We regularly update the Mesh Agent with many new features, but this week Bryan Roe had quite an impact with a complete suite of new features that are being rolled out in Mesh Agent v193. For people using Meshcentral.com or for many running their own server, the agent update is automatic. The new agent provides added browser compatibility, features and security. It’s all the more impressive when you know that the agent is being released on so many platforms: Windows XP, Windows IT, Linux, OSX… In addition, Bryan Roe also opened up a completely new avenue for developers with new Mesh Agent API Java library. So, let’s break it all down. First, the what is new in Mesh Agent v193:
- Latest WebRTC Microstack. The latest mesh agent has a significant upgrade of its WebRTC stack. The stack had not changed in almost a year and now, thanks for Bryan Roe’s work. The stack has better performance due to larger window size, better packet drop recovery, round trip time calculation and much more. The new stack can also both receive and initiate WebRTC and has TURN support, but the mesh agent does not use these two features yet. The new stack does allow the agent much more flexibility in what we can do and support moving forward.
- Microstack Websocket support. The Mesh Agent tiny web server now has web socket support. In the past we used WebRTC for traffic between the browser and the mesh agent local web site (HTTPS port 16990). This works well, but work only on WebRTC compatible browsers. Now, we moved the local site to use web and get IE and Safari browser compatibility.
- Microstack HTTP digest support. The tiny web server added HTTP digest support and we changed the local web site to use this system for authentication. This technique of authentication is a bit more secure since the browser, not the web application, gets to handle the password.
- OpenSSL 1.0.2 branch. In this version of the agent, we switched to the latest OpenSSL branch. We are now using the latest OpenSSL 1.0.2a and will continue to follow the 1.0.2 branch moving forward. This also makes the agent support DTLS 1.2 which is used for WebRTC. The agent’s uses of the latest OpenSSL fixes for the latest vulnerabilities identified last week.
The new mesh agent is pretty amazing and it’s being releasing a many platforms all at once. It’s not all, Bryan Roe also released a new Java library for interacting with the Mesh Agent to do peer-to-peer messaging and application data storage. The new library comes with two samples applications, one with a GUI and one text-only. It’s all part of the latest Mesh Agent API package, available on info.meshcentral.com. This latest package is specifically targeted at IoT usages, where you can now have peer-to-peer discovery and messaging fully and automatically enabled. This continues the tradition of making Meshcentral an outstanding solution for embedded and IoT usages.
Questions and feedback appreciated,
Ylian Saint-Hilaire
info.meshcentral.com
Meshcentral on Twitter
The latest Mesh Agent v193 has HTTP digest authentication and websocket support. So the local
web site on HTTPS port 16990 is more secure and compatible with more browsers.
The Mesh Agent v193 has many improvements over the previous versions. It’s all the more impressive
when you know it runs on so many platforms: Windows XP, Windows IT, Linux, OSX, Android…
The all new Mesh Agent API Java Library allows developers to quickly build Java applications that make
use of the Mesh Agent’s peer-to-peer capability and application data storage system.
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