- The DXSpider Installation Manual v1.50
- Iain Philipps, G0RDI (g0rdi@77hz.com), Ian Maude, G0VGS,
- (g0vgs@gb7mbc.net) and Charlie Carroll, K1XX,
- (k1xx@ptcnh.net)
- February 2003 revision 0.5
-
- A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
- ______________________________________________________________________
-
- Table of Contents
-
-
- 1. Linux Installation
- 1.1 Introduction
- 1.2 Preparation
- 1.3 Installing the software
- 1.4 Setting callsigns etc
- 1.5 The client program
- 1.6 Starting up for the first time
-
- 2. Linux quick installation guide
- 3. Setting up the AX25 Utilities
- 3.1 Getting Started
- 3.2 The kernel
- 3.3 Installing the RPM's
- 3.4 Configuration
- 3.5 axports
- 3.6 nrports
- 3.7 nrbroadcast
- 3.8 ax25d.conf
- 3.9 node.conf
- 3.10 Getting it all running
-
- 4. Configuration
- 4.1 Allowing ax25 connects from users
- 4.2 Allowing telnet connects from users
- 4.3 Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)
- 4.4 Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)
- 4.5 Setting up node connects
- 4.6 Connection scripts
- 4.7 Starting the connection
- 4.8 Telnet echo
- 4.9 Autostarting the cluster
-
- 5. Microsoft Windows Installation
- 5.1 Introduction
- 5.2 The requirements
- 5.3 The system
- 5.4 Perl
- 5.5 Additional packages
- 5.6 Getting Spider
-
- 6. Installing the software
- 6.1 Incoming telnets
- 6.2 The AGW packet engine
- 6.3 Setting up the initial user files
- 6.4 Connecting to other clusters
-
- 7. General Information
- 7.1 The crontab file
-
-
- ______________________________________________________________________
-
-
-
- 1. Linux Installation
-
- 1.1. Introduction
-
- This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.50 on a RedHat
- Linux Distribution. Wherever possible I will try to include
- differences for other distributions.
-
-
- I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands. You
- should know how to use tar and how to edit files using your favourite
- editor.
-
-
- The crucial ingredient for all of this is Perl. Earlier versions of
- Spider required perl 5.004, however it is now STRONGLY recommended
- that you use at least version 5.005_03 as this is the version being
- used in the development of Spider.
-
-
- In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the
- following modules from http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/ , please
- note however that with later versions of perl, some of these modules
- may be included with the distribution. Get the modules anyway and try
- to install as below. If they complain, they are probably already a
- part of your perl distribution.
-
-
-
- o Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz
-
- o TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz
-
- o IO-1.20.tar.gz (for perl 5.00403 and lower)
-
- o Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz
-
- o Curses-1.06.tar.gz
-
- o Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz
-
- o Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz
-
-
- Copy the CPAN modules listed above to a convenient place on your
- computer. One good place would be /usr/local/packages, and the
- instructions which follow will assume that that's where you have put
- them.
-
-
- Log in as 'root', and make sure you're at '/root' before you continue.
- Here are exactly the commands you must issue next: -
-
-
-
- # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz
- # cd Data-Dumper-2.101
- # perl Makefile.PL
- # make test
- # make install
- # cd ..
- #
- # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz
- # cd TimeDate-1.10
- # perl Makefile.PL
- # make test
- # make install
- # cd ..
- #
- # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/IO-1.20.tar.gz
- # cd IO-1.20
- # perl Makefile.PL
- # make test
- # make install UNINST=1
- # cd ..
- #
- # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz
- # cd Net-Telnet-3.02
- # perl Makefile.PL
- # make test
- # make install
- # cd ..
- #
- # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Curses-1.06.tar.gz
- # cd Curses-1.06
- # perl Makefile.PL
- # make test
- # make install
- # cd ..
- #
- # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz
- # cd Time-HiRes-01.20
- # perl Makefile.PL
- # make test
- # make install
- # cd ..
- #
- # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz
- # cd Digest-SHA1-2.01
- # perl Makefile.PL
- # make test
- # make install
- # cd ..
-
-
-
- Do not fall into the trap of thinking they're all the same, just
- because they nearly are! Pay particular attention to the instructions
- of IO, above.
-
-
-
- 1.2. Preparation
-
- I will assume that you have already downloaded the latest tarball of
- the DXSpider software and are ready to install it. I am assuming
- version 1.50 for this section but of course you would use the latest
- version.
-
-
- Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under. UNDER NO
- CIRCUMSTANCES USE ROOT AS THIS USER!. I am going to use the name
- sysop. You can call it anything you wish. Depending on your security
- requirements you may wish to use an existing user, however this is
- your own choice.
-
-
-
- # adduser -m sysop
-
-
-
- For SuSE distributions, the command would be ..
-
-
-
- # useradd -m sysop
-
-
-
- Now set a password for the user ...
-
-
-
- # passwd sysop
- # New UNIX password:
- # Retype new UNIX password:
- passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
-
-
-
- 1.3. Installing the software
-
- Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group
- permissions. Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.
-
-
-
- # cd ~sysop
- # tar xvfz spider-1.50.tar.gz
- # ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
- # groupadd -g 251 spider (or another number)
-
-
-
- If you do not have the command groupadd available to you simply add a
- line in /etc/group by hand.
-
-
-
- # vi /etc/group (or your favorite editor)
-
-
-
- You also need to add some others to the group, including your own
- callsign (this will be used as an alias) and root. The finished line
- in /etc/group should look something like this
-
- spider:x:251:sysop,g0vgs,root
-
-
- The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree
- and files ....
-
-
-
- # chown -R sysop.spider spider
- # find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
- # find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;
-
-
-
- This last step allows various users of the group spider to have write
- access to all the directories. This is not really needed just yet but
- will be useful when web interfaces start to appear.
-
-
- Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and
- netrom_call programs. Check where they are with the locate command
- and alter the permissions with the chmod command like this ..
-
-
-
- # chown root ax25_call netrom_call
- # chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call
-
-
-
- 1.4. Setting callsigns etc
-
- Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier. In my case
- that user is called sysop. Once logged in, issue the following
- commands ....
-
-
-
- $ cd /spider
- $ mkdir local
- $ mkdir local_cmd
- $ cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm
- $ cd local
- $ vi DXVars.pm (or your favourite editor)
-
-
-
- Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster
- callsign, sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own
- environment.
-
-
-
- $mycall = "GB7DJK";
-
-
-
- This is the call sign of your cluster. If you use an SSID then
- include it here also.
-
-
-
- $myalias = "G1TLH";
-
-
-
- This is the sysop user callsign, normally your own.
-
-
- PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS
-
-
- Note that this a perl file which will be parsed and executed as part
- of the cluster. If you get it wrong then perl will complain when you
- start the cluster process. It is important only to alter the text of
- any section. Some of the lines look a little odd. Take this line for
- example ....
-
- $myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";
-
-
- There appears to be an extra slash in there. However this has to be
- there for the file to work so leave it in.
-
-
- DON'T alter any file in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every
- release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or
- /spider/local_cmd will automagically be used in preference to the ones
- in /spider/perl EVEN while the cluster is running!
-
-
- Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....
-
-
-
- $ cd ../perl
-
-
-
- Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with
- you as the sysop.
-
-
-
- $ ./create_sysop.pl
-
-
-
- 1.5. The client program
-
- In earlier versions of Spider, all the processes were Perl scripts.
- This was fine but with a lot of users your computer memory would soon
- be used up. To combat this a new client was written in "C". This
- client only works for incoming connects at the moment. Before you can
- use it though it has to be "made". CD to /spider/src and type make.
- You should see the output on your screen and hopefully now have a
- small C program called client. Leave it in this directory.
- 1.6. Starting up for the first time
-
- We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well
- or not! It should look something like this ...
-
-
-
- $ ./cluster.pl
- DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.50
- Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
- loading prefixes ...
- loading band data ...
- loading user file system ...
- starting listener ...
- reading existing message headers
- reading cron jobs
- orft we jolly well go ...
-
-
-
- If all is well then login on another term or console as sysop and cd
- to /spider/src. Now issue the following command ...
-
-
-
- $ ./client
-
-
-
- This should log you into the cluster as the sysop under the alias
- callsign we set earlier. In this case the callsign is G0VGS. The
- cluster callsign is set in the DXVars.pm file in /spider/local. In
- this case we will assume that this was set as GB7MBC. You should
- therefore see this when you login ....
-
-
-
- G0VGS de GB7MBC 19-Nov-1999 2150Z >
-
-
-
- If you do, congratulations! If not, look over the instructions again,
- you have probably missed something out. You can shut spider down
- again with the command ....
-
-
-
- shutdown
-
-
-
- and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.
-
-
-
- 2. Linux quick installation guide
-
- This section is designed for experienced Spider sysops who want to
- install Spider from scratch. It is simply a check list of things that
- need to be done without any explanations. The name in brackets at the
- end of each line is the user that should be doing that process.
-
-
- o Login as root
-
- o Get the additional CPAN modules and install them (root)
-
- o Create the "sysop" user and set a password (root)
-
- o Put the Spider tarball in sysop and untar it (root)
-
- o ln -s sysop/spider /spider (root)
-
- o groupadd -g 251 spider (root)
-
- o Add any more users you need to the group entry in /etc/group (root)
-
- o Set the permissions on the spider tree (root)
-
- o Fix permissions on ax25_call and netrom_call (root)
-
- o Login as the sysop user
-
- o cd to /spider (sysop)
-
- o mkdir local (sysop)
-
- o mkdir local_cmd (sysop)
-
- o cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm (sysop)
-
- o cd to /spider/local and edit DXVars to set your details (sysop)
-
- o cd ../perl (sysop)
-
- o ./create_sysop.pl (sysop)
-
- o ./cluster.pl (sysop)
-
-
- Spider should now be running and you should be able to login using the
- client program.
-
-
- o Login as root
-
- o Enter the correct line in ax25d.conf (root)
-
- o Enter the correct line in /etc/services (root)
-
- o Enter the correct line in /etc/inetd.conf (root)
-
- o killall -HUP inetd (root)
-
-
- Spider should now be able to accept logins via telnet, netrom and
- ax25.
-
-
- o Login as sysop
-
- o Start the cluster (sysop)
-
- o set/node and type for links (sysop)
-
- o Write any connect scripts (sysop)
-
- o Edit /spider/crontab as required (sysop)
-
- o Edit any other files as necessary (sysop)
-
- o Set filters, hops and forwarding files (sysop)
-
- o Login as root
-
- o Enter the correct line in /etc/inittab (root)
-
-
- 3. Setting up the AX25 Utilities
-
- The aim of this section is not to fully cover the installation and
- configuration of all the possible ax25 modules. I will attempt to
- cover a simple installation and configure 2 serial ports as if they
- had TNC's on them. I will also show what additional configuration the
- DXSpider program requires.
-
-
- Please bear in mind that I am basing this section on a RedHat 7.1
- distribution, if you are using SuSe or any other distibution then your
- mileage may vary. I will be happy to make any changes and additions
- if you email me any errors or distribution specific requirements.
-
-
- You would probably benefit from reading the AX25-HOWTO which is much
- more comprehensive and an interesting configuration program is also
- available called ax25-config which may help you to configure things.
-
-
- The following files are extracts from the working files at GB7MBC and
- are in daily use. However, there are many ways that you can configure
- the ax25 utils, this is just the one I use, it does not mean it is
- necessarily the best or for that matter, the right way!
-
-
- 3.1. Getting Started
-
- There are 2 things you need to do initially. You need to get the 3
- files required for the ax25 installation and you need to make some
- changes to the kernel configuration.
-
-
- The first thing is to get the versions of the ax25 utils that match
- your kernel. You may also wish to get a node package of some kind.
- There are 2 main node packages in use of which I shall keep to the
- original by Tomi Manninen, OH2BNS as this is included in the ax25 rpms
- as standard. The other is AWZNode by IZ5AWZ.
-
-
- NB: The AX25 stuff in 2.4 kernels appears to have been broken until
- 2.4.18. I strongly suggest you get at least this kernel.
-
-
- For 2.4 kernels you need these files...
-
-
-
- o libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm
-
- o ax25-tools-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm
-
- o ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm
-
-
- 3.2. The kernel
-
- First you need to add Amateur Radio Support to your kernel. This is a
- main menu item and should be easily found. Within this header you
- will find lots of options. For our purposes you need to enable
- Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 Protocol, NET/ROM and the Serial Port KISS
- Driver. For the purposes of this document I will work under the
- assumption that you include them in the kernel fully, ie not as
- modules. If you need to look at compiling your kernel for ax25 more
- fully, I would refer to the excellent AX25-HOWTO
-
-
- I should say at this stage that NET/ROM is not mandatory. If you do
- not use it simply ignore any instruction concerning it.
-
-
- Now recompile your kernel in the normal way and reboot your system.
-
-
- 3.3. Installing the RPM's
-
- Now install the RPM's you downloaded, libax25 first, then ax25-tools,
- then ax25-apps.
-
-
-
- rpm -ivh libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm
- rpm -ivh ax25-tool-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm
- rpm -ivh ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm
-
-
-
- 3.4. Configuration
-
- You will find the configuration files in /etc/ax25. These consist of
- several files ...
-
-
- o axports
-
- o nrports
-
- o nrbroadcast
-
- o ax25d.conf
-
- o node.conf
-
-
- These are the main files. You will find other files but they do not
- have any use unless you are wanting to use that particular protocol,
- Rose or axip for example.
-
-
- NOTE:- before we start it is important to realise that every interface
- requires a different SSID. You should be able to follow this in the
- following examples.
- 3.5. axports
-
- This file sets up the ax25 ports you want to use. An example is below
- for a standard TNC2 ...
-
-
-
- #portname callsign baudrate paclen window description
- 2m gb7mbc-2 19200 256 2 2m port on 144.900MHz
- 4m gb7mbc-4 19200 256 2 4m port on 70.325MHz
-
-
-
- Note that the portnames have to be unique.
-
-
- The file headings are as follows ...
-
-
- portname - The name you will refer to the port by
- callsign - The ax25 callsign you want to assign to the port
- baudrate - The speed you communicate between TNC and computer
- paclen - The maximum packet length for ax25 connections
- window - The ax25 window parameter. This is like 'maxframe'
- description - A textual description of the port
-
-
-
- 3.6. nrports
-
- This file sets up the netrom ports you want to use. An example is
- below and includes a port for both cluster and node. You will see why
- we need 2 ports later ...
-
-
-
- #portname callsign alias paclen description
- netrom gb7mbc-8 BARE 236 Node Netrom Port
- netrom2 gb7mbc-9 MBCDX 236 Cluster Netrom Port
-
-
-
- Note that the portnames have to be unique.
-
-
- The file headings are as follows ...
-
-
- portname - The name you will refer to the port by
- callsign - This is the callsign that NET/ROM traffic from this
- port will use
- alias - The NET/ROM alias this port will be assigned
- paclen - The maximum size of NET/ROM frames transmitted
- description - A textual description of the port
-
-
-
- 3.7. nrbroadcast
-
- This file sets up the netrom broadcast qualities. An example is below
- ...
-
-
-
- #axport min_obs def_qual worst_qual verbose
- 4m 5 10 100 1
-
-
-
- The file headings are as follows ...
-
-
- axport - The port name in axports that you wish to broadcast
- NET/ROM on.
- min_obs - The minimum obsolescence value for the port
- def_qual - The default quality for the port
- worst_qual - The worst quality for the port. Any routes under
- this quality will be ignored
- verbose - This flag determines whether you will only broadcast
- your own node (0) or all known nodes (1)
-
-
-
- 3.8. ax25d.conf
-
- This file controls any incoming ax25 and NET/ROM connections and
- steers them to the relevant program. There are lots of configuration
- options you can set here, however they are well covered in the
- AX25-HOWTO. For our purposes I will show a typical set of parameters.
- An example is below ...
-
-
-
- [gb7mbc-0 via 2m]
- parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
- NOCALL * * * * * * L
- default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
-
- [gb7mbc-1 via 2m]
- parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
- NOCALL * * * * * * L
- default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
-
- [gb7mbc-0 via 4m]
- parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
- NOCALL * * * * * * L
- default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
-
- [gb7mbc-1 via 4m]
- parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
- NOCALL * * * * * * L
- default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
-
- <netrom2>
- parameters 1 10 * * * 3 *
- NOCALL * * * * * * L
- default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
-
- <netrom>
- parameters 1 10 * * * 3 *
- NOCALL * * * * * * L
- default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
-
-
-
- There are a few things to take note of here. Firstly, all ax25
- sections are wrapped in [ ] and all NET/ROM sections are wrapped in <
- >. Secondly you should be able to see that anyone who forgets to set
- their callsign in a TNC and tries to connect with the standard NOCALL
- set into their TNC will not connect, the 'L' means 'lockout'. Lastly
- and importantly, notice the order of the sections. They are all done
- in interface order.
-
-
- You should be able to see that the normal line for access to the
- cluster is like this ..
-
-
-
- default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
-
-
-
- however, if you wish your users to be able to use SSID's on their
- callsigns ..
-
-
-
- default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %s ax25
-
-
-
- For most purposes this is not desirable. The only time you probably
- will need this is when you need to allow other cluster nodes that are
- using SSID's in. In this case it would probably be better to use the
- first example and then add a specific line for that node like this:
-
-
-
- GB7DJK-2 * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client gb7djk-2 ax25
- default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
-
-
-
- 3.9. node.conf
-
- For those of you that wish to run the node, you need to set up the
- node.conf file. There are a couple of additional files, node.perms is
- very similar to the way ftp permissions are set up in NOS systems and
- node.motd is the message anyone logging into the node will get. The
- node.conf file sets all the parameters of the node as you would
- expect. An example is below ...
-
-
-
- # /etc/ax25/node.conf - LinuxNode configuration file
- #
- # see node.conf(5)
-
- # Idle timeout (seconds).
- #
- IdleTimeout 1800
-
- # Timeout when gatewaying (seconds).
- #
- ConnTimeout 40000
-
- # Visible hostname. Will be shown at telnet login.
- #
- HostName gb7mbc.ampr.org
-
- # ReConnect flag.
- #
- ReConnect off
-
- # "Local" network.
- #
- #LocalNet 44.139.8.48/32
-
- # Command aliases. See node.conf(5) for the meaning of the uppercase
- # letters in the name of the alias.
- #
- ##Alias CAllbook 'telnet %{2:44.17.0.53} 1235 %1 s'
- #Alias CONVers 'telnet %{2:oh2ti} 3600 "/n %u %{1:139}\n/w *"'
- #Alias CLuster 'c hkiclh'
- Alias CONV "telnet lurpac 3600"
- Alias BBS "c 70cm gb7crv"
- Alias DXC "telnet localhost 9000"
- Alias MUD "telnet homer 4000"
- ##Alias TEMP "finger temp@mary.g6phf"
- ##Alias TNOS "c ip1 gb7mbc-5"
- ##Alias TUtor "telnet gb7mbc 3599"
-
- # Hidden ports.
- #
- #HiddenPorts 2
-
- # External commands. See node.conf(5) for the meaning of the uppercase
- # letters in the name of the extcmd.
- #
- # Flags: 1 Run command through pipe
- # 2 Reconnected flag
- #
- #ExtCmd TPM 3 nobody /usr/bin/finger finger tpm
- #ExtCmd ECho 1 nobody /bin/echo echo \%U \%u \%S \%s \%P \%p \%R \%r \%T \%t \%\% \%0 \%{1:foobar} \%{2} \%3 \%4 \%5
-
- # Node ID.
- #
- NodeId "\nBARE:GB7MBC-1"
- #NodeId \033[01;31m***\033[0m
-
- # Netrom port name. This port is used for outgoing netrom connects.
- #
- NrPort netrom
-
- # Logging level
- #
- LogLevel 3
-
- # The escape character (CTRL-T)
- #
- EscapeChar ^T
-
- # Resolve ip numbers to addresses?
- #
- ResolveAddrs off
-
- # Node prompt.
- #
- #NodePrompt "\n"
- #NodePrompt "%s@%h \%i> "
- NodePrompt "\nBARE:GB7MBC-1 \%i > "
- #NodePrompt "\a\033[36m%U\033[0m de \033[01;32m#LNODE\033[0m:\033[01;33mOH2BNS-10\033[0m> "
-
-
-
- This should be fairly obvious I hope.
-
-
- 3.10. Getting it all running
-
- Ok, now we have all the relevant files configured, the next step is to
- get it all running.
-
-
- The first thing to do is attach the TNC's. Your TNC's should be in
- KISS mode and connected to the serial ports involved.
-
-
- You now use the 'kissattach' command to connect the TNC's to the
- system like this ...
-
-
-
- kissattach /dev/ttyS0 2m 44.131.96.199
- kissattach /dev/ttyS1 4m 44.131.96.199
-
-
-
- Assuming that 44.131.96.199 is your IP address. The devices ttyS0 and
- ttyS1 are com1 and com2 respectively. Now we can set some parameters
- ...
-
-
-
- kissparms -p 2m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
- kissparms -p 4m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
-
-
-
- The command 'man kissparms' will give you the explanation of the
- switches.
-
-
- Now we need to attach the NET/ROM ports in the same way ...
-
-
-
- nrattach netrom
- nrattach netrom2
-
- All of the above can be put in a file and called from
- /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Put all the above commands in a file called
- rc.ax25 and put a line in rc.local to call it.
-
-
- Now you can start the daemons that set everything in motion ...
-
-
-
- ax25d
- netromd -i
-
-
-
- All should now be running. All that remains is to get the node
- working for telnet connections. If nothing else, this will allow you
- to connect to the node yourself to check on connection status etc.
- There are 2 files that need to be edited.
-
-
- First edit /etc/services and add
-
-
-
- node 3000/tcp #OH2BNS's Node Software
-
-
-
- Assuming you want it to run on port 3000
-
-
- Now cd /etc/xinetd.d and edit a new file called node. It should look
- like this ...
-
-
-
- # default: on
- # unencrypted username/password pairs for authentication.
- service node
- {
- socket_type = stream
- wait = no
- user = root
- server = /usr/sbin/node
- log_on_failure += USERID
- disable = no
- }
-
-
-
- You now need to restart the xinetd daemon. First find out what the
- PID is like so ..
-
-
-
- ps auxw |grep xinetd
-
-
-
- You will get a reply something like this ...
-
-
-
- root 592 0.0 0.1 2256 620 ? S Feb07 0:00 xinetd -stayalive -reuse -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid
-
-
-
- The PID or Process ID is 592 in this case so now we can issue the
- command ...
-
-
-
- kill -HUP 592
-
-
-
- All should now be operational and you should be able to log into the
- node by using a telnet session to the relevant port, like so ...
-
-
-
- telnet localhost 3000
-
-
-
- If that works, you are just about there. you should (assuming you
- have radios connected to the TNC's) be able to connect out to other
- stations and receive incoming ax25 and netrom connections.
-
-
- 4. Configuration
-
- 4.1. Allowing ax25 connects from users
-
- This is dealt with in the previous section
-
-
- 4.2. Allowing telnet connects from users
-
-
- >From version 1.47 there is a new (more efficient) way of doing this
- (see next section) but, if you prefer, the method of doing it
- described here will continue to work just fine.
-
-
- Allowing telnet connections is quite simple. Firstly you need to add
- a line in /etc/services to allow connections to a port number, like
- this ....
-
-
-
- spdlogin 8000/tcp # spider anonymous login port
-
-
-
- Then add a line in /etc/inetd.conf like this ....
-
- spdlogin stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client login telnet
-
-
-
- Once this is done, you need to restart inetd like this ....
-
-
-
- killall -HUP inetd
-
-
-
- Now login as sysop and cd spider/src. You can test that spider is
- accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command ....
-
-
-
- ./client login telnet
-
-
-
- You should get a login prompt and on issuing a callsign, you will be
- given access to the cluster. Note, you will not get a password login.
- There seems no good reason for a password prompt to be given so it is
- not asked for.
-
-
- Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console ....
-
-
-
- telnet localhost 8000
-
-
-
- You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before.
-
-
- 4.3. Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)
-
- >From version 1.47 you can choose to allow the perl cluster.pl program
- to allow connections directly (i.e. not via the /spider/src/client
- interface program). If you are using Windows then this is the only
- method available of allowing incoming telnet connections.
-
-
- To do this you need first to remove any line that you may previously
- have set up in /etc/inetd.conf. Remember to:-
-
-
-
- killall -HUP inetd
-
-
-
- to make the change happen...
-
-
- Having done that, you need to copy the file /spider/perl/Listeners.pm
- to /spider/local and then edit it. You will need to uncomment the line
- containing "0.0.0.0" and select the correct port to listen on. So that
- it looks like this:-
-
-
-
- @listen = (
- ["0.0.0.0", 8000],
- );
-
-
-
- As standard, the listener will listen on all interfaces
- simultaneously. If you require more control than this, you can
- specify each interface individually:-
-
-
-
- @listen = (
- ["gb7baa.dxcluster.net", 8000],
- ["44.131.16.2", 6300],
- );
-
-
-
- This will only be successful if the IP addresses on each interface are
- static. If you are using some kind of dynamic IP addressing then the
- 'default' method is the only one that will work.
-
-
- Restart the cluster.pl program to enable the listener.
-
-
- One important difference with the internal listener is that no echoing
- is done by the cluster program. Users will need to set 'local-echo' on
- in their telnet clients if it isn't set automatically (as per the
- standards). Needless to say this will probably only apply to Windows
- users.
-
-
- 4.4. Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)
-
- AGW Engine is a Windows based ax25 stack. You can connect to an AGW
- engine from Linux as well as Windows based machines.
-
-
- In order to enable access to an AGW Engine you need to copy
- /spider/perl/AGWConnect.pm to /spider/local and edit it. Specifically
- you must:-
-
-
- o set $enable to 1.
-
- o set $login and $passwd to the values set up in your AGW
- installation. If you haven't set any there, then you should not
- touch these values.
-
-
- o You can connect to a remote AGW engine (ie on some other machine)
- by changing $addr and $port appropriately.
-
- o Restart the cluster.pl program
-
-
-
- 4.5. Setting up node connects
-
- In order to allow cluster node connections, spider needs to know that
- the connecting callsign is a cluster node. This is the case whether
- the connect is incoming or outgoing. In spider this is a simple task
- and can be done in runtime.
-
-
- Later versions of Spider can distinguish different software and treat
- them differently. For example, the WCY beacon cannot be handles by
- AK1A type nodes as AK1A does not know what to do with PC73. There are
- 4 different types of node at present and although they may not have
- any major differences at the moment, it allows for compatibility. The
- 4 types are ...
-
-
-
- set/node (AK1A type)
- set/spider
- set/dxnet
- set/clx
-
-
-
- For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is
- an AK1A type node.
-
-
- Start up the cluster as you did before and login as the sysop with
- client. The cluster node I am wanting to make a connection to is
- GB7BAA but you would obviously use whatever callsign you required. At
- the prompt type ...
-
-
-
- set/node gb7baa
-
-
-
- The case does not matter as long as you have a version of DXSpider
- later than 1.33. Earlier versions required the callsign to be in
- upper case.
-
-
- That is now set, it is as simple as that. To prove it, login on yet
- another console as sysop, cd to spider/src and issue the command ...
-
-
-
- ./client gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
-
-
-
- You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ...
-
-
-
- ./client gb7baa
- PC38^GB7MBC^~
-
-
-
- If the callsign you just set up as a cluster node is for an incoming
- connect, this is all that needs to be done. If the connection is to
- be outgoing then a connection script needs to be written.
-
-
- Sometimes you make a mistake... Honest, it does happen. If you want
- to make a node back to being a normal user, regardless of what type it
- is, do:
-
-
-
- unset/node gb7baa
-
-
-
- 4.6. Connection scripts
-
- Because DXSpider operates under Linux, connections can be made using
- just about any protocol; AX25, NETRom, tcp/ip, ROSE etc are all
- possible examples. Connect scripts live in the /spider/connect
- directory and are simple ascii files. Writing a script for
- connections is therefore relatively simple.
-
-
- The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following
- keywords or symbols:-
-
-
-
- # All lines starting with a # are ignored, as are completely blank
- lines.
-
-
- timeout
- timeout followed by a number is the number of seconds to wait
- for a command to complete. If there is no timeout specified in
- the script then the default is 60 seconds.
-
-
- abort
- abort is a regular expression containing one or more strings to
- look for to abort a connection. This is a perl regular
- expression and is executed ignoring case.
-
-
- connect
- connect followed by ax25, agw (for Windows users) or telnet and
- some type dependent information. In the case of a telnet
- connection, there can be up to two parameters. The first is the
- ip address or hostname of the computer you wish to connect to
- and the second is the port number you want to use (this can be
- left out if it is a normal telnet session). In the case of an
- ax25 session then this would normally be a call to ax25_call or
- netrom_call as in the example above. It is your responsibility
- to get your node and other ax25 parameters to work before going
- down this route!
-
-
- ' line in a chat type script. The words/phrases normally come in
- pairs, either can be empty. Each line reads input from the
- connection until it sees the string (or perl regular expression)
- contained in the left hand string. If the left hand string is
- empty then it doesn't read or wait for anything. The comparison
- is done ignoring case. When the left hand string has found what
- it is looking for (if it is) then the right hand string is sent
- to the connection. This process is repeated for every line of
- chat script.
-
-
- client
- client starts the connection, put the arguments you would want
- here if you were starting the client program manually. You only
- need this if the script has a different name to the callsign you
- are trying to connect to (i.e. you have a script called other
- which actually connects to GB7DJK-1 [instead of a script called
- gb7djk-1]).
-
-
- There are many possible ways to configure the script but here are
- three examples, one for a NETRom/AX25 connect, one for AGW engines and
- one for tcp/ip.
-
-
-
- timeout 60
- abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
- # don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
- connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
- # you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
- client gb7dxm ax25
-
-
-
- timeout 60
- abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
- # this does exactly the same as the previous example
- # the '1' is the AGW port number to connect thru for g1tlh
- connect agw 1 g1tlh
- # you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
- client gb7dxm ax25
-
-
-
- timeout 15
- connect telnet dirkl.tobit.co.uk
- # tell GB7DJK-1 that it is connected to GB7DJK
- # you can leave this out if you call this script 'gb7djk'
- client gb7djk telnet
-
-
- Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the
- other end. You will find other examples in the /spider/examples
- directory.
-
-
- 4.7. Starting the connection
-
- You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login,
- by typing in the word connect followed by a script name like this ....
-
-
-
- G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2041Z >connect gb7djk-1
- connection to GB7DJK-1 started
- G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
-
-
-
- This will start a connection using the script called gb7djk-1. You
- can follow the connection by watching the term or console from where
- you started cluster.pl. From version 1.47 onwards, you will need to
- set/debug connect first. You should see something like this ...
-
-
-
- <- D G1TLH connect gb7djk-1
- -> D G1TLH connection to GB7DJK-1 started
- -> D G1TLH G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2046Z >
- timeout set to 15
- CONNECT sort: telnet command: dirkl.tobit.co.uk
- CHAT "login" -> "gb7djk"
- received "
- Red Hat Linux release 5.1 (Manhattan)
- Kernel 2.0.35 on an i586
- "
- received "login: "
- sent "gb7djk"
- CHAT "word" -> "gb7djk"
- received "gb7djk"
- received "Password: "
- sent "gb7djk"
- Connected to GB7DJK-1, starting normal protocol
- <- O GB7DJK-1 telnet
- -> B GB7DJK-1 0
- GB7DJK-1 channel func state 0 -> init
- <- D GB7DJK-1
- <- D GB7DJK-1 Last login: Sun Dec 13 17:59:56 from dirk1
- <- D GB7DJK-1 PC38^GB7DJK-1^~
- <- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users Max users 0 Uptime
- 0 00:00^5447^~
- etc
-
-
-
- With later versions of Spider there is a set/login command for users.
- This tells them when a user or node logs in or out. If you do not add
- a line to your scripts after the final line (or before the client line
- which should always be last if needed) then the login/logout
- information will be sent to users before the login actually completes.
- This means if a node is unreachable, it will continue sending logins
- and logouts to users even though it is not actually connecting. To
- avoid this use the following line ...
- In a script, this might look like ...
-
-
-
- timeout 35
- abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
- connect telnet mary 3000
-
-
-
- 4.8. Telnet echo
-
- Cluster links in particular suffer greatly from the presence of telnet
- echo. This is caused by the telnet negotiation itself and can create
- at worst severe loops. At best it creates unnecessary bandwidth and
- large logfiles! There are things that can be done to limit this
- problem but will not always work dependent on the route taken to
- connect.
-
-
- Telnet echo itself should only be a problem if the connection is being
- made to the telnet port (23). This port uses special rules that
- include echo negotiation. If the connection is to a different port,
- such as 7300, this negotiation does not happen and therefore no echo
- should be present.
-
-
- Sometimes it is not possible to make a direct connection to another
- node and this can cause problems. There is a way of trying to
- suppress the telnet echo but this will not always work, unfortunately
- it is difficult to be more specific. Here is an example of what I
- mean ...
-
-
-
- timeout 35
- abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
- connect telnet mary.lancs.ac.uk
-
-
-
- So, the first connection is made by Spider. This is fine as Spider
- uses the Net_Telnet script from within perl. This actually uses TCP
- rather than TELNET so no negotiation will be done on the first
- connection. Once connected to mary.lancs.ac.uk, the command is sent
- to suppress echo. Now a telnet is made to a cluster node that is
- accepting connections on port 23. The problem with this link is that
- the negotiation is made by the remote machine, therefore you have no
- control over it. The chances are that this link will create echo and
- there will be no way you can stop it.
-
-
-
- 4.9. Autostarting the cluster
-
- Ok, you should now have DXSpider running nicely and allowing connects
- by cluster nodes or users. However, it has to be shutdown and
- restarted manually. It would be much easier to have it start
- automatically.
-
-
-
- This is not only a way to start the cluster automatically, it also
- works as a watchdog, checking the sanity of DXSpider and respawning it
- should it crash for any reason. Before doing the following, shutdown
- the cluster as you did earlier.
-
-
- Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite
- editor. Add the following lines to the file near the end ...
-
-
-
- ##Start DXSpider on bootup and respawn it should it crash
- DX:3:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
-
-
-
- This line works fine for RedHat distributions. It is also fine for
- SuSE up to 7.0. From SuSE 7.1 you need to add runlevels 2 and 5 like
- this ...
-
-
-
- DX:235:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
-
-
-
- The line required for Slackware distributions is slightly different.
- My thanks to Aurelio, PA3EZL for this information.
-
-
-
- DX:23:respawn:/bin/su - sysop -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" >/dev/tty7
-
-
-
- This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and
- restart it should it crash for any reason.
-
-
- NB: It should be noted that /dev/tty7 is only an example. Some SuSE
- systems will only accept upto tty6. It really does not matter which
- tty you run it on.
-
-
- As root type the command telinit q. DXSpider should start up
- immediately. You will see the output on tty7 and if you login as
- sysop you should find everything running nicely.
-
-
- 5. Microsoft Windows Installation
-
- 5.1. Introduction
-
- IMPORTANT:
-
- What you'll be left with once you've followed these instructions is
- (hopefully) a working DX Spider v1.50 system that is capable of
- accepting or originating "internet" connections, plus inbound and
- outbound AX.25 and TCP/IP radio connections.
-
- On the other hand, you may have an enquiring mind, or better yet, may
- be looking for a useful way of connecting your current (perhaps) AK1A
- cluster "to the internet" via some networking mechanism (BPQEther,
- etc) or other. I won't be producing instructions for the latter case,
- because I don't have an AK1A to play with. But someone might ...
-
- Whatever, this document is intended to get you started with DX Spider
- in a Microsoft Windows (TM) environment. It's not intended to teach
- you anything other than how to perform a minimum configuration of a DX
- Spider installation and have it able to connect across "the internet"
- to other DX Clusters, while accepting inbound TELNET and radio
- connections.
-
-
- 5.2. The requirements
-
- The very first things you're going to need are (in order of
- importance):-
-
-
- o A cup of good, strong tea
-
- o A supported Windows platform with an internet connection so you can
- download the necessary software bits and bobs directly to it. There
- are other ways, but this is preferable.
-
- o Another cup of good, strong tea
-
- o If all goes according to plan, about an hour to spare
-
- o Plenty of good, strong tea
-
-
- 5.3. The system
-
- The platform I used to generate these instructions was a "vanilla"
- Microsoft Windows Me 4.90.3000 system, with a 700MHz AMD Athlon
- processor and 96 Mb memory. I've also personally verified that it runs
- on my laptop (Pentium 266MHz, 32 Mb memory, Windows 98 SE v4.10.2222
- A) and a computer that I assembled from a random pile of junk (AMD
- K6-2 333MHz, 64 Mb memory, Windows 98 v4.10.1998). As a result, I have
- reason to believe that what I'm about to describe will perform equally
- on any 32-bit MS Windows environment with 32 Mb of memory.
-
- Because of the changes that have recently been made to the core
- "cluster.pl" module and the introduction of a very lightweight
- "winclient.pl", I have a sneaking suspicion that this will now run on
- any platform that has reasonably complete support for Perl. Is there
- someone out there with both an enquiring mind and (say) a Macintosh,
- for instance?
-
- Please bear in mind, though, that my instructions relate solely to how
- to get this going under a Microsoft Windows environment, and I have
- zero intention of trying to make them say otherwise.
-
-
- 5.4. Perl
-
- Install your chosen Perl environment. Unless you have a very good
- reason for not doing so, I strongly suggest that you use ActivePerl
- v5.6. For my testing & development, I used build 623. (A recent
- installation used the newer ActivePerl v5.6.1, build 633 without any
- noticable difficulty.) You can get this from:
- http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html
-
-
- The link takes you to an initial page of System Requirements and
- Software Prerequisites. If you do not have it already installed, you
- can download and install the Windows Installer 2.0 for a Win98
- installation. Be forewarned, you will have to reboot your PC at the
- completion of the installer's installation.
-
- If you already have the installer on your PC, simply click on the Next
- arrow at the bottom of the page. Two clicks will finally get you to
- the actual download page. The MSI version of Build 633 is now 8.6MB
- in size, so make that a big cup of tea or coffee if you're on a slow
- dial-up connection.
-
- During installation, please ensure that you do choose the options to
- "Add Perl to the PATH environment variable" and "Create Perl file
- extension association"; it will make your life so much easier. Once
- the installation is finished, be sure to reboot your PC. You probably
- won't be told anywhere else that this needs to be done now, but it
- does. Really.
-
- Once you've rebooted, open a "DOS box" (Start > Run > command might do
- it, if you can't find it elsewhere) and from wherever it lands, type
- PERL -v <ENTER> (it's better if that's a lower-case be rewarded with
- some interesting information about your Perl installation. If you're
- not, you must go back to the beginning and discover what went wrong
- and fix it. It's pointless to proceed unless this simple check is
- passed. Assuming it did work, you may now move on.
-
-
- 5.5. Additional packages
-
- Some extensions ("packages") need to be added to the base Perl
- distribution, and we'll do this next. If you're using the Perl I
- recommended, and don't know any better for yourself, then just blindly
- following these instructions will work just fine. If that didn't
- describe you, then you're on your own.
-
- Visit the following URL:
-
- http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/6xx-builds-only/
-
- and download the following files:-
-
-
-
- Data-Dumper.zip
- Net-Telnet.zip
- TimeDate.zip
- Time-HiRes.zip
- DB_File.zip
-
-
-
- If this is a new installation, now would also be a good time to
- install a copy of WinZip on your PC. Make yourself a convenient
- directory to unpack all of these zip files into (I put mine in
- "D:\ppm>" but "C:\ppm" works just as well.) and do the following (the
- bits you type in are blue ). You can upzip all of the files into the
- same directory. When prompted, simply overwrite the Readme file from
- each zip package. Note that where these files land will be directly
- related to where you chose to install your ActivePerl (mine, as you
- can probably guess from what follows, went into "D:\Perl"):-
-
-
-
- D:\ppm>ppm install Data-Dumper.ppd
- Installing package 'Data-Dumper.ppd'
- Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.bs
- Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.dll
- Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.exp
- Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.lib
- Installing D:\Perl\html\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.html
- Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\Data\Dumper\Dumper.pm
- Writing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.packlist
- D:\ppm>
-
-
-
- I'm not going to bother you with exhaustive details of the rest of
- them, but suffice it to say you need to:
-
-
-
- ppm install DB_File.ppd
- ppm install Net-Telnet.ppd
- ppm install TimeDate.ppd
- ppm install Time-HiRes.ppd
-
-
-
- If all that seemed to work OK, time to move along. Before anyone who
- is familiar with PPM tells me that we didn't need to download and keep
- those files locally, I knew that. I also knew that PPM is sometimes
- awkward to configure via firewalls, and that sometimes the
- repositories don't always work the way we'd hope. I do it that way
- because it suits me.
-
-
- 5.6. Getting Spider
-
- Get the current version of the DX Spider distribution. This needs to
- be v1.50 or later. You've got two ways (currently) of getting this;
- either get a CVS update from sourceforge (if you don't know what this
- is, then it isn't for you) or get the latest "official" release from:
-
- http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html
-
- or if you want the lastest snapshot of CVS version (which is produced
- every night):-
-
- http://www.dxcluster.org/download/CVSlatest.tgz
-
- This is generally the best one to go for as it is completely up to
- date. However, there is always the very slight chance that it might
- unstable. Generally, there will be a note on the website if this is
- the case.
-
-
- The only difference between "CVSlatest.tgz" and the latest "official"
- release version is that it is more up to date. Do not confuse the
- "CVSlatest.tgz" file with "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" -
- they are two quite different things. "Downloading from Sourceforge
- with CVS" is explained in a section within the Admin manual.
-
-
- If you go down the CVS route (ie installing WinCVS as explained in the
- Admin manual and downloaded from sourceforge), then everything will be
- nicely installed on your local disk. If you got the CVSlatest.tgz
- file, unzip (winzip) it to "C:\". This is an important point since
- paths are included within the .tgz file. Make sure you unzip to the
- root directory of whichever drive you use... "C:\" or "D:\" or ..,
- not "C:\spider." If you double click on CVSlatest.tgz, WinZip should
- open with a dialogue box that says the Archive contains a single file
- (CVSlatest.tar) and asks whether WinZip should decompress it to a
- temporary fold and then open it. Say "Yes" and then you will get the
- typical Classical WinZip listing of files ready for extraction.
- Remember, extract them to your desired root directory ("C:\" or "D:\"
- or ...). The following examples assume that you put it on drive
- "C:\", for convenience.
-
-
- 6. Installing the software
-
- At this point you will need to create 2 additional directories under
- "C:\Spider." Make directories "C:\spider\local" and
- "C:\spider\local_cmd". If "C:\spider" is missing, go back and figure
- out why, because it shouldn't be.
-
- Now create your own local copy of the DXVars.pm file by:-
-
-
-
- copy c:\spider\perl\DXVars.pm.issue
- c:\spider\local\DXVars.pm
-
-
-
- Now you'll need to edit this file using a text editor like Notepad. If
- nothing else, you can simply
-
-
-
- cd \spider\local
-
-
-
- and then
-
-
-
- notepad DXVars.pm
-
-
-
- to bring up an editor window containing the file. As an absolute
- minimum you must adjust the following items in DXVars.pm:-
-
-
- o $mycall - Should hold the callsign of your DX Cluster
-
- o $myname - The SysOp's first name
-
- o $myalias - the SysOp's callsign. Cannot be the same as $mycall!
-
- o $myqth - The station's geographical location (QTH).
-
- o $mylatitude - The station latitude in degrees and decimal fractions
-
- o $mylongitude - The station longitude in degrees and decimal
- fractions
-
-
- o $mylocator - The Maidenhead (or QRA) locator of the station
-
- You really also ought to update the $myqth and $myemail variables. And
- unless you are absolutely certain you know what you're doing, you
- should change nothing else in this file. Note that if you use an "@"
- or a "$" character in one of the above strings (typically in $myemail)
- you must write them as "\@" or "\$".
-
-
- 6.1. Incoming telnets
-
- If you want to enable inbound "TELNET" connections (or you are running
- Windows 98, NT, 2000 or XP), you've got a little more work to do. From
- a handy "DOS box" that's not doing anything else, do the following:-
-
-
-
- copy \spider\perl\Listeners.pm \spider\local
- cd \spider\local
- notepad listeners.pm
-
-
-
- The following line need attention:-
-
-
-
- # ["0.0.0.0", 7300],
-
-
-
- On my machine, I've simply uncommented the "0.0.0.0" entry by removing
- the '#' from the front of the line.
-
- You MUST carry out this step if you are running on a Windows 98, NT,
- 2000 or XP based system
-
- If you don't have a static hostname for your machine, and you intend
- to allow folk to connect to your machine across the internet, then I'd
- suggest you pay a visit to www.dyndns.org and create one for yourself.
- While it's free, it will take a modest amount of effort on your part
- to read, understand and implement what needs to be done to set this
- up.
-
-
- If your machine is connected to the internet and you don't want to
- allow your machine to be visible to the outside world you should
- change the "0.0.0.0" to "127.0.0.1" [which is "localhost"]. This will
- then only allow connections from inside your machine. As was said
- earlier: if you aren't running Win9x (or you want to use DXTelnet or
- somesuch), then you need to have the machine listening at least to
- "127.0.0.1" ("0.0.0.0" means all IP addresses).
-
-
- 6.2. The AGW packet engine
-
- On the assumption that you'll be using the SV2AGW Packet Engine to
- interface your radios to the cluster, it would be a good idea to
- download the Packet Engine software! You can get this software from:
-
- http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwpe.zip
-
- Depending upon your TNCs, you may also need to get:
-
- http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/drivers.zip
-
- A couple of the tools:
-
- http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwterm.zip
-
- http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwmonitor.zip
-
- will also help with troubleshooting of the RF links themselves.
-
- Install and configure AGWPE. You should now create your own local
- copy of AGWConnect.pm by:-
-
-
-
- copy c:\spider\perl\AGWConnect.pm
- c:\spider\local\AGWConnect.pm
-
-
-
- and then
-
-
-
- notepad AGWConnect.pm
-
-
-
- to bring up an editor window containing the file. You must consider
- adjusting the following items in AGWConnect.pm:-
-
-
- o $enable - set to '1' to enable AGWPE interface
-
- o $login - the login ID you chose when you set up the SV2AGW
- security :-)
-
- o $passwd - password that matches $login
-
- The login ID and passwd only need to be set if you are accessing AGW
- separately via its web interface. This interface is normally not
- needed for use with DXSpider.
-
-
- 6.3. Setting up the initial user files
-
- Next you need to create the initial user files, etc. A tool is
- supplied which will do this for you. To run the tool:-
-
-
-
- cd \spider\perl
- perl create_sysop.pl
-
-
-
- If all goes according to plan, you will see no output from this
- program, and after a brief wait, your DOS prompt will be returned.
-
- Depending on how brave you are, you might now care to try the
- following:-
-
-
- perl cluster.pl
-
-
-
- If you did everything you were told, your DOS window will now hold a
- display which looks something like:-
-
-
-
- DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.50
- Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
- loading prefixes ...
- loading band data ...
- loading user file system ...
- starting listeners ...
- Internal port: localhost 27754
- load badwords: Ok
- reading in duplicate spot and WWV info ...
- reading existing message headers ...
- load badmsg: Ok
- load forward: Ok
- load swop: Ok
- @msg = 0 before delete
- @msg = 0 after delete
- reading cron jobs ...v cron: reading /spider/cmd/crontab
- cron: adding 1 0 * * 0
- DXUser::export("$main::data/user_asc")
- reading database descriptors ...
- doing local initialisation ...
- orft we jolly well go ...
- queue msg (0)
-
-
-
- Now, if that's what you've got, you are very nearly home and dry (in
- as far as these particular experiments are concerned, anyhow)
-
- If you are running Windows 9x you can access your new cluster (from
- the local machine) by finding yourself another "DOS box" and doing the
- following:-
-
-
-
- cd \spider\perl
- perl winclient.pl
-
-
-
- If you are running Windows NT, 2000 or XP then winclient.pl does not
- work. We don't know why other than this seems to be some kind of
- incomaptibility in perl. You can achieve the same thing by telnetting
- to the port you defined in Listeners.pm (7300 as default), thus:-
-
-
-
- Menu->Start->Run
- telnet localhost 7300
-
-
-
- On getting the login: prompt, enter your sysop callsign (the one you
- put in DXVars.pm as $myalias).
- I would recommend strongly that you obtain a better telnet client than
- that which comes with windows (I use PuTTY).
-
-
- Anyway, if you are rewarded with a display which looks something
- like:-
-
-
-
- Hello Iain, this is GB7SJP in Amersham, Bucks running DXSpider V1.50
- Cluster: 1 nodes, 1 local / 1 total users Max users 2 Uptime 0 00:00
- M0ADI de GB7SJP 4-Mar-2001 1511Z >
-
-
-
- You've arrived. Try some commands, and see how they feel. (In case you
- were wondering, "Iain", "M0ADI" and "GB7SJP" all came from the version
- of DXVars.pm that was on the machine when I started the winclient.pl)
-
-
- The interface is very basic. It is a simple command line. There are
- better looking interfaces. Most of the "standard" logging and DX
- Cluster access programs that are capable of connecting via a TCP or
- telnet connection will work as a "Sysop Console" client. You connect
- to "localhost" on the port that you defined in Listeners.pm (usually
- 7300). I recommend packages like DXTelnet.
-
-
- 6.4. Connecting to other clusters
-
- If you want to connect this to another cluster, then you'll want to
- negotiate a link with someone. For experimental purposes, I'm happy to
- allow folk to connect to GB7DXA (spud.ath.cx), on the understanding
- that the system may or may not be there and may or may not be
- connected to anything particularly useful at any given moment. Contact
- me by Email if you want me to set up a connection for you.
-
-
- 7. General Information
-
- The following relates to all versions of DXSpider and is not platform
- related.
-
-
- 7.1. The crontab file
-
- Login as sysop and create a file in /spider/local_cmd called crontab.
- Edit it with your favourite editor and add a line like this (I have
- included a comment)
-
-
-
- # check every 10 minutes to see if gb7xxx is connected and if not
- # start a connect job going
-
- 0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('gb7xxx') unless connected('gb7xxx')
-
-
-
- The callsign involved will be the callsign of the cluster node you are
- going to connect to. This will now check every 10 minutes to see if
- gb7xxx is connected, if it is then nothing will be done. If it is
- not, then a connect attempt will be started.
- There are probably lots of other things you could use this crontab
- file for. If you want to know more about it, look at the DXSpider
- website at the cron page where it is explained more fully.
-
-
-