documentation updates for release

AUTHORS.txt

@@ -6,8 +6,11 @@ hackmeeting community.
 Its (fairly minimal) codebase is designed, written and maintained by
 Denis Roio <jaromil@dyne.org> and distributed by the Dyne.org foundation.
 
-Anatole Shaw, Hellekin O. Wold and Patrick Mc.Donald have contributed
-with ideas and testing.
+Federico Bonelli, Rob van Kranenburg, Roger Dep, Anatole Shaw,
+Hellekin O. Wolf and Patrick Mc.Donald have contributed with ideas and
+testing.
+
+Dowse development is being funded in 2015 by NLNET foundation.
 
 Dowse depends from various free and open source software components
 redistributed under the GNU GPLv2 and GPLv3, MIT/BSD or Apache

ChangeLog.md

@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
+# 0.8
+## November 2015
+### Fixes and cleanups, DNS graphic visualization
+
+Dnscap is adopted on top of libpcap for DNS traffic analysis and
+visualization with a first implementation supporting Gource's
+format. The code is being tested in various environments with the
+result of fixing instabilities, also a devops setup is now available
+to simulate a test LAN using vagrant and ansible. The Consul (GOSSIP)
+functionality is suspended until a use case arises. This development
+is informed by the Dowse design study kindly sponsored by NLNET.
+
 # 0.7
 ## June 2015
 ### Refactoring, GOSSIP networking via Consul

README.md

@@ -6,9 +6,7 @@
 
 		   a digital rod for local area network rabdomancy
 
-Version: 0.7
-
-Updates: http://www.dyne.org/software/dowse
+Updates: http://dowse.eu
 
 Whitepaper: https://files.dyne.org/dowse/dowse_whitepaper.pdf
 
@@ -31,21 +29,26 @@ codebase implementing a modular plugin architecture that isolates
 processes and supports any executable written in any language: Shell,
 C, Perl, Python etc.
 
+Dowse is an ongoing development effort rapidly gaining momentum for
+its simplicity and usefulness. Here a recent backstage video:
+https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vquh3IXcduc
+
 # Features
 
   Dowse takes control of a LAN by becoming its DHCP server and thereby
   assigning itself as main gateway and DNS server for all clients. It
   keeps tracks of assigned leases by MAC Address. DNSMasq is the DHCP
   and DNS daemon.
 
-  All network traffic is passed through NAT rules for
-  masquerading. All HTTP traffic (TCP port 80) is filtered through a
-  transparent proxy, using an application layer chain of Squid2 and
-  Privoxy.
+  All network traffic is passed through NAT rules for masquerading.
+  HTTP traffic (TCP port 80) can be filtered through a transparent
+  proxy using an application layer chain of Squid2 and Privoxy.
 
-  All DNS traffic (UDP port 53) is filtered through DNSCrypt-proxy and
-  encrypted using AES/SHA256 before being sent to DNSCrypt.eu or other
-  configurable servers supporting this protocol.
+  All DNS traffic (UDP port 53) is filtered through Dnscap and
+  analysed to render a graphical representation of traffic. It is also
+  possible to tunnel it via DNSCrypt-proxy, encrypting all traffic
+  (AES/SHA256) before sending it to DNSCrypt.eu or other configurable
+  servers supporting this protocol.
 
   In the future, traffic of all kinds may be transparently proxied for
   monitoring, filtering, and transformation by other applications
@@ -65,25 +68,59 @@ Installation and activation takes a few steps and needs root:
 2. Install ZSh, needed to run all scripts in Dowse: apt-get zsh
    then go into the dowse directory ( cd /usr/src/dowse in example)
 
-3. Run `./utils/debian-install.sh` as root, it fires up some commands:
-   `apt-get`, `update-rc.d` and `invoke-rc.d` to install dependencies
-   like `dnsmasq`, `privoxy` and `squid3`
+3. Run `make` as root, it fires up some commands: `apt-get`,
+   `update-rc.d` and `invoke-rc.d` to install dependencies like
+   `dnsmasq`, `privoxy` and `squid3`, but also `gcc` to compile
+   `dnscap` and our own plugin for it.
 
 4. Configure the files in the `conf/` folder: settings and network
    The files are plain text and include documentation in comments.
 
-5. Fire up the startup script as root: `sudo ./start.sh`
+5. Fire up the startup script as root: `sudo ./start.sh` If you are
+   root and using the ZSh shell then it may be also practical to
+   `source dowse conf/settings` (or another custom config file) and
+   then proceed in the interactive shell launching commands prefixes
+   with `dowse-` (tab completion available)
 
-6. Deactivate the DHCP service (Automatic IP configuration) on any
-   other object on the network, typically your ADSL router.
+6. Remember to deactivate the DHCP service (Automatic IP
+   configuration) on any other object on the network, typically your
+   ADSL router.
 
 If all went well now one should be able to connect any device to the
-internet as you did before, but now all the traffic is passing via
-Dowse's transparent proxy configuration, which weeds out adverts and
-takes care of browser's privacy.
+internet as you did before.
+
+# Visualization
+
+The DNs visualization log is produced in `log/dnscap.log` in a custom
+format which can be easily processed by `gource`. Assuming one is
+connected to a network managed by Dowse running on IP `192.168.0.254`,
+then from another PC one can do
+
+```
+ssh 192.168.0.254 cat /opt/dowse/log/dnscat.log | gource --log-format custom - 
+```
+
+To quickly render all the logged DNS activity found in that file. For
+a realtime visualization is possible to experiment with gource
+arguments, it is also easy to render all into a video file.
+
+# Development
+
+In the `ops` directory an Ansible recipe is found along a ready to use
+Vagrant configuration to build two virtual machines (leader and
+client) that simulate a LAN to do further testing of Dowse.
+
+```
+cd ops
+vagrant up
+```
+
+Plus the usual vagrant commands. This build of Dowse is based on Devuan.
 
-Open your browser to the address of the dowse router to see its status
-from a web interface: `http://dowse.home.net:8500/`
+Help with development is welcome, manuals on how to write new modules
+and daemons are in the making and there is a sister project to
+categorize all domains used by Internet's conglomerates which also
+welcomes contributions: https://github.com/dyne/domain-list
 
 # Disclaimer