4 ms·

Is this an alternative to: - ngrok - ssh tunnel - tor - libp2p ?

by toomim 4y ago

dovholuknf 4y ago
It's similar to them, sure. you could build an ngrok alternative on top of OpenZiti. In fact we might be working on something similar that you might seeing as a Show HN soon :) SSH tunnels are similar in ways, yes but they'll suffer from the same "you need an open open port" problem that OpenZiti doesn't suffer from (excluding the overlay nodes, I can get into that if you want) tor is an anonymization network - utterly different. With OpenZiti the network needs, and must know what identity is connecting. it's really not the same, very different. some similar privacy type of overlap might be out there, but in general that one feels really different. libp2p is new to me. I have seen that coming up lately but I don't know much about it yet so i can't really comment on that one. sorry
- toomim 4y ago
  The similarity with tor is that you can connect to any other computer via its public key, which corresponds to a .onion address. If your computer's public key is xx73u2, then I can access it at https://xx73u2.onion/and/whatever/path/i/want https://xx73u2.onion/and/whatever/path/i/want, and tor handles all the encryption. From this perspective, anonymity comes as a bonus.
  - dovholuknf 4y ago
    Oh well see - TIL that was a thing for tor :) Thanks for the education, I always appreciate that!!! So it's similar in that way then, indeed. Including e2ee. I guess I need to brush up on tor's capabilities again. I'm sure there are other overlaps and other differences I'm just not all that aware of.
PLG88 4y ago
I have seen this comparison to Tor before. There are similarities related to the mesh overlay which OpenZiti operates. Sessions are routed according to a policy which can be security or performance-based (natively its routes to the lowest latency). Nodes can be in any location around the world. Packets, as they flow, are synthesised to look like 443 (i.e., cannot determine the app type based on ports) and have metadata encrypted so that the only thing visible if someone intercepts are the public IP of the next hop, nothing related to source, destination or that its OpenZiti type traffic. The major difference is that Tor is designed to be a decentralised, anonymous internet whereas OpenZiti is a private overlay operated with trust and identity. But to an outsider to an OpenZiti network, they would know little about what was going on like Tor.

Is this an alternative to: - ngrok - ssh tunnel - tor - libp2p ?

by toomim 4y ago

Is this an alternative to: - ngrok - ssh tunnel - tor - libp2p ?

It's similar to them, sure. you could build an ngrok alternative on top of OpenZiti. In fact we might be working on something similar that you might seeing as a Show HN soon :) SSH tunnels are similar in ways, yes but they'll suffer from the same "you need an open open port" problem that OpenZiti doesn't suffer from (excluding the overlay nodes, I can get into that if you want) tor is an anonymization network - utterly different. With OpenZiti the network needs, and must know what identity is connecting. it's really not the same, very different. some similar privacy type of overlap might be out there, but in general that one feels really different. libp2p is new to me. I have seen that coming up lately but I don't know much about it yet so i can't really comment on that one. sorry

toomim 4y ago
The similarity with tor is that you can connect to any other computer via its public key, which corresponds to a .onion address. If your computer's public key is xx73u2, then I can access it at https://xx73u2.onion/and/whatever/path/i/want https://xx73u2.onion/and/whatever/path/i/want, and tor handles all the encryption. From this perspective, anonymity comes as a bonus.
- dovholuknf 4y ago
  Oh well see - TIL that was a thing for tor :) Thanks for the education, I always appreciate that!!! So it's similar in that way then, indeed. Including e2ee. I guess I need to brush up on tor's capabilities again. I'm sure there are other overlaps and other differences I'm just not all that aware of.

PLG88 4y ago

I have seen this comparison to Tor before. There are similarities related to the mesh overlay which OpenZiti operates. Sessions are routed according to a policy which can be security or performance-based (natively its routes to the lowest latency). Nodes can be in any location around the world. Packets, as they flow, are synthesised to look like 443 (i.e., cannot determine the app type based on ports) and have metadata encrypted so that the only thing visible if someone intercepts are the public IP of the next hop, nothing related to source, destination or that its OpenZiti type traffic. The major difference is that Tor is designed to be a decentralised, anonymous internet whereas OpenZiti is a private overlay operated with trust and identity. But to an outsider to an OpenZiti network, they would know little about what was going on like Tor.