# Development team? How far are we from plug-and-play for software configuration and network integration? I'd love to start doing some minicomputer giftgiving for the holidays :-) **URL:** \ **Category:** Node Operators\ **Tags:** windows, multiple-nodes\ **Created:** [July 20, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/development-team-how-far-are-we-from-plug-and-play-for-software-configuration-and-network-integration-id-love-to-start-doing-some-minicomputer-giftgiving-for-the-holidays/14636 "2021-07-20T13:54:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AskACapper](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/letter_avatar/askacapper/32/5_5575768a8748004e209b776fc1b2916d.png) [@AskACapper](https://forum.storj.io/u/AskACapper)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/development-team-how-far-are-we-from-plug-and-play-for-software-configuration-and-network-integration-id-love-to-start-doing-some-minicomputer-giftgiving-for-the-holidays/14636/1 "2021-07-20T13:54:16Z")
I’m good with computers and hardware, networking stuff boggles my brain sack… I love Graphical User Interfaces I would love to see this project adapt some of that. Amazon has a lot of mini computers like this: > **[Amazon.com: Mini PC Windows 10 Pro Mini Computer 8GB RAM 128GB mSATA Storage...](https://www.amazon.com/Windows-Computer-Storage-Processor-Ethernet/dp/B099MT9ZRR)** > > Specification: CPU : Intel Celeron J3455（2M cache） CPU Cores and Threads: 4Cores , 4 Threads CPU Frequency: Base Frequency: 1.5GHz / Burst Frequency: 2.3GHz GPU: Intel HD Graphics 500 RAM: 8GB DDR3 ROM: 128GB mSATEA SSD... I would love to drop a few 2 TB hard drives into these and give them as Christmas presents to my family 🙂 and take 25% LOL. sometimes you can get these computers for under hundred dollars which is amazing. **I have a few questions for the developers if you don’t mind** 🙂 I’m wondering how far out you see a GUI and network monitoring for node operators? 1. - Do you envision a time when someone could just configure a GUI on this machine and have it be plugged in to any network and function? 2. - Do you ever see a graphical user interface actually relating graphical information about node performance and payment? 3. - Would you ever integrate with a company like niceHasssh or the like so that your network could help people farm/support the network of three different projects at once 🙂 triple crypto dip!? CPU/GPU/HD 4. - Do you guys think you’ll ever get to a time when people will be able to simply donate space with more point and click simplicity? 5. - What’s the ETA on an application/dropbox for files for end-users/the public and would it be possible to allow that app to share space wallets up and running? Thank you for answering any or all of these questions it is appreciated by me and everyone who believes in this project… You are the future! ---
**Author:** ![Alexey](https://storj.bcdn.literatehosting.com/user_avatar/forum.storj.io/alexey/32/41_2.png) [@Alexey](https://forum.storj.io/u/Alexey)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2021, 8:57pm UTC](https://forum.storj.io/t/development-team-how-far-are-we-from-plug-and-play-for-software-configuration-and-network-integration-id-love-to-start-doing-some-minicomputer-giftgiving-for-the-holidays/14636/2 "2021-07-20T20:57:35Z")
We do not advise to invest to anything with purpose only for Storj, please use only what you have now. Use [Realistic earnings estimator](https://forum.storj.io/t/realistic-earnings-estimator/6693) for reference. We do not have plans to simplify setup to one click on current stage, because operating a node requires some technical knowledge or willing to learn. If something goes wrong, the operator should be able to recover the node. If you do not understand how it works, how to setup and how to monitor it - the node would be lost. This will generate a not needed churn of nodes. So, setting up the node is some kind of exam to be a Storage Node Operator. The storagenode is a Server, which provides space and bandwidth to the customers. It should be publicly available, thus port forwarding is required operation for successful participation in the network. All automatic port forwarding methods either not secure or doesn’t guarantee the success (for example - your ISP did not provide you a public IP and you should either call to your ISP to resolve the issue, or switch to ISP who offer a public IP or use a VPN services with port forwarding feature such as [portmap.io](http://portmap.io), ngrok, PIA, AirVPN, PureVPN, etc.) To have a “GUI” (I suppose you mean the setup wizard), you can use either Windows installer: [GUI Install - Windows - Node Operator](https://docs.storj.io/node/setup/gui-windows) or Linux installer: [[Tech Preview] Linux Installer Part 2](https://forum.storj.io/t/tech-preview-linux-installer-part-2/13976) The only GUI they have - is a web-dashboard with all needed information, see [Dashboard - Node Operator](https://docs.storj.io/node/setup/gui-windows/dashboard) This is not mining, so it makes no sense to integrate with mining outsource companies. We do not develop consumers applications, we develop a platform for such applications. The third party developers can build applications like DropBox and use our platform to store data. But you can have a DropBox-like experience right now, if you would use [`rclone` to sync your folder with Storj DCS bucket](https://docs.storj.io/dcs/how-tos/sync-files-with-rclone) or use `rclone mount` command to mount a Storj DSC bucket to the local folder. The other way is to use a [FileZilla](https://docs.storj.io/dcs/how-tos/set-up-filezilla-for-decentralized-file-transfer) or even [Objects browser in the satellite UI](https://docs.storj.io/dcs/getting-started/quickstart-objectbrowser)