Comment by hathawsh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by hathawsh | Hacker News Reader

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There should be a marketplace for apps running on home routers. It would change the Internet as we know it. Developers should be able to create router apps and submit them to marketplaces and users should be able to install router apps of their choice with just a few taps.

Routers have a few key advantages over most other computing devices owned by the public: routers normally have a public (non-NAT) IP address, they're always on, and battery power is not a concern. If people could install a Tor implementation on their router with just a few taps, Tor usage could expand dramatically. Developers of decentralized social networks might finally get a foothold once the installation problems are gone.

IMHO the best way to re-decentralize the Internet is by creating routers that host arbitrary apps, along with a marketplace of router apps.

The way to bootstrap this idea seems simple: sell a new router with a thin margin, provide SDKs for free, let developers charge what they want for the apps, and take a 30% cut from app purchases. The plan seems so clear that I wonder why I haven't yet heard of anyone doing it. :-)

The obvious problem with in-home edge compute like that is the shittyness of router implementations, combined with the shitty software out there, combined with the lack of common interfacing with the router by a human just begs to open up a world of devices to botnets. Needs to be interfaced with by humans regularly.

Right. Whoever does this needs to be competent at building a safe, stable, and usable router OS.

OpenWRT/LEDE is a thing. But don't expect cheap home routers to be able to run useful services-- the cheapest hardware is truly bottom-of-the-barrel, even OpenWRT had to drop support for lots of devices.

Ubiquiti makes decent hardware, and now has an upgrade to go from their flavor of linux to debian stretch.

I wonder if Ubiquiti would consider selling a "developer" module of the Edgeroute-X or similar with more ram.

Or maybe look for a raspberry pi clone with dual ethernet (not connected by USB). Add a 128GB microsd for $20-$25 to have some room for video, photos, email, chat logs, etc.

Please don't encourage router-makers to add more functionality that risks exposing my network traffic to the internet. I sympathize with the sentiment, but the people that make these devices have proven again and again that they are unable to execute on basic traffic security.

> routers that host arbitrary apps

Servers. You are describing servers.

Edit: upon reflection, rather a lot of people I know don't have routers, either; they use shared internet (e.g. xfinity) or only have mobile plans.

I think this is a very very interesting idea. The only problem that makes me nervous is telecoms/ISPs capping the line or requiring some propietary interface to it (something done this days to an extent) and quirks. If they feel they are going to lose control or similar. Just a thought, I don't really know if it could be a real problem though.

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