VaPN data flow and considerations

The 10,000 foot view

To better highlight our design philosophy, this block diagram puts things into perspective…

2016-12-20 data flow block diagram
VAPN data flow block diagram

Highlights include:

  • Everything in green are logical items residing in the VAPN rack on the hill;
  • The primary Linux server is home to the W4VPN Node/Switch plus the W4VPN-1 BBS and W4VPN-2 Chat applications;
  • The W4BPN-10 is the notional “bent pipe” tunnel between VAPN users and the Winlink System;
  • The Blue ‘mail server’ is a virtual server leased from a well known player in the droplet industry and run by VAPN folks;
  • Everything in Red are items on the public Internet not in control by any VAPN folks;
  • The big black line between the “-1 ‘BBS'” and blue vapn.org mail server is an encrypted channel;
  • The big red line between the “-10 ‘CMS'” and Winlink Server(s) is, AFAIK, an un-encrypted telnet channel;
  • Port 11 is a telnet port open to the local Mesh Network folks be it AREDN or HSMM-Mesh (if they can ensure only hams have access to their network).

A prototype of the above system with a 2m port, telnet connection, BBS, Chat and both email concepts have passed initial tests.

Email?

Based on many requests, yes we are considering an email option for the VAPN. A thorough understanding of 3rd party rules, etc. is in order. We discuss, compare and contrast some options in this article.