Moving over
What it takes
Keep Chrome for the web. Move the addresses that are really devices, and they arrive with a route attached.
Half of those tabs are not websites
A router at 192.168.1.1, a NAS, a switch, an IPMI card, a Grafana behind a jump host: those are connections wearing a web interface. In Vandle they open on the same record as the shell for the same machine, and they take that record's route.
Credit where it is due
Chrome is the fastest way to get to anything with an address, its developer tools are the reference implementation, and profiles keep work and private browsing genuinely apart.
What changes
Four things you get that you did not have.
- A route per connection instead of a proxy that belongs to the whole machine or needs an extension.
- The device's web interface on the same record as its shell, so a setting and the log that explains it are one window apart.
- A bookmark folder full of private addresses becomes an inventory, grouped, colour-coded, with the port and the route stored once.
- Nothing to install on the far side and no extension in the path of your credentials.
Side by side
Chrome and Vandle
| Aspect | Chrome | Vandle |
|---|---|---|
| Profiles | Separate identity and cookies | Separate network path per connection |
| Proxy | System-wide, or an extension per tab | A route on the connection, no extension |
| Internal hosts | Bookmarks and remembered ports | Connection records with host, port and route |
| Beside the page | Another tab | The shell and the file surface for the same machine |
And the rest of it
Four more protocols came along
Replacing one tool gets you five. Whatever else that machine speaks is already a row on the same record - and every one of them takes the route you assigned.
Web
Real browsing, properly routed
SSH
A terminal that keeps up
SFTP
Two remote panes, no detour
WebDAV
The other half of file transfer
RDP
Desktops on a native surface
Local
Your own machine, in the same list
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