Re: [LCtalk] Internet connection to the Lanbox

[Paul Carver]

On Fri, Jun 02, 2006 at 04:12:42PM +0200, Matthijs van Duin wrote:
> He may also need to open up TCP port 777 in the firewall to that IP 
> address, or do a NAT mapping, whichever is applicable.

Personally I'd be very wary of connecting a production Lanbox to the 
Internet in that manner. The Lanbox protocol isn't encrypted, is it? 
Does the Lanbox have any provisions to protect against password 
guessing?

As a user I find the wealth of information available about the Lanbox as 
one of its best features, but if I were a mischevious troublemaker a 
Lanbox connected to real lights in a public venue an accessible over the 
Internet would be a tempting target.

I'd suggest one of the following three options depending on the 
technical skills of the user and the network admin:

1) VPN (Virtual Private Network) - Lots of companies use these. Not 
exactly trivial to set up, but a solid general purpose solution.

2) SSH port forwarding - Setup a Linux or other variety of Unix box on 
the same LAN as the Lanbox and use the Windows program Putty to forward 
port 777 through an encrypted tunnel.

3) RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) - Setup a Windows XP box on the same 
LAN as the Lanbox and enable remote administration. Use Microsoft's RDP 
client to connect to the remote Windows XP box and run LCEdit or other 
software on that machine. RDP is encrypted.