1 The DXSpider Installation Manual v1.50
2 Iain Philipps, G0RDI (g0rdi@77hz.com), Ian Maude, G0VGS,
3 (g0vgs@gb7mbc.net) and Charlie Carroll, K1XX,
5 March 2003 revision 0.7
7 A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
8 ______________________________________________________________________
16 1.3 Installing the software
17 1.4 Setting callsigns etc
18 1.5 The client program
19 1.6 Starting up for the first time
21 2. Linux quick installation guide
22 3. Setting up the AX25 Utilities
25 3.3 Installing the RPM's
32 3.10 Getting it all running
35 4.1 Allowing ax25 connects from users
36 4.2 Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)
37 4.3 Allowing telnet connects from users (before version 1.47 or for special purposes)
38 4.4 Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)
39 4.5 Setting up node connects
40 4.6 Connection scripts
41 4.7 Starting the connection
43 4.9 Autostarting the cluster
45 5. Microsoft Windows Installation
50 5.5 Additional packages
53 6. Installing the software
55 6.2 The AGW packet engine
56 6.3 Setting up the initial user files
57 6.4 Connecting to other clusters
59 7. General Information
63 ______________________________________________________________________
67 \e[1m1. Linux Installation
\e[0m
69 \e[1m1.1. Introduction
\e[0m
71 This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.50 on a RedHat
72 Linux Distribution. Wherever possible I will try to include
73 differences for other distributions.
76 I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands. You
77 should know how to use
\e[4mtar
\e[24m and how to edit files using your favourite
81 The crucial ingredient for all of this is Perl. Earlier versions of
82 Spider required perl 5.004, however it is now
\e[4mSTRONGLY
\e[24m recommended
83 that you use at least version 5.6.1 as this is the version being used
84 in the development of Spider.
87 In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the
88 following modules from http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/ , please
89 note however that with later versions of perl, some of these modules
90 may be included with the distribution. Get the modules anyway and try
91 to install as below. If they complain, they are probably already a
92 part of your perl distribution.
96 o Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz
\e[4mthis
\e[24m
\e[4mis
\e[24m
\e[4mincluded
\e[24m
\e[4min
\e[24m
\e[4mperl
\e[24m
\e[4m5.6.1
\e[24m
\e[4mand
\e[24m
\e[4mabove
\e[0m
98 o TimeDate-2.27.tar.gz
100 o IO-1.20.tar.gz (
\e[4mfor
\e[24m
\e[4mperl
\e[24m
\e[4m5.00403
\e[24m
\e[4mand
\e[24m
\e[4mlower
\e[24m)
102 o Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz
104 o Curses-1.08a.tar.gz
106 o Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz (
\e[4mfor
\e[24m
\e[4mperl
\e[24m
\e[4mversions
\e[24m
\e[4mlower
\e[24m
\e[4mthan
\e[24m
\e[4m5.8
\e[24m )
108 o Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz
112 On most modern distributions most (if not all) the modules you will
113 need are either included or can be loaded automatically. Please
114 consult your distro's instructions for loading new programs and look
115 for modules that usually start with the string "perl-". For instance:-
118 o Mandrake: urpmi perl-TimeDate perl-Digest-SHA1 perl-Curses perl-
121 o Redhat/Fedora: up2date perl-TimeDate perl-Digest-SHA1 perl-Curses
126 o Debian: use apt-get
129 Some distros are now packaging perl-DB_File separately as well, so you
130 may have to add that to the list above.
133 Copy the CPAN modules listed above to a convenient place on your
134 computer. One good place would be /usr/local/packages, and the
135 instructions which follow will assume that that's where you have put
139 Log in as 'root', and make sure you're at '/root' before you continue.
140 Here are exactly the commands you must issue next: -
143 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/TimeDate-2.27.tar.gz
150 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz
157 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Curses-1.08a.tar.gz
164 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz
165 # cd Time-HiRes-01.20
171 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz
172 # cd Digest-SHA1-2.01
180 Only if you need to do these because your perl is old:-
185 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/IO-1.20.tar.gz
189 # make install UNINST=1
192 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz
193 # cd Data-Dumper-2.101
202 Do not fall into the trap of thinking they're all the same, just
203 because they nearly are! Pay particular attention to the instructions
204 of
\e[4mIO
\e[24m, above.
208 \e[1m1.2. Preparation
\e[0m
210 I will assume that you have already downloaded the latest tarball of
211 the DXSpider software and are ready to install it. I am assuming
212 version 1.50 for this section but of course you would use the latest
216 Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under.
\e[4mUNDER
\e[24m
\e[4mNO
\e[0m
217 \e[4mCIRCUMSTANCES
\e[24m
\e[4mUSE
\e[24m
\e[4mROOT
\e[24m
\e[4mAS
\e[24m
\e[4mTHIS
\e[24m
\e[4mUSER!
\e[24m. I am going to use the name
218 \e[4msysop
\e[24m. You can call it anything you wish. Depending on your security
219 requirements you may wish to use an existing user, however this is
228 For SuSE distributions, the command would be ..
236 Now set a password for the user ...
242 # Retype new UNIX password:
243 passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
245 \e[1m1.3. Installing the software
\e[0m
247 Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group
248 permissions. Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.
253 # tar xvfz spider-1.50.tar.gz
254 # ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
255 # groupadd -g 251 spider (or another number)
259 If you do not have the command
\e[4mgroupadd
\e[24m available to you simply add a
260 line in /etc/group by hand.
264 # vi /etc/group (or your favorite editor)
268 You also need to add some others to the group, including your own
269 callsign (this will be used as an alias) and root. The finished line
270 in /etc/group should look something like this
272 spider:x:251:sysop,g0vgs,root
275 The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree
280 # chown -R sysop.spider spider
281 # find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
282 # find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;
286 This last step allows various users of the group
\e[4mspider
\e[24m to have write
287 access to all the directories. This is not really needed just yet but
288 will be useful when web interfaces start to appear.
291 Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and
292 netrom_call programs. Check where they are with the
\e[4mlocate
\e[24m command
293 and alter the permissions with the
\e[4mchmod
\e[24m command like this ..
297 # chown root ax25_call netrom_call
298 # chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call
302 \e[1m1.4. Setting callsigns etc
\e[0m
304 Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier. In my case
305 that user is called
\e[4msysop
\e[24m. Once logged in, issue the following
313 $ cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm
315 $ vi DXVars.pm (or your favourite editor)
319 Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster
320 callsign, sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own
329 This is the call sign of your cluster. Here in the UK we have
330 separate callsigns for our cluster nodes. If you can't use a different
331 callsign I suggest you use an SSID of '-2' for the node callsign
340 This is the sysop user callsign, normally your own.
343 \e[1mPLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS
\e[0m
346 Note that this a perl file which will be parsed and executed as part
347 of the cluster. If you get it wrong then perl will complain when you
348 start the cluster process. It is important only to alter the text of
349 any section. Some of the lines look a little odd. Take this line for
352 $myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";
355 There appears to be an extra slash in there. However this has to be
356 there for the file to work so leave it in.
359 DON'T alter any file in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every
360 release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or
361 /spider/local_cmd will automagically be used in preference to the ones
362 in /spider/perl EVEN while the cluster is running!
365 Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....
373 Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with
382 \e[1m1.5. The client program
\e[0m
384 In earlier versions of Spider, all the processes were Perl scripts.
385 This was fine but with a lot of users your computer memory would soon
386 be used up. To combat this a new client was written in "C". This
387 client only works for
\e[4mincoming
\e[24m connects at the moment. Before you can
388 use it though it has to be "made". CD to /spider/src and type
\e[4mmake
\e[24m.
389 You should see the output on your screen and hopefully now have a
390 small C program called
\e[4mclient
\e[24m. Leave it in this directory.
394 \e[1m1.6. Starting up for the first time
\e[0m
396 We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well
397 or not! It should look something like this ...
402 DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.50
403 Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
405 loading band data ...
406 loading user file system ...
407 starting listener ...
408 reading existing message headers
410 orft we jolly well go ...
414 If all is well then login on another term or console as
\e[4msysop
\e[24m and cd
415 to /spider/src. Now issue the following command ...
422 This should log you into the cluster as the sysop under the alias
423 callsign we set earlier. In this case the callsign is G0VGS. The
424 cluster callsign is set in the DXVars.pm file in /spider/local. In
425 this case we will assume that this was set as GB7MBC. You should
426 therefore see this when you login ....
430 G0VGS de GB7MBC 19-Nov-1999 2150Z >
434 If you do, congratulations! If not, look over the instructions again,
435 you have probably missed something out. You can shut spider down
436 again with the command ....
444 and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.
448 \e[1m2. Linux quick installation guide
\e[0m
450 This section is designed for experienced Spider sysops who want to
451 install Spider from scratch. It is simply a check list of things that
452 need to be done without any explanations. The name in brackets at the
453 end of each line is the user that should be doing that process.
458 o Get the additional CPAN modules and install them (root)
460 o Create the "sysop" user and set a password (root)
462 o Put the Spider tarball in sysop and untar it (root)
464 o ln -s sysop/spider /spider (root)
466 o groupadd -g 251 spider (root)
468 o Add any more users you need to the group entry in /etc/group (root)
470 o Set the permissions on the spider tree (root)
472 o Fix permissions on ax25_call and netrom_call (root)
474 o Login as the sysop user
476 o cd to /spider (sysop)
478 o mkdir local (sysop)
480 o mkdir local_cmd (sysop)
482 o cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm (sysop)
484 o cd to /spider/local and edit DXVars to set your details (sysop)
488 o ./create_sysop.pl (sysop)
490 o ./cluster.pl (sysop)
493 Spider should now be running and you should be able to login using the
499 o Enter the correct line in ax25d.conf (root)
501 o Enter the correct line in /etc/services (root)
503 o Enter the correct line in /etc/inetd.conf (root)
505 o killall -HUP inetd (root)
508 Spider should now be able to accept logins via telnet, netrom and
514 o Start the cluster (sysop)
516 o set/node and type for links (sysop)
518 o Write any connect scripts (sysop)
520 o Edit /spider/crontab as required (sysop)
522 o Edit any other files as necessary (sysop)
524 o Set filters, hops and forwarding files (sysop)
528 o Enter the correct line in /etc/inittab (root)
531 \e[1m3. Setting up the AX25 Utilities
\e[0m
533 The aim of this section is not to fully cover the installation and
534 configuration of all the possible ax25 modules. I will attempt to
535 cover a simple installation and configure 2 serial ports as if they
536 had TNC's on them. I will also show what additional configuration the
537 DXSpider program requires.
540 Please bear in mind that I am basing this section on a RedHat 7.1
541 distribution, if you are using SuSe or any other distibution then your
542 mileage may vary. I will be happy to make any changes and additions
543 if you email me any errors or distribution specific requirements.
546 You would probably benefit from reading the AX25-HOWTO which is much
547 more comprehensive and an interesting configuration program is also
548 available called ax25-config which may help you to configure things.
550 The following files are extracts from the working files at GB7MBC and
551 are in daily use. However, there are many ways that you can configure
552 the ax25 utils, this is just the one I use, it does not mean it is
553 necessarily the best or for that matter, the right way!
556 \e[1m3.1. Getting Started
\e[0m
558 There are 2 things you need to do initially. You need to get the 3
559 files required for the ax25 installation and you need to make some
560 changes to the kernel configuration.
563 The first thing is to get the versions of the ax25 utils that match
564 your kernel. You may also wish to get a node package of some kind.
565 There are 2 main node packages in use of which I shall keep to the
566 original by Tomi Manninen, OH2BNS as this is included in the ax25 rpms
567 as standard. The other is AWZNode by IZ5AWZ.
570 NB: The AX25 stuff in 2.4 kernels appears to have been broken until
571 2.4.18. I strongly suggest you get at least this kernel.
574 For 2.4 kernels you need these files...
578 o libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm
580 o ax25-tools-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm
582 o ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm
585 \e[1m3.2. The kernel
\e[0m
587 First you need to add Amateur Radio Support to your kernel. This is a
588 main menu item and should be easily found. Within this header you
589 will find lots of options. For our purposes you need to enable
590 Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 Protocol, NET/ROM and the Serial Port KISS
591 Driver. For the purposes of this document I will work under the
592 assumption that you include them in the kernel fully, ie not as
593 modules. If you need to look at compiling your kernel for ax25 more
594 fully, I would refer to the excellent AX25-HOWTO
597 I should say at this stage that NET/ROM is not mandatory. If you do
598 not use it simply ignore any instruction concerning it.
601 Now recompile your kernel in the normal way and reboot your system.
604 \e[1m3.3. Installing the RPM's
\e[0m
606 Now install the RPM's you downloaded, libax25 first, then ax25-tools,
611 rpm -ivh libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm
612 rpm -ivh ax25-tool-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm
613 rpm -ivh ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm
616 \e[1m3.4. Configuration
\e[0m
618 You will find the configuration files in /etc/ax25. These consist of
633 These are the main files. You will find other files but they do not
634 have any use unless you are wanting to use that particular protocol,
635 Rose or axip for example.
638 NOTE:- before we start it is important to realise that every interface
639 requires a different SSID. You should be able to follow this in the
643 \e[1m3.5. axports
\e[0m
645 This file sets up the ax25 ports you want to use. An example is below
646 for a standard TNC2 ...
650 #portname callsign baudrate paclen window description
651 2m gb7mbc-2 19200 256 2 2m port on 144.900MHz
652 4m gb7mbc-4 19200 256 2 4m port on 70.325MHz
656 Note that the portnames have to be unique.
659 The file headings are as follows ...
662 portname - The name you will refer to the port by
663 callsign - The ax25 callsign you want to assign to the port
664 baudrate - The speed you communicate between TNC and computer
665 paclen - The maximum packet length for ax25 connections
666 window - The ax25 window parameter. This is like 'maxframe'
667 description - A textual description of the port
671 \e[1m3.6. nrports
\e[0m
673 This file sets up the netrom ports you want to use. An example is
674 below and includes a port for both cluster and node. You will see why
675 we need 2 ports later ...
679 #portname callsign alias paclen description
680 netrom gb7mbc-8 BARE 236 Node Netrom Port
681 netrom2 gb7mbc-9 MBCDX 236 Cluster Netrom Port
685 Note that the portnames have to be unique.
688 The file headings are as follows ...
691 portname - The name you will refer to the port by
692 callsign - This is the callsign that NET/ROM traffic from this
694 alias - The NET/ROM alias this port will be assigned
695 paclen - The maximum size of NET/ROM frames transmitted
696 description - A textual description of the port
700 \e[1m3.7. nrbroadcast
\e[0m
702 This file sets up the netrom broadcast qualities. An example is below
707 #axport min_obs def_qual worst_qual verbose
712 The file headings are as follows ...
715 axport - The port name in axports that you wish to broadcast
717 min_obs - The minimum obsolescence value for the port
718 def_qual - The default quality for the port
719 worst_qual - The worst quality for the port. Any routes under
720 this quality will be ignored
721 verbose - This flag determines whether you will only broadcast
722 your own node (0) or all known nodes (1)
726 \e[1m3.8. ax25d.conf
\e[0m
728 This file controls any incoming ax25 and NET/ROM connections and
729 steers them to the relevant program. There are lots of configuration
730 options you can set here, however they are well covered in the
731 AX25-HOWTO. For our purposes I will show a typical set of parameters.
732 An example is below ...
737 parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
739 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
742 parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
744 default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
747 parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
749 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
752 parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
754 default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
757 parameters 1 10 * * * 3 *
759 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
762 parameters 1 10 * * * 3 *
764 default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
768 There are a few things to take note of here. Firstly, all ax25
769 sections are wrapped in [ ] and all NET/ROM sections are wrapped in <
770 >. Secondly you should be able to see that anyone who forgets to set
771 their callsign in a TNC and tries to connect with the standard NOCALL
772 set into their TNC will not connect, the 'L' means 'lockout'. Lastly
773 and importantly, notice the order of the sections. They are all done
777 You should be able to see that the normal line for access to the
778 cluster is like this ..
782 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
786 however, if you wish your users to be able to use SSID's on their
791 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %s ax25
795 For most purposes this is not desirable. The only time you probably
796 will need this is when you need to allow other cluster nodes that are
797 using SSID's in. In this case it would probably be better to use the
798 first example and then add a specific line for that node like this:
802 GB7DJK-2 * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client gb7djk-2 ax25
803 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
807 \e[1m3.9. node.conf
\e[0m
809 For those of you that wish to run the node, you need to set up the
810 node.conf file. There are a couple of additional files, node.perms is
811 very similar to the way ftp permissions are set up in NOS systems and
812 node.motd is the message anyone logging into the node will get. The
813 node.conf file sets all the parameters of the node as you would
814 expect. An example is below ...
818 # /etc/ax25/node.conf - LinuxNode configuration file
822 # Idle timeout (seconds).
826 # Timeout when gatewaying (seconds).
830 # Visible hostname. Will be shown at telnet login.
832 HostName gb7mbc.ampr.org
840 #LocalNet 44.139.8.48/32
842 # Command aliases. See node.conf(5) for the meaning of the uppercase
843 # letters in the name of the alias.
845 ##Alias CAllbook 'telnet %{2:44.17.0.53} 1235 %1 s'
846 #Alias CONVers 'telnet %{2:oh2ti} 3600 "/n %u %{1:139}\n/w *"'
847 #Alias CLuster 'c hkiclh'
848 Alias CONV "telnet lurpac 3600"
849 Alias BBS "c 70cm gb7crv"
850 Alias DXC "telnet localhost 9000"
851 Alias MUD "telnet homer 4000"
852 ##Alias TEMP "finger temp@mary.g6phf"
853 ##Alias TNOS "c ip1 gb7mbc-5"
854 ##Alias TUtor "telnet gb7mbc 3599"
860 # External commands. See node.conf(5) for the meaning of the uppercase
861 # letters in the name of the extcmd.
863 # Flags: 1 Run command through pipe
866 #ExtCmd TPM 3 nobody /usr/bin/finger finger tpm
867 #ExtCmd ECho 1 nobody /bin/echo echo \%U \%u \%S \%s \%P \%p \%R \%r \%T \%t \%\% \%0 \%{1:foobar} \%{2} \%3 \%4 \%5
871 NodeId "\nBARE:GB7MBC-1"
872 #NodeId \033[01;31m***\033[0m
874 # Netrom port name. This port is used for outgoing netrom connects.
882 # The escape character (CTRL-T)
886 # Resolve ip numbers to addresses?
893 #NodePrompt "%s@%h \%i> "
894 NodePrompt "\nBARE:GB7MBC-1 \%i > "
895 #NodePrompt "\a\033[36m%U\033[0m de \033[01;32m#LNODE\033[0m:\033[01;33mOH2BNS-10\033[0m> "
899 This should be fairly obvious I hope.
902 \e[1m3.10. Getting it all running
\e[0m
904 Ok, now we have all the relevant files configured, the next step is to
908 The first thing to do is attach the TNC's. Your TNC's should be in
909 KISS mode and connected to the serial ports involved.
912 You now use the 'kissattach' command to connect the TNC's to the
917 kissattach /dev/ttyS0 2m 44.131.96.199
918 kissattach /dev/ttyS1 4m 44.131.96.199
922 Assuming that 44.131.96.199 is your IP address. The devices ttyS0 and
923 ttyS1 are com1 and com2 respectively. Now we can set some parameters
928 kissparms -p 2m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
929 kissparms -p 4m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
933 The command 'man kissparms' will give you the explanation of the
937 Now we need to attach the NET/ROM ports in the same way ...
944 All of the above can be put in a file and called from
945 /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Put all the above commands in a file called
946 rc.ax25 and put a line in rc.local to call it.
949 Now you can start the daemons that set everything in motion ...
958 All should now be running. All that remains is to get the node
959 working for telnet connections. If nothing else, this will allow you
960 to connect to the node yourself to check on connection status etc.
961 There are 2 files that need to be edited.
964 First edit /etc/services and add
968 node 3000/tcp #OH2BNS's Node Software
972 Assuming you want it to run on port 3000
975 Now cd /etc/xinetd.d and edit a new file called node. It should look
981 # unencrypted username/password pairs for authentication.
987 server = /usr/sbin/node
988 log_on_failure += USERID
994 You now need to restart the xinetd daemon. First find out what the
1003 You will get a reply something like this ...
1007 root 592 0.0 0.1 2256 620 ? S Feb07 0:00 xinetd -stayalive -reuse -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid
1011 The PID or Process ID is 592 in this case so now we can issue the
1020 All should now be operational and you should be able to log into the
1021 node by using a telnet session to the relevant port, like so ...
1025 telnet localhost 3000
1029 If that works, you are just about there. you should (assuming you
1030 have radios connected to the TNC's) be able to connect out to other
1031 stations and receive incoming ax25 and netrom connections.
1034 \e[1m4. Configuration
\e[0m
1036 \e[1m4.1. Allowing ax25 connects from users
\e[0m
1038 This is dealt with in the previous section
1041 \e[1m4.2. Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)
\e[0m
1043 >From version 1.47 you can choose to allow the perl cluster.pl program
1044 to allow connections directly (i.e. not via the /spider/src/client
1045 interface program). If you are using Windows then this is the only
1046 method available of allowing incoming telnet connections.
1049 to make the change happen...
1052 Having done that, you need to copy the file
\e[4m/spider/perl/Listeners.pm
\e[0m
1053 to
\e[4m/spider/local
\e[24m and then edit it. You will need to uncomment the line
1054 containing "0.0.0.0" and select the correct port to listen on.
1056 It comes out of the box looking something like:-
1061 # ["0.0.0.0", 7300],
1066 Change it so that it looks like this:-
1076 Later versions have more comments in the Listeners.pm file that are
1077 designed to help you remove the correct '#' character.
1080 As standard, the listener will listen on all interfaces
1081 simultaneously. If you require more control than this, you can
1082 specify each interface individually:-
1087 ["gb7baa.dxcluster.net", 7300],
1088 ["44.131.16.2", 6300],
1093 This will only be successful if the IP addresses on each interface are
1094 static. If you are using some kind of dynamic IP addressing then the
1095 'default' method is the only one that will work.
1098 Restart the cluster.pl program to enable the listener.
1101 One important difference with the internal listener is that no echoing
1102 is done by the cluster program. Users will need to set 'local-echo' on
1103 in their telnet clients if it isn't set automatically (as per the
1104 standards). Needless to say this will probably only apply to Windows
1108 \e[1m4.3. Allowing telnet connects from users (before version 1.47 or for
\e[0m
1109 \e[1mspecial purposes)
\e[0m
1112 >From version 1.47 there is a new (more efficient) way of doing this
1113 (see previous section) but, if you prefer, the method of doing it
1114 described here will continue to work just fine.
1117 Allowing telnet connections is quite simple. Firstly you need to add
1118 a line in /etc/services to allow connections to a port number, like
1121 spdlogin 8000/tcp # spider anonymous login port
1125 Then add a line in /etc/inetd.conf like this ....
1129 spdlogin stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client login telnet
1133 Once this is done, you need to restart inetd like this ....
1141 Now login as
\e[4msysop
\e[24m and cd spider/src. You can test that spider is
1142 accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command ....
1146 ./client login telnet
1150 You should get a login prompt and on issuing a callsign, you will be
1151 given access to the cluster. Note, you will not get a password login.
1152 There seems no good reason for a password prompt to be given so it is
1156 Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console ....
1160 telnet localhost 8000
1164 You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before.
1168 \e[1m4.4. Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)
\e[0m
1170 AGW Engine is a Windows based ax25 stack. You can connect to an AGW
1171 engine from Linux as well as Windows based machines.
1174 In order to enable access to an AGW Engine you need to copy
1175 \e[4m/spider/perl/AGWConnect.pm
\e[24m to
\e[4m/spider/local
\e[24m and edit it. Specifically
1179 o set $login and $passwd to the values set up in your AGW
1180 installation. If you haven't set any there, then you should not
1183 o You can connect to a remote AGW engine (ie on some other machine)
1184 by changing $addr and $port appropriately.
1186 o Restart the cluster.pl program
1190 \e[1m4.5. Setting up node connects
\e[0m
1192 In order to allow cluster node connections, spider needs to know that
1193 the connecting callsign is a cluster node. This is the case whether
1194 the connect is incoming or outgoing. In spider this is a simple task
1195 and can be done in runtime.
1198 Later versions of Spider can distinguish different software and treat
1199 them differently. For example, the WCY beacon cannot be handles by
1200 AK1A type nodes as AK1A does not know what to do with PC73. There are
1201 4 different types of node at present and although they may not have
1202 any major differences at the moment, it allows for compatibility. The
1207 set/node (AK1A type)
1214 For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is
1218 Start up the cluster as you did before and login as the sysop with
1219 client. The cluster node I am wanting to make a connection to is
1220 GB7BAA but you would obviously use whatever callsign you required. At
1229 The case does not matter as long as you have a version of DXSpider
1230 later than 1.33. Earlier versions required the callsign to be in
1234 That is now set, it is as simple as that. To prove it, login on yet
1235 another console as sysop, cd to spider/src and issue the command ...
1238 ./client gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
1242 You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ...
1251 If the callsign you just set up as a cluster node is for an incoming
1252 connect, this is all that needs to be done. If the connection is to
1253 be outgoing then a connection script needs to be written.
1256 Sometimes you make a mistake... Honest, it does happen. If you want
1257 to make a node back to being a normal user, regardless of what type it
1266 \e[1m4.6. Connection scripts
\e[0m
1268 Because DXSpider operates under Linux, connections can be made using
1269 just about any protocol; AX25, NETRom, tcp/ip, ROSE etc are all
1270 possible examples. Connect scripts live in the /spider/connect
1271 directory and are simple ascii files. Writing a script for
1272 connections is therefore relatively simple.
1275 The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following
1276 keywords or symbols:-
1280 \e[1m#
\e[22mAll lines starting with a # are ignored, as are completely blank
1285 timeout followed by a number is the number of seconds to wait
1286 for a command to complete. If there is no timeout specified in
1287 the script then the default is 60 seconds.
1291 abort is a regular expression containing one or more strings to
1292 look for to abort a connection. This is a perl regular
1293 expression and is executed ignoring case.
1297 connect followed by ax25, agw (for Windows users) or telnet and
1298 some type dependent information. In the case of a telnet
1299 connection, there can be up to two parameters. The first is the
1300 ip address or hostname of the computer you wish to connect to
1301 and the second is the port number you want to use (this can be
1302 left out if it is a normal telnet session). In the case of an
1303 ax25 session then this would normally be a call to ax25_call or
1304 netrom_call as in the example above. It is your responsibility
1305 to get your node and other ax25 parameters to work before going
1309 \e[1m'
\e[22m' is the delimiting character for a word or phrase of an
1310 expect/send line in a chat type script. The words/phrases
1311 normally come in pairs, either can be empty. Each line reads
1312 input from the connection until it sees the string (or perl
1313 regular expression) contained in the left hand string. If the
1314 left hand string is empty then it doesn't read or wait for
1315 anything. The comparison is done ignoring case. When the left
1316 hand string has found what it is looking for (if it is) then the
1317 right hand string is sent to the connection. This process is
1318 repeated for every line of chat script.
1322 client starts the connection, put the arguments you would want
1323 here if you were starting the client program manually. You only
1324 need this if the script has a different name to the callsign you
1325 are trying to connect to (i.e. you have a script called other
1326 which actually connects to GB7DJK-1 [instead of a script called
1330 There are many possible ways to configure the script but here are
1331 three examples, one for a NETRom/AX25 connect, one for AGW engines and
1337 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
1338 # don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
1339 connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
1340 # you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
1346 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
1347 # this does exactly the same as the previous example
1348 # the '1' is the AGW port number to connect thru for g1tlh
1350 # you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
1356 connect telnet dirkl.tobit.co.uk
1357 # tell GB7DJK-1 that it is connected to GB7DJK
1358 # you can leave this out if you call this script 'gb7djk'
1359 client gb7djk telnet
1363 Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the
1364 other end. You will find other examples in the /spider/examples
1368 \e[1m4.7. Starting the connection
\e[0m
1370 You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login,
1371 by typing in the word
\e[4mconnect
\e[24m followed by a script name like this ....
1375 G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2041Z >connect gb7djk-1
1376 connection to GB7DJK-1 started
1377 G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
1381 This will start a connection using the script called
\e[4mgb7djk-1
\e[24m. You
1382 can follow the connection by watching the term or console from where
1383 you started
\e[4mcluster.pl
\e[24m. From version 1.47 onwards, you will need to
1384 set/debug connect first. You should see something like this ...
1388 <- D G1TLH connect gb7djk-1
1389 -> D G1TLH connection to GB7DJK-1 started
1390 -> D G1TLH G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2046Z >
1392 CONNECT sort: telnet command: dirkl.tobit.co.uk
1393 CHAT "login" -> "gb7djk"
1395 Red Hat Linux release 5.1 (Manhattan)
1396 Kernel 2.0.35 on an i586
1400 CHAT "word" -> "gb7djk"
1402 received "Password: "
1404 Connected to GB7DJK-1, starting normal protocol
1405 <- O GB7DJK-1 telnet
1407 GB7DJK-1 channel func state 0 -> init
1409 <- D GB7DJK-1 Last login: Sun Dec 13 17:59:56 from dirk1
1410 <- D GB7DJK-1 PC38^GB7DJK-1^~
1411 <- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users Max users 0 Uptime
1417 With later versions of Spider there is a set/login command for users.
1418 This tells them when a user or node logs in or out. If you do not add
1419 a line to your scripts after the final line (or before the client line
1420 which should always be last if needed) then the login/logout
1421 information will be sent to users
\e[4mbefore
\e[24m the login actually completes.
1422 This means if a node is unreachable, it will continue sending logins
1423 and logouts to users even though it is not actually connecting. To
1424 avoid this use the following line ...
1428 In a script, this might look like ...
1433 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
1434 connect telnet mary 3000
1438 \e[1m4.8. Telnet echo
\e[0m
1440 Cluster links in particular suffer greatly from the presence of telnet
1441 echo. This is caused by the telnet negotiation itself and can create
1442 at worst severe loops. At best it creates unnecessary bandwidth and
1443 large logfiles! There are things that can be done to limit this
1444 problem but will not always work dependent on the route taken to
1448 Telnet echo itself should only be a problem if the connection is being
1449 made to the telnet port (23). This port uses special rules that
1450 include echo negotiation. If the connection is to a different port,
1451 such as 7300, this negotiation does not happen and therefore no echo
1455 Sometimes it is not possible to make a direct connection to another
1456 node and this can cause problems. There is a way of trying to
1457 suppress the telnet echo but this will not always work, unfortunately
1458 it is difficult to be more specific. Here is an example of what I
1464 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
1465 connect telnet mary.lancs.ac.uk
1469 So, the first connection is made by Spider. This is fine as Spider
1470 uses the Net_Telnet script from within perl. This actually uses TCP
1471 rather than TELNET so no negotiation will be done on the first
1472 connection. Once connected to mary.lancs.ac.uk, the command is sent
1473 to suppress echo. Now a telnet is made to a cluster node that is
1474 accepting connections on port 23. The problem with this link is that
1475 the negotiation is made by the remote machine, therefore you have no
1476 control over it. The chances are that this link will create echo and
1477 there will be no way you can stop it.
1481 \e[1m4.9. Autostarting the cluster
\e[0m
1483 Ok, you should now have DXSpider running nicely and allowing connects
1484 by cluster nodes or users. However, it has to be shutdown and
1485 restarted manually. It would be much easier to have it start
1489 This is not only a way to start the cluster automatically, it also
1490 works as a watchdog, checking the sanity of DXSpider and respawning it
1491 should it crash for any reason. Before doing the following, shutdown
1492 the cluster as you did earlier.
1495 Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite
1496 editor. Add the following lines to the file near the end ...
1500 ##Start DXSpider on bootup and respawn it should it crash
1501 DX:3:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
1505 This line works fine for RedHat distributions. It is also fine for
1506 SuSE up to 7.0. From SuSE 7.1 you need to add runlevels 2 and 5 like
1511 DX:235:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
1515 The line required for Slackware distributions is slightly different.
1516 My thanks to Aurelio, PA3EZL for this information.
1520 DX:23:respawn:/bin/su - sysop -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" >/dev/tty7
1524 This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and
1525 restart it should it crash for any reason.
1528 NB: It should be noted that /dev/tty7 is only an example. Some SuSE
1529 systems will only accept upto tty6. It really does not matter which
1534 As root type the command
\e[4mtelinit
\e[24m
\e[4mq
\e[24m. DXSpider should start up
1535 immediately. You will see the output on tty7 and if you login as
1536 \e[4msysop
\e[24m you should find everything running nicely.
1539 \e[1m5. Microsoft Windows Installation
\e[0m
1541 \e[1m5.1. Introduction
\e[0m
1543 \e[1mIMPORTANT:
\e[0m
1545 What you'll be left with once you've followed these instructions is
1546 (hopefully) a working DX Spider v1.50 system that is capable of
1547 accepting or originating "internet" connections, plus inbound and
1548 outbound AX.25 and TCP/IP radio connections.
1550 On the other hand, you may have an enquiring mind, or better yet, may
1551 be looking for a useful way of connecting your current (perhaps) AK1A
1552 cluster "to the internet" via some networking mechanism (BPQEther,
1553 etc) or other. I won't be producing instructions for the latter case,
1554 because I don't have an AK1A to play with. But someone might ...
1556 Whatever, this document is intended to get you started with DX Spider
1557 in a Microsoft Windows (TM) environment. It's not intended to teach
1558 you anything other than how to perform a minimum configuration of a DX
1559 Spider installation and have it able to connect across "the internet"
1560 to other DX Clusters, while accepting inbound TELNET and radio
1564 \e[1m5.2. The requirements
\e[0m
1566 The very first things you're going to need are (in order of
1570 o A cup of good, strong tea
1572 o A supported Windows platform with an internet connection so you can
1573 download the necessary software bits and bobs directly to it. There
1574 are other ways, but this is preferable.
1576 o Another cup of good, strong tea
1578 o If all goes according to plan, about an hour to spare
1580 o Plenty of good, strong tea
1583 \e[1m5.3. The system
\e[0m
1585 The platform I used to generate these instructions was a "vanilla"
1586 Microsoft Windows Me 4.90.3000 system, with a 700MHz AMD Athlon
1587 processor and 96 Mb memory. I've also personally verified that it runs
1588 on my laptop (Pentium 266MHz, 32 Mb memory, Windows 98 SE v4.10.2222
1589 A) and a computer that I assembled from a random pile of junk (AMD
1590 K6-2 333MHz, 64 Mb memory, Windows 98 v4.10.1998). As a result, I have
1591 reason to believe that what I'm about to describe will perform equally
1592 on any 32-bit MS Windows environment with 32 Mb of memory.
1594 Because of the changes that have recently been made to the core
1595 "cluster.pl" module and the introduction of a very lightweight
1596 "winclient.pl", I have a sneaking suspicion that this will now run on
1597 any platform that has reasonably complete support for Perl. Is there
1598 someone out there with both an enquiring mind and (say) a Macintosh,
1600 Please bear in mind, though, that my instructions relate solely to how
1601 to get this going under a Microsoft Windows environment, and I have
1602 zero intention of trying to make them say otherwise.
1607 Install your chosen Perl environment. Unless you have a very good
1608 reason for not doing so, I strongly suggest that you use ActivePerl
1609 v5.6. For my testing & development, I used build 623. (A recent
1610 installation used the newer ActivePerl v5.6.1, build 633 without any
1611 noticable difficulty.) You can get this from:
1612 http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html
1614 The link takes you to an initial page of System Requirements and
1615 Software Prerequisites. If you do not have it already installed, you
1616 can download and install the Windows Installer 2.0 for a Win98
1617 installation. Be forewarned, you will have to reboot your PC at the
1618 completion of the installer's installation.
1620 If you already have the installer on your PC, simply click on the Next
1621 arrow at the bottom of the page. Two clicks will finally get you to
1622 the actual download page. The MSI version of Build 633 is now 8.6MB
1623 in size, so make that a big cup of tea or coffee if you're on a slow
1626 During installation, please ensure that you do choose the options to
1627 "Add Perl to the PATH environment variable" and "Create Perl file
1628 extension association"; it will make your life so much easier. Once
1629 the installation is finished, be sure to reboot your PC. You probably
1630 won't be told anywhere else that this needs to be done now, but it
1633 Once you've rebooted, open a "DOS box" (Start > Run > command might do
1634 it, if you can't find it elsewhere) and from wherever it lands, type
1635 PERL -v <ENTER> (it's better if that's a lower-case be rewarded with
1636 some interesting information about your Perl installation. If you're
1637 not, you must go back to the beginning and discover what went wrong
1638 and fix it. It's pointless to proceed unless this simple check is
1639 passed. Assuming it did work, you may now move on.
1642 \e[1m5.5. Additional packages
\e[0m
1644 Some extensions ("packages") need to be added to the base Perl
1645 distribution, and we'll do this next. If you're using the Perl I
1646 recommended, and don't know any better for yourself, then just blindly
1647 following these instructions will work just fine. If that didn't
1648 describe you, then you're on your own.
1650 Visit the following URL:
1652 http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/6xx-builds-only/
1654 and download the following files:-
1666 If this is a new installation, now would also be a good time to
1667 install a copy of WinZip on your PC. Make yourself a convenient
1668 directory to unpack all of these zip files into (I put mine in
1669 "D:\ppm>" but "C:\ppm" works just as well.) and do the following (the
1670 bits you type in are blue ). You can upzip all of the files into the
1671 same directory. When prompted, simply overwrite the Readme file from
1672 each zip package. Note that where these files land will be directly
1673 related to where you chose to install your ActivePerl (mine, as you
1674 can probably guess from what follows, went into "D:\Perl"):-
1678 D:\ppm>ppm install Data-Dumper.ppd
1679 Installing package 'Data-Dumper.ppd'
1680 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.bs
1681 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.dll
1682 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.exp
1683 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.lib
1684 Installing D:\Perl\html\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.html
1685 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\Data\Dumper\Dumper.pm
1686 Writing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.packlist
1691 I'm not going to bother you with exhaustive details of the rest of
1692 them, but suffice it to say you need to:
1696 ppm install DB_File.ppd
1697 ppm install Net-Telnet.ppd
1698 ppm install TimeDate.ppd
1699 ppm install Time-HiRes.ppd
1703 If all that seemed to work OK, time to move along. Before anyone who
1704 is familiar with PPM tells me that we didn't need to download and keep
1705 those files locally, I knew that. I also knew that PPM is sometimes
1706 awkward to configure via firewalls, and that sometimes the
1707 repositories don't always work the way we'd hope. I do it that way
1708 because it suits me.
1711 \e[1m5.6. Getting Spider
\e[0m
1713 Get the current version of the DX Spider distribution. This needs to
1714 be v1.50 or later. You've got two ways (currently) of getting this;
1715 either get a CVS update from sourceforge (if you don't know what this
1716 is, then it isn't for you) or get the latest "official" release from:
1718 http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html
1720 or if you want the lastest snapshot of CVS version (which is produced
1723 http://www.dxcluster.org/download/CVSlatest.tgz
1725 This is generally the best one to go for as it is completely up to
1726 date. However, there is always the very slight chance that it might
1727 unstable. Generally, there will be a note on the website if this is
1730 The only difference between "CVSlatest.tgz" and the latest "official"
1731 release version is that it is more up to date.
\e[1mDo not confuse the
\e[0m
1732 \e[1m"CVSlatest.tgz" file with "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" -
\e[0m
1733 \e[1mthey are two quite different things.
\e[22m"Downloading from Sourceforge
1734 with CVS" is explained in a section within the Admin manual.
1737 If you go down the CVS route (ie installing WinCVS as explained in the
1738 Admin manual and downloaded from sourceforge), then everything will be
1739 nicely installed on your local disk. If you got the CVSlatest.tgz
1740 file, unzip (winzip) it to "C:\". This is an important point since
1741 paths are included within the .tgz file. Make sure you unzip to the
1742 root directory of whichever drive you use... "C:\" or "D:\" or ..,
1743 not "C:\spider." If you double click on CVSlatest.tgz, WinZip should
1744 open with a dialogue box that says the Archive contains a single file
1745 (CVSlatest.tar) and asks whether WinZip should decompress it to a
1746 temporary fold and then open it. Say "Yes" and then you will get the
1747 typical Classical WinZip listing of files ready for extraction.
1748 Remember, extract them to your desired root directory ("C:\" or "D:\"
1749 or ...). The following examples assume that you put it on drive
1750 "C:\", for convenience.
1753 \e[1m6. Installing the software
\e[0m
1755 At this point you will need to create 2 additional directories under
1756 "C:\Spider." Make directories "C:\spider\local" and
1757 "C:\spider\local_cmd". If "C:\spider" is missing, go back and figure
1758 out why, because it shouldn't be.
1760 Now create your own local copy of the DXVars.pm file by:-
1764 copy c:\spider\perl\DXVars.pm.issue
1765 c:\spider\local\DXVars.pm
1769 Now you'll need to edit this file using a text editor like Notepad. If
1770 nothing else, you can simply
1786 to bring up an editor window containing the file. As an absolute
1787 minimum you must adjust the following items in DXVars.pm:-
1790 o $mycall - Should hold the callsign of your DX Cluster
1793 o $myname - The SysOp's first name
1795 o $myalias - the SysOp's callsign. Cannot be the same as $mycall!
1797 o $myqth - The station's geographical location (QTH).
1799 o $mylatitude - The station latitude in degrees and decimal fractions
1801 o $mylongitude - The station longitude in degrees and decimal
1804 o $mylocator - The Maidenhead (or QRA) locator of the station
1806 You really also ought to update the $myqth and $myemail variables. And
1807 unless you are absolutely certain you know what you're doing, you
1808 should change nothing else in this file. Note that if you use an "@"
1809 or a "$" character in one of the above strings (typically in $myemail)
1810 you must write them as "\@" or "\$".
1813 \e[1m6.1. Incoming telnets
\e[0m
1815 If you want to enable inbound "TELNET" connections (or you are running
1816 Windows 98, NT, 2000 or XP), you've got a little more work to do. From
1817 a handy "DOS box" that's not doing anything else, do the following:-
1821 copy \spider\perl\Listeners.pm \spider\local
1823 notepad listeners.pm
1827 The following line need attention:-
1831 # ["0.0.0.0", 7300],
1835 On my machine, I've simply uncommented the "0.0.0.0" entry by removing
1836 the '#' from the front of the line.
1838 \e[1mYou MUST carry out this step if you are running on a Windows 98, NT,
\e[0m
1839 \e[1m2000 or XP based system
\e[0m
1841 If you don't have a static hostname for your machine, and you intend
1842 to allow folk to connect to your machine across the internet, then I'd
1843 suggest you pay a visit to www.dyndns.org and create one for yourself.
1844 While it's free, it will take a modest amount of effort on your part
1845 to read, understand and implement what needs to be done to set this
1849 If your machine is connected to the internet
\e[1mand
\e[22myou don't want to
1850 allow your machine to be visible to the outside world you should
1851 change the "0.0.0.0" to "127.0.0.1" [which is "localhost"]. This will
1852 then only allow connections from inside your machine. As was said
1853 earlier: if you aren't running Win9x (or you want to use DXTelnet or
1854 somesuch), then you need to have the machine listening at least to
1855 "127.0.0.1" ("0.0.0.0" means
\e[1mall
\e[22mIP addresses).
1857 \e[1m6.2. The AGW packet engine
\e[0m
1859 On the assumption that you'll be using the SV2AGW Packet Engine to
1860 interface your radios to the cluster, it would be a good idea to
1861 download the Packet Engine software! You can get this software from:
1863 http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwpe.zip
1865 Depending upon your TNCs, you may also need to get:
1867 http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/drivers.zip
1869 A couple of the tools:
1871 http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwterm.zip
1873 http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwmonitor.zip
1875 will also help with troubleshooting of the RF links themselves.
1877 Install and configure AGWPE. You should now create your own local
1878 copy of AGWConnect.pm by:-
1882 copy c:\spider\perl\AGWConnect.pm
1883 c:\spider\local\AGWConnect.pm
1891 notepad AGWConnect.pm
1895 to bring up an editor window containing the file. You must consider
1896 adjusting the following items in AGWConnect.pm:-
1899 o $enable - set to '1' to enable AGWPE interface
1901 o $login - the login ID you chose when you set up the SV2AGW
1904 o $passwd - password that matches $login
1906 The login ID and passwd only need to be set if you are accessing AGW
1907 separately via its web interface. This interface is normally not
1908 needed for use with DXSpider.
1911 \e[1m6.3. Setting up the initial user files
\e[0m
1913 Next you need to create the initial user files, etc. A tool is
1914 supplied which will do this for you. To run the tool:-
1919 perl create_sysop.pl
1921 If all goes according to plan, you will see no output from this
1922 program, and after a brief wait, your DOS prompt will be returned.
1924 Depending on how brave you are, you might now care to try the
1933 If you did everything you were told, your DOS window will now hold a
1934 display which looks something like:-
1938 DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.50
1939 Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
1940 loading prefixes ...
1941 loading band data ...
1942 loading user file system ...
1943 starting listeners ...
1944 Internal port: localhost 27754
1946 reading in duplicate spot and WWV info ...
1947 reading existing message headers ...
1951 @msg = 0 before delete
1952 @msg = 0 after delete
1953 reading cron jobs ...v cron: reading /spider/cmd/crontab
1954 cron: adding 1 0 * * 0
1955 DXUser::export("$main::data/user_asc")
1956 reading database descriptors ...
1957 doing local initialisation ...
1958 orft we jolly well go ...
1963 Now, if that's what you've got, you are very nearly home and dry (in
1964 as far as these particular experiments are concerned, anyhow)
1966 If you are running Windows 9x you can access your new cluster (from
1967 the local machine) by finding yourself another "DOS box" and doing the
1977 If you are running Windows NT, 2000 or XP then winclient.pl does not
1978 work. We don't know why other than this seems to be some kind of
1979 incomaptibility in perl. You can achieve the same thing by telnetting
1980 to the port you defined in Listeners.pm (7300 as default), thus:-
1985 telnet localhost 7300
1989 On getting the
\e[1mlogin:
\e[22mprompt, enter your sysop callsign (the one you
1990 put in DXVars.pm as $myalias).
1993 I would recommend
\e[1mstrongly
\e[22mthat you obtain a better telnet client than
1994 that which comes with windows (I use PuTTY).
1997 Anyway, if you are rewarded with a display which looks something
2002 Hello Iain, this is GB7SJP in Amersham, Bucks running DXSpider V1.50
2003 Cluster: 1 nodes, 1 local / 1 total users Max users 2 Uptime 0 00:00
2004 M0ADI de GB7SJP 4-Mar-2001 1511Z >
2008 You've arrived. Try some commands, and see how they feel. (In case you
2009 were wondering, "Iain", "M0ADI" and "GB7SJP" all came from the version
2010 of DXVars.pm that was on the machine when I started the winclient.pl)
2013 The interface is very basic. It is a simple command line. There are
2014 better looking interfaces. Most of the "standard" logging and DX
2015 Cluster access programs that are capable of connecting via a TCP or
2016 telnet connection will work as a "Sysop Console" client. You connect
2017 to "localhost" on the port that you defined in Listeners.pm (usually
2018 7300). I recommend packages like DXTelnet.
2021 \e[1m6.4. Connecting to other clusters
\e[0m
2023 If you want to connect this to another cluster, then you'll want to
2024 negotiate a link with someone. For experimental purposes, I'm happy to
2025 allow folk to connect to GB7DXA (spud.ath.cx), on the understanding
2026 that the system may or may not be there and may or may not be
2027 connected to anything particularly useful at any given moment. Contact
2028 me by Email if you want me to set up a connection for you.
2031 \e[1m7. General Information
\e[0m
2033 The following relates to all versions of DXSpider and is not platform
2037 \e[1m7.1. The crontab file
\e[0m
2039 Login as
\e[4msysop
\e[24m and create a file in /spider/local_cmd called crontab.
2040 Edit it with your favourite editor and add a line like this (I have
2045 # check every 10 minutes to see if gb7xxx is connected and if not
2046 # start a connect job going
2048 0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('gb7xxx') unless connected('gb7xxx')
2052 The callsign involved will be the callsign of the cluster node you are
2053 going to connect to. This will now check every 10 minutes to see if
2054 gb7xxx is connected, if it is then nothing will be done. If it is
2055 not, then a connect attempt will be started.
2058 There are probably lots of other things you could use this crontab
2059 file for. If you want to know more about it, look at the DXSpider
2060 website at the cron page where it is explained more fully.