Feature request: Password/access key support for use over WAN

[ItsCubeTime]

:)

Would like to use someting like a SHA-256 as passkey basically. Would also be nice if one could create readonly servers.

One way I could see this be implemented is using an encryption algorithm with the passkey as encryptionkey and then simply using that for every single packet that you send both from the client and server. This way, if a client tries to connect using an incorrect password - it will decrypt the encrypted data to some gibberish which you can then just throw away and ignore. The "password"/encryption key itself would then also not have to be sent over the internet or since it is known beforehand (as provided via cmd line arguments or some locally read file) - while also avoiding the need to setup something complex like SSL and managing certificates. If you do decide to implement it this way, it may be worth looking into compressing the data as well while you're working on relevant code.

[jrohel]

Actually, these are several feature requests. It would be better to have a separate issue for each, so they can be addressed one by one.

Read-only servers – I plan to implement this. The read-only mode will not be set for the entire server, but for individual shares.

Data compression – I’ve considered this, as it could help on slow links, for example when transferring over serial connections (SLIP). At least in the direction from the server (usually a more powerful machine can compress, and an older, weaker DOS machine can decompress with less effort). I might implement this in the future if time allows.

Encryption – I’ve also considered this, but it has very low priority. NetMount is designed for connecting old computers with limited RAM and weak CPUs. The assumption is that transfers over insecure networks (e.g., the Internet) would go through a router/gateway providing an additional security layer, such as a VPN.

So the current priorities are: implement read-only shares soon, maybe compression later, and encryption has very low priority.

[jrohel]

@ItsCubeTime I have released a new version of the NetMount server 1.7.0. You can check it out here.
In addition to many other improvements, it includes support for read-only shares.

[ItsCubeTime]

Thank you, unfortunately I need to be able to write over WAN as well