Libp2p is a networking library created by Protocol Labs that allows nodes to discover eachother using a Distributed Hash Table. Paired with NAT hole punching this allows Hyprspace to create a direct encrypted tunnel between two nodes even if they're both behind firewalls.

Moreover! Each node doesn't even need to know the other's ip address prior to starting up the connection. This makes Hyprspace perfect for devices that frequently migrate between locations but still require a constant virtual ip address.

I use this system when travelling, if I'm staying in a rental or hotel and want to try something out on a Raspberry Pi I can plug the Pi into the location's router or ethernet port and then just ssh into the system using the same-old internal Hyprspace ip address without having to worry about their NAT or local firewall. Furthermore, if I'm connected to the Virtual Hyprspace Network I can ssh into my machines at home without requiring me to set up any sort of port forwarding.

Honestly, I even use this system when I'm at home and could connect directly to my local infastructure. Using Hyprspace however, I don't have to trust the security of my local network and hyprspace will intelligently connect to my machines using their local ip addresses for maximum speed.

If anyone else has some use cases please add them! Pull requests welcome!

1. Go to Hyprspace Releases (other there -->)
2. Copy the link for your corresponding OS and Architecture.
3. Run sudo curl -L "PATH-TO-RELEASE" -o /usr/local/bin/hyprspace
4. Run sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/hyprspace
5. (Optional) Run sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/hyprspace /usr/bin/hyprspace

The first thing we'll want to do once we've got Hyprspace installed is initialize the configuration for an interface. In this case we'll call the interface on our local machine hs0 (for hypr-space 0) and hs1 on our remote server but yours could be anything you'd like.

hyprspace init hs0

hyprspace init hs1

Now that we've got a set of configurations we'll want to tell the machines about eachother. By default Hyprspace will put the interface configurations in /etc/hyprspace/interface-name.yaml. So for our example we'll run

sudo nano /etc/hyprspace/hs0.yaml

and

sudo nano /etc/hyprspace/hs1.yaml

Now in each config we'll add the other machine's ID as a peer. You can find each machine's ID at the top of their configuration file. Update,

peers: {}

to

peers:
  10.1.1.2:
    id: YOUR-OTHER-PEER-ID

Notice here we'll have to pick one of our machines to be 10.1.1.1 and the other to be 10.1.1.2. Make sure to update the interface's IP address for the machine who needs to change to be 10.1.1.2.

Looking in the interface's configuration you'll also notice a field called discover_key (right above the interface's private key). It doesn't matter which discovery key you pick but it much be the same for all of the nodes in your little cluster so that they can find eachother.

(*Note you can use different discover_keys with different interfaces on the same host to create different isolated networks.)

discover_key: fiftieth-dandelion-wronged-craftwork

Now that we've got our configs all sorted we can start up the two interfaces!

sudo hyprspace up hs0

and

sudo hyprspace up hs1

After a few seconds you should see a the network finish setting up and find your other machine. We can now test the connection by pinging back and forth across the network.

ping 10.1.1.2

Now to stop the interface and clean up the system you can run,

sudo hyprspace down hs0

and,

sudo hyprspace down hs1

Copyright 2021 Alec Scott hi@alecbcs.com

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.