[Server-devel] Server-devel Digest, Vol 75, Issue 3

[Tony Anderson]

Hi,

Naturally, the primary problem is servers which have no access to the 
internet. In some cases, these servers can access the internet by 
expensive gsm modems. In such cases, the server has a leased ip address 
via DHCP and so must initiate the communication with the 'mothership'.

Once the school server opens communication with the mothership, it can 
act as any other client.



I am not sure administration, monitoring, or updating the server 
remotely is either needed or desirable. The key to a server is stability 
- which means don't mess with it!

The real need is updates to content not software. A very desirable 
capability would be email. Another might be access to selected rss 
feeds. Adding items to the local digital library would be another 
possibility. Providing an ability for students to upload their Scratch 
projects or the Sugar activities developed with Pippy would be exciting.
One could even imagine XO users at deployments on Support-Gang!

It would be very desirable if these capabilities could also be 
accomplished by 'sneaker-net' with a usb flash drive to the (hopefully) 
local internet cafe.

Unfortunately we often assume that the deployment lives in the same 
environment we are used to. We have several Sugar Activities that are 
meaningful only when the XO accesses the internet directly (the prime 
example is the portal on the Browse Activity).

Imagine the performance available to 100 XOs surfing the internet 
through your home DSL or cable modem. Imagine the cost with a contract 
that has a surcharge for transfers exceeding 5MB per month.

This model of a 'mothership' is far more significant than the model of 
every XO surfing online.

Tony

On 07/03/2013 10:35 AM, server-devel-request at lists.laptop.org wrote:
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2013 01:25:17 -0500
> From: David Farning<dfarning at activitycentral.com>
> To: server-devel<server-devel at lists.laptop.org>, 	"Community Support
> 	Volunteers -- who help respond to help AT	laptop.org"
> 	<support-gang at laptop.org>
> Subject: [Server-devel] Value of remote access to School Servers.
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAOGko=8kA4s1YX9da5=VP3rYUxBqgSxjT1NwBcDOP-9gkPDLiw at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> One of the features that we have been experimenting with for XSCE is
> OpenVPN access. Several pilots are using it to remotely monitor and
> maintain their School Servers.
>
> The functionality is pretty straight forward. It opens several doors for
> future services like automatic updates and statistics collections.
>
> The hard part is setting up and maintaining the OpenVPN server. Large
> deployments will want to setup their own server. Smaller deployments might
> want someone else to host their OpenVPN server.
>
> To kick this off, AC would be willing to host OpenVPN for small deployments
> for free to deployments willing to test XSCE.
>
> Does this free service sound like something anyone is interested in testing?
>
> -- David Farning Activity Central: http://www.activitycentral.com