This is a bit more time consuming, but just as idea for remote administration of a Node.
There could be a POP3 client inside the Node software, with a email address configured, where the Node administrator could send commands, for example:
Just use ssh (or rdp for windows). Also, it would be “fun” if you got spam in that mailbox.
It is just an idea, my self not sure if it could be helpful or other options are better.
Regarding SPAM, any email not containing a secret key, could be directly deleted. But indeed email its hard to make it safe, but it was on my mind and I had to write it.
No problem, you had an idea, posted it and I posted my opinion about it. Maybe others will like it.
While your ideas are “nice” from a user perspective, they are a lot of (unneccesary) work for the devs and open a lot of possibilities for security problems.
It’s best to rely on existing solutions that are maintained separately.
or perhaps an IRC client so we could chat with the node, hi node, how are you today? Did you get any new files? ;
IRC? Nah man, way too old school. We need a voice assistant in there with integrations with Google Home and Alexa devices. Some good natural language processing and pro active broadcasting of warning messages.I want to know what my node’s favorite color is, what it does on its days off and whether it’s hungry for more data. Lets take this thing all the way.
But on a more serious note. These kinds of integrations are waaaay too niche and go against the linux/open source ethos of doing one thing and doing that one thing well. Most of this kind of monitoring would need to happen externally to begin with as no messages could go out if your ISP f’ed up the connection. Satellites already send out emails when nodes are offline. Perhaps that could be extended for other issues. But no, I don’t think we should have smpt/pop3/irc or whatever kind of integrations hacked on to the node software in order to do fairly mundane things. Mostly because there are far better solutions already available that you can set up yourself. Like SSH over VPN.
Why would this be better than a web dashboard?
In defense of of the OP’s idea…
Email control allows one to avoid the requirement to have access to an ssh client along with associated keys (hopefully no one is still using ssh over the open Internet with password authentication) … However, the email account could very easily be spammed and control of the node could be lost.
It’s possible to design a control system via email that would use PGP signatures to authenticate the requester… but then one needs to carry around PGP keys and a client capable of using the keys. So, back to square one with ssh.
In general an email control system is overly complex while also significantly increasing the attack surface of the node. In short… not a good idea.