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thorium-nova app routes docs Troubleshooting using-https.md
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title: Using HTTPS order: 1 #

Using HTTPS #

Thorium Nova has clients connect using HTTP by default. However, browsers like Chrome only allow certain features to be used when the connection is using HTTPS. These include things like WebUSB, WebMIDI, WebRTC, and video and audio capture.

None of these features are currently being used, but eventually we hope to incorporate them into the controls. These might be used for things like:

  • Connecting DMX lights and controlling them from any connected client.
  • Using a MIDI control board as an interface for the controls.
  • Peer-to-peer voice chat for conversations between remote crew members and between the crew and flight director.

Activating HTTPS #

Since Thorium Nova is hosted within the networks of players and not on the open internet, it isn't possible to avoid the security warnings of browsers. However, it is possible to get around them.

You can activate HTTPS by clicking the "Use HTTPS" button on the Thorium Nova main screen. This will redirect your browser to the same page, but using the HTTPS protocol and with the port number incremented by one, which by default is 4445. For example, the new URL will be https://<ip address>:4445.

The first time you do this, you will likely see a warning from the browser about the security of the connection. Different browsers provide different ways to ignore this warning.

Google Chrome showing a security warning

In Google Chrome, you need to click on the page and type thisisunsafe into the window. There isn't a text box to type it into, you just type it on the window. This will cause the page to actually load.

A Note About Security #

If a web browser is giving you a security warning, that means the website does have some kind of security vulnerability. Using HTTPS with Thorium Nova is not an exception.

Of course, Thorium Nova isn't designed to pose a risk to you or your computer. While it is possible Thorium Nova could use it's HTTPS connection to do nefarious things, if you trust the developers of Thorium Nova and the code, you can be reasonably confident that using HTTPS with Thorium Nova is safe. Since it's open-source, you are always welcome to review the code yourself.

If you can't bring yourself to trust Thorium Nova, than it's probably best to not use it with the built-in HTTPS. There are ways you can set up Thorium Nova to work with HTTPS in a secure way. You could create your own security certificate to use with Thorium Nova or you could connect to the Thorium Nova HTTP server using a proxy.