.on.net [150.101.108.110]) (authenticated bits=0) by overlord.navalradio.cl (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k731dU8k015549; Wed, 2 Aug 2006 21:39:34 -0400 (CLT) (envelope-from mikhailg@webanoide.org) Message-ID: <44D153D0.9000304@webanoide.org> Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 11:39:28 +1000 From: Mikhail Goriachev Organization: Webanoide User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 (Macintosh/20060719) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: User Freebsd References: <20060728164526.E27679@ganymede.hub.org> <17615.30414.314802.792740@jerusalem.litteratus.org> <20060801223754.U27679@ganymede.hub.org> <20060801230301.Q27679@ganymede.hub.org> <44D09F46.6020300@dial.pipex.com> <44D0F2FE.9020507@dial.pipex.com> <20060802203604.A6529@ganymede.hub.org> In-Reply-To: <20060802203604.A6529@ganymede.hub.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, score=-99.5 required=5.0 tests=AWL,USER_IN_WHITELIST autolearn=ham version=3.1.3 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on overlord.navalradio.cl Cc: Nikolas Britton , Alex Zbyslaw , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Gotta start somewhere ... how many of us are really out there? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 01:40:01 -0000 User Freebsd wrote: > On Wed, 2 Aug 2006, Nikolas Britton wrote: > >> This may sound dumb but why don't we just put a registration link on the >> FreeBSD main page... or "registration" in sysinstall. Isn't this how >> everyone else handles the problem? > > User A installs FreeBSD, registers, works with it for a week, finds he > isn't getting anything done with it, wipes the drive and goes to something > else ... > > User B installs FreeBSD 5.x, registers, works with it for a while and > decides to CVSup to -CURRENT, so now we have an artificially high # of 6.x > installs, and an artificially low # of 7.x installs ... nobody looks to be > moving to 7.x, therefore why support it from a vendors perspective ... Right, I've been following this thread from the start but didn't want to get involved, even though I felt this is important and necessary. I've come up with this token-based registration idea: Agent: Knock, knock... Server: Hi, give us your last 2 tokens... Agent: I don't have them... I'm a newborn. Server: Ok. Here's one for you $token1 and come back in 7 days. 7 days later (or more if it's a laptop) Agent: Knock, knock... Server: Hi, give us your last 2 tokens... Agent: I only have 1 token. Server: Ok. There you go $token2. Get back in 7 days. 7 days later (or more if it's a laptop) Agent: Knock, knock... Server: Hi, give us your last 2 tokens... Agent: Take them, $token1 and $token2. Server (compares tokens): Thanks, now give us some info about yourself. Agent: Ok, sending $information. Server: Thanks, this is another $token3 for you. Come back in 7 days. ... beyond this point the agent is officially registered but must maintain its rego by reporting every 7 days and keep providing latest 2 tokens ... In short, an agent must earn the registration. In this case it takes 2 weeks. Once it registers, it becomes a real number in the stats. If that agent stops reporting for a few months then it gets removed from the stats. If agent's computer upgrades, then it doesn't matter because it still sends $information (with updates) every time it reports. If another agent steals the tokens then it isn't an issue. The victim gets rejected until it collects new tokens. This is because stolen tokens already got registered. The burglar, in the other hand, stays with that stolen registration and resubmits its own $information (uname, dmesg, whatever), which overwrites victim's data. To strengthen the system and avoid token high-jacks we could increment the number and complexity of tokens. >From users' point of view, there are no registration or scary configurations. The system takes over and does everything behind the scenes. For sure, the only necessary thing would be an enable_rego=YES or similar line in /etc/rc.conf. In order to cater for the demand, I reckon there would be enough people willing to donate servers and bandwidth (I'd be one of them). Agents also could detect the closest server on their own and report to it (fastest_cvsup[1] style)... Ok, I'll stop here for now. Cheers, Mikhail. [1] - http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/url.cgi?ports/sysutils/fastest_cvsup/pkg-descr -- Mikhail Goriachev Webanoide Telephone: +61 (0)3 62252501 Mobile Phone: +61 (0)4 38255158 E-Mail: mikhailg@webanoide.org Web: http://www.webanoide.org PGP Key ID: 0x4E148A3B PGP Key Fingerprint: D96B 7C14 79A5 8824 B99D 9562 F50E 2F5D 4E14 8A3B