Getting started

From account to first report – in about ten minutes.

This page walks you through it once: create an account, connect a device, read the first report.

1. Create an account #

NODE64 has no passwords. You enter your email address and receive a sign-in link – valid briefly, usable once. That feels unusual but is safer than a password reused somewhere else.

After the first sign-in: set up two-factor authentication (Settings → Security). Otherwise whoever has access to your mailbox has access to your account.

2. Connect a device #

Under Devices in the dashboard you create a device and receive a one-time token. On the system you want to monitor:

curl -sSL https://get.node64.de/install.sh | NODE64_TOKEN=your-token sh

The script downloads the binary for your architecture, verifies the checksum, installs a systemd service and connects the device. It installs nothing that later updates itself.

No systemd? Not a problem – the agent also runs as a container, in an LXC or under OpenWrt. All paths are in Install the agent.

3. Wait for the first run #

After connecting, the agent reports with a small offset and then at your plan's interval (free: hourly). You do not have to wait:

node64-agent once

That runs it once immediately and uploads. You can look at what it sends beforehand:

node64-agent show

That is not a description of the data – it is the data.

4. Read the first report #

Your device appears in the dashboard with a list of findings. On a first run these are typically:

open ports listening on all interfaces,
SSH settings such as root login or password authentication,
missing automatic security updates,
outdated packages with known vulnerabilities.

Open a finding. It tells you why this is a problem, how heavily it weighs and which commands fix it. Where several sensible paths exist, all of them are listed – you decide which one fits your system.

The first run sets reference points. The checksums of your system files are stored as a baseline without producing findings. Only changes after that are reported.

5. Answer two questions #

Your device shows one or two questions NODE64 cannot measure – for example whether the system is reachable from the internet and whether a firewall sits in front of it. The answers shift the rating considerably: the same open SSH port behind a home firewall is a different thing from one on an unprotected server.

Answering takes ten seconds and makes everything else more honest.

Where to go next #

What data is collected
Understanding findings
Alerts, so you do not have to check the dashboard