On May 22, 2008, at 4:09 PM, Default User wrote:
quoted text > On Wed, 2008-05-21 at 00:36 +0200, ropers wrote:
>> s/EMCAScript/ECMAScript
>>
>> 2008/5/21 ropers <ropers@gmail.com>:
>>> 2008/5/20 Default User <xyzzyx@sbcglobal.net>:
>>>> Hello!
>>>>
>>>> I would like to use lynx to manage my local small lan router. I
>>>> can
>>>> manage a broadband modem that way. But the router webpage
>>>> expects to be
>>>> managed by a graphical browser, so the initial control webpage just
>>>> shows up as unintelligible garbage.
>>>>
>>>> Since I run command line only, I do not want to activate X,
>>>> install a
>>>> graphical browser, and run X, with all the overhead and security
>>>> issues,
>>>> just to manage a simple router. Is there another way text-only
>>>> way to
>>>> accomplish this (ie, ssh etc.)?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for any advice.
>>>
>>> Since you apparently *require* a text-only browser, have you tried
>>> these:
>>> ELinks
>>> Links
>>> w3m
>>>
>>> Wikipedia also lists edbrowse, but it doesn't appear to be in ports,
>>> so YMMV trying to get it to work on OpenBSD.
>>>
>>> If you *don't* really *require* a text-only/console browser, ie. if
>>> there is e.g. a chance to enable SSH on your modem (some of these
>>> run
>>> Linux...), then you'll have to give more details.
>>>
>>> Another solution that I could think of might be to use curl/wget to
>>> fetch the pages you want, and then to write a program/shell script
>>> to
>>> transmogrify the page to something you can use. Of course, in the
>>> extreme this might require partially implementing an EMCAScript
>>> interpreter -- assuming that that's what's really missing; not being
>>> able to see the colourful images should not be much of an issue, but
>>> most text-based browsers not grokking EMCAScript probably would be.
>>>
>>> Hope this helps,
>>> --ropers
>>>
>
>
> Thanks for the suggestions, but no luck. Unfortunately, none of the
> text browsers I tried (lynx, links, elinks, links+, w3m) worked.
>
> The router's internal webpage is <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD
> HTML
> 4.0 TANSITIONAL//EN">. It seems to require javascript (ECMAscript),
> which may well be the problem.
>
> SSH to port 22 does not work (it just times out), and telnet replies
> "connection refused".
>
> I am not up to compiling external applications; I try to stick with
> what's in the OpenBSD packages collection.
>
> And of course, the manufacturer's website was absolutely clueless.
>
> So, it seems that I can either:
> 1) just manage the router from another computer with another OS.
> 2) activate X on the OpenBSD computer and install a graphical browser.
>
> If I choose option #2, what what graphical browser would have the
> least
> overhead, and above all, do the least damage to my security?
>
> I know it's not OpenBSD's fault that the router's control webpage
> requires javascript, but I am surprised that there doesn't seem to
> be a
> simpler, less insecure alternative. Oh, well - so much for
> security . . .
>
3) Stop using closed crappy proprietary routers?
You obviously have the acumen to install and use openbsd. Why not use
OpenBSD as your gateway machine?
for mild to moderate connections one of the cheap soekris running on a
compact flash card works fantastically IMO.
-Adam
