1 <!doctype linuxdoc system>
5 <!-- Title information -->
7 <title>The DXSpider Installation Manual v1.50</title>
8 <author>Iain Philipps, G0RDI (g0rdi@77hz.com),
9 Ian Maude, G0VGS, (g0vgs@gb7mbc.net) and Charlie
10 Carroll, K1XX, (k1xx@ptcnh.net)</author>
11 <date>March 2003 revision 0.7</date>
14 A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
17 <!-- Table of contents -->
20 <!-- Begin the document -->
22 <sect>Linux Installation
27 This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.50 on a
28 <htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat"> Linux Distribution.
29 Wherever possible I will try to include differences for other distributions.
32 I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands. You should
33 know how to use <em>tar</em> and how to edit files using your favourite editor.
36 The crucial ingredient for all of this is
37 <htmlurl url="http://www.perl.org" name="Perl">. Earlier versions of
38 Spider required perl 5.004, however it is now <it>STRONGLY</it> recommended
39 that you use at least version 5.6.1 as this is the version being used
40 in the development of Spider.
43 In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the
44 following modules from <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/" name="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/"> , please note however that with later versions of perl, some of these
45 modules may be included with the distribution. Get the modules anyway and try
46 to install as below. If they complain, they are probably already a part of your
51 <item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Data/Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz" name="Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz"> <em> this is included in perl 5.6.1 and above </em>
52 <item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Date/TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz" name="TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz">
53 <item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/IO/IO-1.20.tar.gz" name="IO-1.20.tar.gz"> (<em>for perl 5.00403 and lower</em>)
54 <item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz" name="Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz">
55 <item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Curses/Curses-1.06.tar.gz" name="Curses-1.06.tar.gz">
56 <item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Time/Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz" name="Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz">
57 <item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Digest/Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz" name="Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz">
61 Copy the CPAN modules listed above to a convenient place on your computer. One good
62 place would be /usr/local/packages, and the instructions which follow will assume that
63 that's where you have put them.
66 Log in as 'root', and make sure you're at '/root' before you continue. Here are exactly the commands you must issue next: -
69 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz
76 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz
83 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Curses-1.06.tar.gz
90 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz
97 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz
106 Only if you need to do these (because your perl is old):-
110 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/IO-1.20.tar.gz
114 # make install UNINST=1
117 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz
118 # cd Data-Dumper-2.101
127 Do not fall into the trap of thinking they're all the same, just because they
128 nearly are! Pay particular attention to the instructions of <em>IO</em>, above.
134 I will assume that you have already downloaded the latest tarball of
135 the DXSpider software and are ready to install it. I am assuming version
136 1.50 for this section but of course you would use the latest version.
139 Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under. <bf><it>UNDER
140 NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE ROOT AS THIS USER!</it></bf>. I am going to use
141 the name <em>sysop</em>. You can call it anything you wish. Depending
142 on your security requirements you may wish to use an existing user,
143 however this is your own choice.
150 For SuSE distributions, the command would be ..
157 Now set a password for the user ...
162 # Retype new UNIX password:
163 passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
166 <sect1>Installing the software
169 Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group
170 permissions. Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.
174 # tar xvfz spider-1.50.tar.gz
175 # ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
176 # groupadd -g 251 spider (or another number)
180 If you do not have the command <em>groupadd</em> available to you simply
181 add a line in /etc/group by hand.
184 # vi /etc/group (or your favorite editor)
188 You also need to add some others to the group, including your own callsign
189 (this will be used as an alias) and root. The finished line in /etc/group
190 should look something like this
193 spider:x:251:sysop,g0vgs,root
197 The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree and files ....
200 # chown -R sysop.spider spider
201 # find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
202 # find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;
206 This last step allows various users of the group <em>spider</em> to have
207 write access to all the directories. This is not really needed just yet
208 but will be useful when web interfaces start to appear.
211 Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and netrom_call
212 programs. Check where they are with the <em>locate</em> command and alter
213 the permissions with the <em>chmod</em> command like this ..
216 # chown root ax25_call netrom_call
217 # chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call
220 <sect1>Setting callsigns etc
223 Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier. In my case that
224 user is called <em>sysop</em>. Once logged in, issue the following commands ....
230 $ cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm
232 $ vi DXVars.pm (or your favourite editor)
236 Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster callsign,
237 sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own environment.
244 This is the call sign of your cluster. Here in the UK we have
245 separate callsigns for our cluster nodes. If you can't use a different callsign I suggest
246 you use an SSID of '-2' for the node callsign '$mycall'.
253 This is the sysop user callsign, normally your own.
256 <bf>PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS</bf>
259 Note that this a perl file which will be parsed and executed as part of the
260 cluster. If you get it wrong then perl will complain when you start the cluster
261 process. It is important only to alter the text of any section. Some of the
262 lines look a little odd. Take this line for example ....
265 $myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";
269 There appears to be an extra slash in there. However this has to be there
270 for the file to work so leave it in.
273 DON'T alter any file in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every
274 release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or /spider/local_cmd
275 will automagically be used in preference to the ones in /spider/perl EVEN
276 while the cluster is running!
279 Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....
286 Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with you as
293 <sect1>The client program
296 In earlier versions of Spider, all the processes were Perl scripts. This
297 was fine but with a lot of users your computer memory would soon be used up.
298 To combat this a new client was written in "C". This client only works for
299 <em>incoming</em> connects at the moment. Before you can use it though it
300 has to be "made". CD to /spider/src and type <em>make</em>. You
301 should see the output on your screen and hopefully now have a small C program
302 called <em>client</em>. Leave it in this directory.
305 <sect1>Starting up for the first time
308 We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well or not!
309 It should look something like this ...
313 DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.50
314 Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
316 loading band data ...
317 loading user file system ...
318 starting listener ...
319 reading existing message headers
321 orft we jolly well go ...
325 If all is well then login on another term or console as <em>sysop</em> and
326 cd to /spider/src. Now issue the following command ...
333 This should log you into the cluster as the sysop under the alias callsign we
334 set earlier. In this case the callsign is G0VGS. The cluster callsign is set
335 in the DXVars.pm file in /spider/local. In this case we will assume that this
336 was set as GB7MBC. You should therefore see this when you login ....
339 G0VGS de GB7MBC 19-Nov-1999 2150Z >
343 If you do, congratulations! If not, look over the instructions again, you
344 have probably missed something out. You can shut spider down again with the
352 and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.
355 <sect>Linux quick installation guide
358 This section is designed for experienced Spider sysops who want to install
359 Spider from scratch. It is simply a check list of things that need to be
360 done without any explanations. The name in brackets at the end of each line
361 is the user that should be doing that process.
365 <item>Get the additional CPAN modules and install them (root)
366 <item>Create the "sysop" user and set a password (root)
367 <item>Put the Spider tarball in ~sysop and untar it (root)
368 <item>ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider (root)
369 <item>groupadd -g 251 spider (root)
370 <item>Add any more users you need to the group entry in /etc/group (root)
371 <item>Set the permissions on the spider tree (root)
372 <item>Fix permissions on ax25_call and netrom_call (root)
373 <item>Login as the sysop user
374 <item>cd to /spider (sysop)
375 <item>mkdir local (sysop)
376 <item>mkdir local_cmd (sysop)
377 <item>cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm (sysop)
378 <item>cd to /spider/local and edit DXVars to set your details (sysop)
379 <item>cd ../perl (sysop)
380 <item>./create_sysop.pl (sysop)
381 <item>./cluster.pl (sysop)
385 Spider should now be running and you should be able to login using the
390 <item>Enter the correct line in ax25d.conf (root)
391 <item>Enter the correct line in /etc/services (root)
392 <item>Enter the correct line in /etc/inetd.conf (root)
393 <item>killall -HUP inetd (root)
397 Spider should now be able to accept logins via telnet, netrom and ax25.
401 <item>Start the cluster (sysop)
402 <item>set/node and type for links (sysop)
403 <item>Write any connect scripts (sysop)
404 <item>Edit /spider/crontab as required (sysop)
405 <item>Edit any other files as necessary (sysop)
406 <item>Set filters, hops and forwarding files (sysop)
408 <item>Enter the correct line in /etc/inittab (root)
411 <sect>Setting up the AX25 Utilities
414 The aim of this section is not to fully cover the installation
415 and configuration of all the possible ax25 modules. I will
416 attempt to cover a simple installation and configure 2 serial
417 ports as if they had TNC's on them. I will also show what
418 additional configuration the DXSpider program requires.
421 Please bear in mind that I am basing this section on a RedHat
422 7.1 distribution, if you are using SuSe or any other distibution
423 then your mileage may vary. I will be happy to make any changes
424 and additions if you email me any errors or distribution specific
428 You would probably benefit from reading the <htmlurl url="http://www.fokus.gmd.de/linux/HOWTO/html_single/AX25-HOWTO.html#AEN151" name="AX25-HOWTO"> which is much more
429 comprehensive and an interesting configuration program is also available
430 called <htmlurl url="http://1409.org/projects/index.html" name="ax25-config"> which
431 may help you to configure things.
434 The following files are extracts from the working files at GB7MBC and
435 are in daily use. However, there are many ways that you can configure the
436 ax25 utils, this is just the one I use, it does not mean it is necessarily
437 the best or for that matter, the right way!
439 <sect1>Getting Started
442 There are 2 things you need to do initially. You need to get the
443 3 files required for the ax25 installation and you need to make
444 some changes to the kernel configuration.
447 The first thing is to get the versions of the ax25 utils that match
448 your kernel. You may also wish to get a node package of some kind.
449 There are 2 main node packages in use of which I shall keep to the
450 original by Tomi Manninen, OH2BNS as this is included in the ax25
451 rpms as standard. The other is <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/ham/packet/linux/awznode/" name="AWZNode"> by IZ5AWZ.
454 NB: The AX25 stuff in 2.4 kernels appears to have been broken until 2.4.18. I
455 strongly suggest you get at least this kernel.
458 For 2.4 kernels you need these files...
462 <item> <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/redhat/7.1/en/powertools/i386/RedHat/RPMS/libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm" name="libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm">
463 <item> <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/redhat/7.1/en/powertools/i386/RedHat/RPMS/ax25-tools-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm" name="ax25-tools-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm">
464 <item> <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.rpmfind.net/linux/redhat/7.1/en/powertools/i386/RedHat/RPMS/ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm" name="ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm">
470 First you need to add Amateur Radio Support to your kernel. This is
471 a main menu item and should be easily found. Within this header you
472 will find lots of options. For our purposes you need to enable
473 Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 Protocol, NET/ROM and the Serial Port
474 KISS Driver. For the purposes of this document I will work under the
475 assumption that you include them in the kernel fully, ie not as modules.
476 If you need to look at compiling your kernel for ax25 more fully, I would
477 refer to the excellent
478 <htmlurl url="http://www.fokus.gmd.de/linux/HOWTO/html_single/AX25-HOWTO.html#AEN151" name="AX25-HOWTO">
481 I should say at this stage that NET/ROM is not mandatory. If you do not use it
482 simply ignore any instruction concerning it.
485 Now recompile your kernel in the normal way and reboot your system.
487 <sect1>Installing the RPM's
490 Now install the RPM's you downloaded, libax25 first, then ax25-tools,
494 rpm -ivh libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm
495 rpm -ivh ax25-tool-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm
496 rpm -ivh ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm
502 You will find the configuration files in /etc/ax25. These consist of
514 These are the main files. You will find other files but they do not
515 have any use unless you are wanting to use that particular protocol,
516 Rose or axip for example.
519 NOTE:- before we start it is important to realise that every interface
520 requires a different SSID. You should be able to follow this in the
526 This file sets up the ax25 ports you want to use. An example is below
527 for a standard TNC2 ...
530 #portname callsign baudrate paclen window description
531 2m gb7mbc-2 19200 256 2 2m port on 144.900MHz
532 4m gb7mbc-4 19200 256 2 4m port on 70.325MHz
536 Note that the portnames have to be unique.
539 The file headings are as follows ...
542 portname - The name you will refer to the port by
543 callsign - The ax25 callsign you want to assign to the port
544 baudrate - The speed you communicate between TNC and computer
545 paclen - The maximum packet length for ax25 connections
546 window - The ax25 window parameter. This is like 'maxframe'
547 description - A textual description of the port
553 This file sets up the netrom ports you want to use. An example is below
554 and includes a port for both cluster and node. You will see why we need
558 #portname callsign alias paclen description
559 netrom gb7mbc-8 BARE 236 Node Netrom Port
560 netrom2 gb7mbc-9 MBCDX 236 Cluster Netrom Port
564 Note that the portnames have to be unique.
567 The file headings are as follows ...
570 portname - The name you will refer to the port by
571 callsign - This is the callsign that NET/ROM traffic from this
573 alias - The NET/ROM alias this port will be assigned
574 paclen - The maximum size of NET/ROM frames transmitted
575 description - A textual description of the port
581 This file sets up the netrom broadcast qualities. An example is below ...
584 #axport min_obs def_qual worst_qual verbose
589 The file headings are as follows ...
592 axport - The port name in axports that you wish to broadcast
594 min_obs - The minimum obsolescence value for the port
595 def_qual - The default quality for the port
596 worst_qual - The worst quality for the port. Any routes under
597 this quality will be ignored
598 verbose - This flag determines whether you will only broadcast
599 your own node (0) or all known nodes (1)
605 This file controls any incoming ax25 and NET/ROM connections and steers
606 them to the relevant program. There are lots of configuration options
607 you can set here, however they are well covered in the AX25-HOWTO. For
608 our purposes I will show a typical set of parameters. An example is
613 parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
615 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
618 parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
620 default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
623 parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
625 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
628 parameters 2 1 6 900 * 15 0
630 default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
633 parameters 1 10 * * * 3 *
635 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
638 parameters 1 10 * * * 3 *
640 default * * * * * * 0 root /usr/sbin/node node
644 There are a few things to take note of here. Firstly, all ax25
645 sections are wrapped in [ ] and all NET/ROM sections are wrapped in
646 < >. Secondly you should be able to see that anyone who forgets to
647 set their callsign in a TNC and tries to connect with the standard
648 NOCALL set into their TNC will not connect, the 'L' means 'lockout'.
649 Lastly and importantly, notice the order of the sections. They are
650 all done in interface order.
653 You should be able to see that the normal line for access to the
654 cluster is like this ..
657 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
661 however, if you wish your users to be able to use SSID's on their callsigns ..
664 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %s ax25
668 For most purposes this is not desirable. The only time you probably will
669 need this is when you need to allow other cluster nodes that are using SSID's
670 in. In this case it would probably be better to use the first example and
671 then add a specific line for that node like this:
674 GB7DJK-2 * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client gb7djk-2 ax25
675 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
681 For those of you that wish to run the node, you need to set up the
682 node.conf file. There are a couple of additional files, node.perms is
683 very similar to the way ftp permissions are set up in NOS systems and
684 node.motd is the message anyone logging into the node will get.
685 The node.conf file sets all the parameters of the node as you would
686 expect. An example is below ...
689 # /etc/ax25/node.conf - LinuxNode configuration file
693 # Idle timeout (seconds).
697 # Timeout when gatewaying (seconds).
701 # Visible hostname. Will be shown at telnet login.
703 HostName gb7mbc.ampr.org
711 #LocalNet 44.139.8.48/32
713 # Command aliases. See node.conf(5) for the meaning of the uppercase
714 # letters in the name of the alias.
716 ##Alias CAllbook 'telnet %{2:44.17.0.53} 1235 %1 s'
717 #Alias CONVers 'telnet %{2:oh2ti} 3600 "/n %u %{1:139}\n/w *"'
718 #Alias CLuster 'c hkiclh'
719 Alias CONV "telnet lurpac 3600"
720 Alias BBS "c 70cm gb7crv"
721 Alias DXC "telnet localhost 9000"
722 Alias MUD "telnet homer 4000"
723 ##Alias TEMP "finger temp@mary.g6phf"
724 ##Alias TNOS "c ip1 gb7mbc-5"
725 ##Alias TUtor "telnet gb7mbc 3599"
731 # External commands. See node.conf(5) for the meaning of the uppercase
732 # letters in the name of the extcmd.
734 # Flags: 1 Run command through pipe
737 #ExtCmd TPM 3 nobody /usr/bin/finger finger tpm
738 #ExtCmd ECho 1 nobody /bin/echo echo \%U \%u \%S \%s \%P \%p \%R \%r \%T \%t \%\% \%0 \%{1:foobar} \%{2} \%3 \%4 \%5
742 NodeId "\nBARE:GB7MBC-1"
743 #NodeId \033[01;31m***\033[0m
745 # Netrom port name. This port is used for outgoing netrom connects.
753 # The escape character (CTRL-T)
757 # Resolve ip numbers to addresses?
764 #NodePrompt "%s@%h \%i> "
765 NodePrompt "\nBARE:GB7MBC-1 \%i > "
766 #NodePrompt "\a\033[36m%U\033[0m de \033[01;32m#LNODE\033[0m:\033[01;33mOH2BNS-10\033[0m> "
770 This should be fairly obvious I hope.
772 <sect1>Getting it all running
775 Ok, now we have all the relevant files configured, the next step is to get
779 The first thing to do is attach the TNC's. Your TNC's should be in KISS mode
780 and connected to the serial ports involved.
783 You now use the 'kissattach' command to connect the TNC's to the system like this ...
786 kissattach /dev/ttyS0 2m 44.131.96.199
787 kissattach /dev/ttyS1 4m 44.131.96.199
791 Assuming that 44.131.96.199 is your IP address. The devices ttyS0 and ttyS1 are com1 and
792 com2 respectively. Now we can set some parameters ...
795 kissparms -p 2m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
796 kissparms -p 4m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
800 The command 'man kissparms' will give you the explanation of the switches.
803 Now we need to attach the NET/ROM ports in the same way ...
811 All of the above can be put in a file and called from /etc/rc.d/rc.local. Put all
812 the above commands in a file called rc.ax25 and put a line in rc.local to call it.
815 Now you can start the daemons that set everything in motion ...
823 All should now be running. All that remains is to get the node working for telnet
824 connections. If nothing else, this will allow you to connect to the node yourself
825 to check on connection status etc. There are 2 files that need to be edited.
828 First edit /etc/services and add
831 node 3000/tcp #OH2BNS's Node Software
835 Assuming you want it to run on port 3000
838 Now cd /etc/xinetd.d and edit a new file called node. It should look like this ...
842 # unencrypted username/password pairs for authentication.
848 server = /usr/sbin/node
849 log_on_failure += USERID
855 You now need to restart the xinetd daemon. First find out what the PID is
863 You will get a reply something like this ...
866 root 592 0.0 0.1 2256 620 ? S Feb07 0:00 xinetd -stayalive -reuse -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid
870 The PID or Process ID is 592 in this case so now we can issue the command ...
877 All should now be operational and you should be able to log into the node by
878 using a telnet session to the relevant port, like so ...
881 telnet localhost 3000
885 If that works, you are just about there. you should (assuming you have radios connected
886 to the TNC's) be able to connect out to other stations and receive incoming ax25 and
891 <sect1>Allowing ax25 connects from users
894 This is dealt with in the previous section
896 <sect1>Allowing telnet connects from users
899 >From version 1.47 there is a new (more efficient) way of doing this
900 (see next section) but, if you prefer, the method of doing it described
901 here will continue to work just fine.
904 Allowing telnet connections is quite simple. Firstly you need to add a line
905 in /etc/services to allow connections to a port number, like this ....
908 spdlogin 8000/tcp # spider anonymous login port
912 Then add a line in /etc/inetd.conf like this ....
915 spdlogin stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client login telnet
919 Once this is done, you need to restart inetd like this ....
926 Now login as <em>sysop</em> and cd spider/src. You can test that spider
927 is accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command ....
930 ./client login telnet
934 You should get a login prompt and on issuing a callsign, you will be given
935 access to the cluster. Note, you will not get a password login. There seems
936 no good reason for a password prompt to be given so it is not asked for.
939 Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console ....
942 telnet localhost 8000
946 You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before.
948 <sect1>Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)
951 >From version 1.47 you can choose to allow the perl cluster.pl program to
952 allow connections directly (i.e. not via the <tt>/spider/src/client</tt>
953 interface program). If you are using Windows then this is the only method
954 available of allowing incoming telnet connections.
957 To do this you need first to remove any line that you may previously have set
958 up in /etc/inetd.conf. Remember to:-
965 to make the change happen...
968 Having done that, you need to copy the file
969 <em>/spider/perl/Listeners.pm</em> to <em>/spider/local</em> and
970 then edit it. You will need to uncomment the line containing &dquot;0.0.0.0&dquot;
971 and select the correct port to listen on. So that it looks like this:-
980 As standard, the listener will listen on all interfaces simultaneously.
981 If you require more control than this, you can specify each interface
986 ["gb7baa.dxcluster.net", 8000],
987 ["44.131.16.2", 6300],
992 This will only be successful if the IP addresses on each interface are static.
993 If you are using some kind of dynamic IP addressing then the 'default' method
994 is the only one that will work.
997 Restart the cluster.pl program to enable the listener.
1000 One important difference with the internal listener is that no echoing
1001 is done by the cluster program. Users will need to set 'local-echo' on in
1002 their telnet clients if it isn't set automatically (as per the standards).
1003 Needless to say this will probably only apply to Windows users.
1005 <sect1>Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)
1008 AGW Engine is a Windows based ax25 stack. You can connect to an AGW engine
1009 from Linux as well as Windows based machines.
1012 In order to enable access to an AGW Engine you need to copy
1013 <em>/spider/perl/AGWConnect.pm</em> to <em>/spider/local</em> and edit it.
1014 Specifically you must:-
1017 <item> set <tt>$enable</tt> to 1.
1018 <item> set <tt>$login</tt> and <tt>$passwd</tt> to the values set up in your AGW installation.
1019 If you haven't set any there, then you should not touch these values.
1020 <item> You can connect to a remote AGW engine (ie on some other machine) by changing <tt>$addr</tt>
1021 and <tt>$port</tt> appropriately.
1022 <item> Restart the cluster.pl program
1026 <sect1>Setting up node connects
1029 In order to allow cluster node connections, spider needs to know that the
1030 connecting callsign is a cluster node. This is the case whether the connect
1031 is incoming or outgoing. In spider this is a simple task and can be done in
1035 Later versions of Spider can distinguish different software and treat them
1036 differently. For example, the WCY beacon cannot be handles by AK1A type
1037 nodes as AK1A does not know what to do with PC73. There are 4 different
1038 types of node at present and although they may not have any major
1039 differences at the moment, it allows for compatibility. The 4 types are ...
1042 set/node (AK1A type)
1049 For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is an
1053 Start up the cluster as you did before and login as the sysop with client.
1054 The cluster node I am wanting to make a connection to is GB7BAA but you would
1055 obviously use whatever callsign you required. At the prompt type ...
1062 The case does not matter as long as you have a version of DXSpider later than
1063 1.33. Earlier versions required the callsign to be in upper case.
1066 That is now set, it is as simple as that. To prove it, login on yet another
1067 console as sysop, cd to spider/src and issue the command ...
1070 ./client gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
1074 You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ...
1081 If the callsign you just set up as a cluster node is for an incoming connect,
1082 this is all that needs to be done. If the connection is to be outgoing then
1083 a connection script needs to be written.
1086 Sometimes you make a mistake... Honest, it does happen. If you want to make a node
1087 back to being a normal user, regardless
1088 of what type it is, do:
1094 <sect1>Connection scripts
1097 Because DXSpider operates under Linux, connections can be made using just about
1098 any protocol; AX25, NETRom, tcp/ip, ROSE etc are all possible examples.
1099 Connect scripts live in the /spider/connect directory and are simple ascii files.
1100 Writing a script for connections is therefore relatively simple.
1103 The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following keywords
1108 <tag/#/All lines starting with a <tt>#</tt> are ignored, as are completely
1111 <tag/timeout/<tt>timeout</tt> followed by a number is the number of seconds to wait for a
1112 command to complete. If there is no timeout specified in the script
1113 then the default is 60 seconds.
1115 <tag/abort/ <tt>abort</tt> is a regular expression containing one or more strings to look
1116 for to abort a connection. This is a perl regular expression and is
1117 executed ignoring case.
1119 <tag/connect/<tt>connect</tt> followed by ax25, agw (for Windows users) or telnet and some type dependent
1120 information. In the case of a telnet connection, there can be up to
1122 The first is the ip address or hostname of the computer you wish to
1123 connect to and the second is the port number you want to use (this
1124 can be left out if it is a normal telnet session).
1125 In the case of an ax25 session then this would normally be a call to
1126 ax25_call or netrom_call as in the example above. It is your
1127 responsibility to get your node and other ax25 parameters to work
1128 before going down this route!
1130 <tag/'/<tt>'</tt> is the delimiting character for a word or phrase of an expect/send
1131 line in a chat type script. The words/phrases normally come in pairs,
1132 either can be empty. Each line reads input from the connection until
1133 it sees the string (or perl regular expression) contained in the
1134 left hand string. If the left hand string is empty then it doesn't
1135 read or wait for anything. The comparison is done ignoring case.
1136 When the left hand string has found what it is looking for (if it is)
1137 then the right hand string is sent to the connection.
1138 This process is repeated for every line of chat script.
1140 <tag/client/<tt>client</tt> starts the connection, put the arguments you would want here
1141 if you were starting the client program manually. You only need this
1142 if the script has a different name to the callsign you are trying to
1143 connect to (i.e. you have a script called other which actually
1144 connects to GB7DJK-1 [instead of a script called gb7djk-1]).
1148 There are many possible ways to configure the script but here are three examples,
1149 one for a NETRom/AX25 connect, one for AGW engines and one for tcp/ip.
1153 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
1154 # don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
1155 connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
1158 'Connect' 'c gb7dxm'
1159 # you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
1167 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
1168 # this does exactly the same as the previous example
1169 # the '1' is the AGW port number to connect thru for g1tlh
1173 'Connect' 'c gb7dxm'
1174 # you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
1182 connect telnet dirkl.tobit.co.uk
1185 # tell GB7DJK-1 that it is connected to GB7DJK
1186 # you can leave this out if you call this script 'gb7djk'
1187 client gb7djk telnet
1191 Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the other end.
1192 You will find other examples in the /spider/examples directory.
1194 <sect1>Starting the connection
1197 You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login, by typing
1198 in the word <em>connect</em> followed by a script name like this ....
1201 G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2041Z >connect gb7djk-1
1202 connection to GB7DJK-1 started
1203 G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
1207 This will start a connection using the script called <em>gb7djk-1</em>. You can
1208 follow the connection by watching the term or console from where you started
1209 <em>cluster.pl</em>. From version 1.47 onwards, you will need to <tt>set/debug connect</tt> first.
1210 You should see something like this ...
1213 <- D G1TLH connect gb7djk-1
1214 -> D G1TLH connection to GB7DJK-1 started
1215 -> D G1TLH G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2046Z >
1217 CONNECT sort: telnet command: dirkl.tobit.co.uk
1218 CHAT "login" -> "gb7djk"
1220 Red Hat Linux release 5.1 (Manhattan)
1221 Kernel 2.0.35 on an i586
1225 CHAT "word" -> "gb7djk"
1227 received "Password: "
1229 Connected to GB7DJK-1, starting normal protocol
1230 <- O GB7DJK-1 telnet
1232 GB7DJK-1 channel func state 0 -> init
1234 <- D GB7DJK-1 Last login: Sun Dec 13 17:59:56 from dirk1
1235 <- D GB7DJK-1 PC38^GB7DJK-1^~
1236 <- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users Max users 0 Uptime
1243 With later versions of Spider there is a set/login command for users. This
1244 tells them when a user or node logs in or out. If you do not add a line to
1245 your scripts after the final line (or before the client line which should always
1246 be last if needed) then the login/logout information will be sent to users
1247 <it>before</it> the login actually completes. This means if a node is
1248 unreachable, it will continue sending logins and logouts to users even though it
1249 is not actually connecting. To avoid this use the following line ...
1256 In a script, this might look like ...
1260 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
1261 connect telnet mary 3000
1263 '>' 'telnet 44.131.93.96 7305'
1270 Cluster links in particular suffer greatly from the presence of telnet echo.
1271 This is caused by the telnet negotiation itself and can create at worst severe
1272 loops. At best it creates unnecessary bandwidth and large logfiles! There are
1273 things that can be done to limit this problem but will not always work dependent
1274 on the route taken to connect.
1277 Telnet echo itself should only be a problem if the connection is being made to
1278 the telnet port (23). This port uses special rules that include echo negotiation.
1279 If the connection is to a different port, such as 7300, this negotiation does
1280 not happen and therefore no echo should be present.
1283 Sometimes it is not possible to make a direct connection to another node and this
1284 can cause problems. There is a way of trying to suppress the telnet echo but
1285 this will not always work, unfortunately it is difficult to be more specific.
1286 Here is an example of what I mean ...
1290 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
1291 connect telnet mary.lancs.ac.uk
1294 '\$' 'stty -echo raw'
1295 '\$' 'telnet 44.131.93.96'
1300 So, the first connection is made by Spider. This is fine as Spider uses the
1301 Net_Telnet script from within perl. This actually uses TCP rather than TELNET
1302 so no negotiation will be done on the first connection. Once connected to
1303 mary.lancs.ac.uk, the command is sent to suppress echo. Now a telnet is made
1304 to a cluster node that is accepting connections on port 23. The problem with
1305 this link is that the negotiation is made by the remote machine, therefore you
1306 have no control over it. The chances are that this link will create echo and
1307 there will be no way you can stop it.
1310 <sect1>Autostarting the cluster
1313 Ok, you should now have DXSpider running nicely and allowing connects by cluster
1314 nodes or users. However, it has to be shutdown and restarted manually. It
1315 would be much easier to have it start automatically.
1318 This is not only a way to start the cluster automatically, it also works as a
1319 watchdog, checking the sanity of DXSpider and respawning it should it crash for
1320 any reason. Before doing the following, shutdown the cluster as you did earlier.
1323 Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite editor. Add
1324 the following lines to the file near the end ...
1327 ##Start DXSpider on bootup and respawn it should it crash
1328 DX:3:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
1332 This line works fine for RedHat distributions. It is also fine for SuSE up to
1333 7.0. From SuSE 7.1 you need to add runlevels 2 and 5 like this ...
1336 DX:235:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
1340 The line required for Slackware distributions is slightly different. My thanks to
1341 Aurelio, PA3EZL for this information.
1344 DX:23:respawn:/bin/su - sysop -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" >/dev/tty7
1348 This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and restart
1349 it should it crash for any reason.
1352 NB: It should be noted that /dev/tty7 is only an example. Some SuSE systems will
1353 only accept upto tty6. It really does not matter which tty you run it on.
1356 As root type the command <em>telinit q</em>. DXSpider should start up
1357 immediately. You will see the output on tty7 and if you login as <em>sysop</em>
1358 you should find everything running nicely.
1360 <sect>Microsoft Windows Installation
1367 What you'll be left with once you've followed these instructions
1368 is (hopefully) a working DX Spider v1.50 system that is capable
1369 of accepting or originating "internet" connections, plus inbound
1370 and outbound AX.25 and TCP/IP radio connections.
1372 On the other hand, you may have an enquiring mind, or better yet,
1373 may be looking for a useful way of connecting your current
1374 (perhaps) AK1A cluster "to the internet" via some networking
1375 mechanism (BPQEther, etc) or other. I won't be producing
1376 instructions for the latter case, because I don't have an AK1A to
1377 play with. But someone might ...
1379 Whatever, this document is intended to get you started with DX
1380 Spider in a Microsoft Windows ™ environment. It's not
1381 intended to teach you anything other than how to perform a
1382 minimum configuration of a DX Spider installation and have it
1383 able to connect across "the internet" to other DX Clusters, while
1384 accepting inbound TELNET and radio connections.
1386 <sect1>The requirements
1389 The very first things you're going to need are (in order of
1393 <item>A cup of good, strong tea
1394 <item>A supported Windows platform with an internet connection so you can
1395 download the necessary software bits and bobs directly to it. There are other ways, but this is preferable.
1396 <item>Another cup of good, strong tea
1397 <item>If all goes according to plan, about an hour to spare
1398 <item>Plenty of good, strong tea
1404 The platform I used to generate these instructions was a
1405 "vanilla" Microsoft Windows Me 4.90.3000 system, with a 700MHz
1406 AMD Athlon processor and 96 Mb memory. I've also personally
1407 verified that it runs on my laptop (Pentium 266MHz, 32 Mb memory,
1408 Windows 98 SE v4.10.2222 A) and a computer that I assembled from
1409 a random pile of junk (AMD K6-2 333MHz, 64 Mb memory, Windows 98
1410 v4.10.1998). As a result, I have reason to believe that what I'm
1411 about to describe will perform equally on any 32-bit MS Windows
1412 environment with 32 Mb of memory.
1414 Because of the changes that have recently been made to the core
1415 "cluster.pl" module and the introduction of a very lightweight
1416 "winclient.pl", I have a sneaking suspicion that this will now
1417 run on any platform that has reasonably complete support for
1418 Perl. Is there someone out there with both an enquiring mind and
1419 (say) a Macintosh, for instance?
1421 Please bear in mind, though, that my instructions relate solely
1422 to how to get this going under a Microsoft Windows environment,
1423 and I have zero intention of trying to make them say otherwise.
1428 Install your chosen Perl environment. Unless you have a very good
1429 reason for not doing so, I strongly suggest that you use
1430 ActivePerl v5.6. For my testing & development, I used build 623.
1431 (A recent installation used the newer ActivePerl v5.6.1, build
1432 633 without any noticable difficulty.) You can get this from:
1433 <htmlurl url="http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html"
1434 name="http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html">
1436 The link takes you to an initial page of System Requirements and
1437 Software Prerequisites. If you do not have it already installed,
1438 you can download and install the Windows Installer 2.0 for a Win98
1439 installation. Be forewarned, you will have to reboot your PC at the
1440 completion of the installer's installation.
1442 If you already have the installer on your PC, simply click on the
1443 Next arrow at the bottom of the page. Two clicks will finally get
1444 you to the actual download page. The MSI version of Build 633 is
1445 now 8.6MB in size, so make that a big cup of tea or coffee if you're
1446 on a slow dial-up connection.
1448 During installation, please ensure that you do choose the options
1449 to "Add Perl to the PATH environment variable" and "Create Perl
1450 file extension association"; it will make your life so much
1451 easier. Once the installation is finished, be sure to reboot your
1452 PC. You probably won't be told anywhere else that this needs to
1453 be done now, but it does. Really.
1455 Once you've rebooted, open a "DOS box" (Start > Run > command
1456 might do it, if you can't find it elsewhere) and from wherever it
1457 lands, type PERL -v <ENTER> (it's better if that's a lower-case
1458 'v', because an upper-case 'V' means something else. You should
1459 be rewarded with some interesting information about your Perl
1460 installation. If you're not, you must go back to the beginning
1461 and discover what went wrong and fix it. It's pointless to
1462 proceed unless this simple check is passed. Assuming it did work,
1463 you may now move on.
1465 <sect1>Additional packages
1468 Some extensions ("packages") need to be added to the base Perl
1469 distribution, and we'll do this next. If you're using the Perl I
1470 recommended, and don't know any better for yourself, then just
1471 blindly following these instructions will work just fine. If that
1472 didn't describe you, then you're on your own.
1474 Visit the following URL:
1476 <htmlurl url="http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/6xx-builds-only/"
1477 name="http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/6xx-builds-only/">
1479 and download the following files:-
1489 If this is a new installation, now would also be a good time to
1490 install a copy of WinZip on your PC. Make yourself a convenient
1491 directory to unpack all of these zip files into (I put mine in
1492 "D:\ppm>" but "C:\ppm" works just as well.) and do the following
1493 (the bits you type in are blue ). You can upzip all of the files into
1494 the same directory. When prompted, simply overwrite the Readme file
1495 from each zip package. Note that where these files land will be
1496 directly related to where you chose to install your ActivePerl
1497 (mine, as you can probably guess from what follows, went into "D:\Perl"):-
1500 D:\ppm>ppm install Data-Dumper.ppd
1501 Installing package 'Data-Dumper.ppd'
1502 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.bs
1503 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.dll
1504 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.exp
1505 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.lib
1506 Installing D:\Perl\html\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.html
1507 Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\Data\Dumper\Dumper.pm
1508 Writing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.packlist
1512 I'm not going to bother you with exhaustive details of the rest
1513 of them, but suffice it to say you need to:
1516 ppm install DB_File.ppd
1517 ppm install Net-Telnet.ppd
1518 ppm install TimeDate.ppd
1519 ppm install Time-HiRes.ppd
1522 If all that seemed to work OK, time to move along. Before anyone
1523 who is familiar with PPM tells me that we didn't need to download
1524 and keep those files locally, I knew that. I also knew that PPM
1525 is sometimes awkward to configure via firewalls, and that
1526 sometimes the repositories don't always work the way we'd hope. I
1527 do it that way because it suits me.
1529 <sect1>Getting Spider
1532 Get the current version of the DX Spider distribution. This needs
1533 to be v1.50 or later. You've got two ways (currently) of getting
1534 this; either get a CVS update from sourceforge (if you don't know
1535 what this is, then it isn't for you) or get the latest "official"
1538 <htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html" name="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html">
1540 or if you want the lastest snapshot of CVS version (which is produced
1543 <htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/CVSlatest.tgz" name="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/CVSlatest.tgz">
1545 This is generally the best one to go for as it is completely up to
1546 date. However, there is always the very slight chance that it might
1547 unstable. Generally, there will be a note on the website if this is
1551 The only difference between "CVSlatest.tgz" and the latest
1552 "official" release version is that it is more up to date. <bf>Do not confuse
1553 the "CVSlatest.tgz" file with "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" - they
1554 are two quite different things.</bf> "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" is
1555 explained in a section within the Admin manual.
1558 If you go down the CVS route (ie installing WinCVS as explained in the Admin
1559 manual and downloaded from sourceforge), then everything will be nicely
1560 installed on your local disk. If you got the CVSlatest.tgz file, unzip
1561 (<htmlurl url="http://www.winzip.com" name="winzip">) it to "C:\".
1562 This is an important point since paths are included within the .tgz
1563 file. Make sure you unzip to the root directory of whichever drive you use...
1564 "C:\" or "D:\" or .., not "C:\spider." If you double click on CVSlatest.tgz,
1565 WinZip should open with a dialogue box that says the Archive contains a single
1566 file (CVSlatest.tar) and asks whether WinZip should decompress it to a
1567 temporary fold and then open it. Say "Yes" and then you will get the typical
1568 Classical WinZip listing of files ready for extraction. Remember, extract
1569 them to your desired root directory ("C:\" or "D:\" or ...). The following
1570 examples assume that you put it on drive "C:\", for convenience.
1572 <sect>Installing the software
1575 At this point you will need to create 2 additional directories under
1576 "C:\Spider." Make directories "C:\spider\local" and "C:\spider\local_cmd".
1577 If "C:\spider" is missing, go back and figure out why, because it shouldn't be.
1579 Now create your own local copy of the DXVars.pm file by:-
1582 copy c:\spider\perl\DXVars.pm.issue
1583 c:\spider\local\DXVars.pm
1586 Now you'll need to edit this file using a text editor like Notepad. If nothing
1587 else, you can simply
1599 to bring up an editor window containing the file. As an absolute
1600 minimum you must adjust the following items in DXVars.pm:-
1603 <item> $mycall - Should hold the callsign of your DX Cluster
1604 <item> $myname - The SysOp's first name
1605 <item> $myalias - the SysOp's callsign. Cannot be the same as $mycall!
1606 <item> $myqth - The station's geographical location (QTH).
1607 <item> $mylatitude - The station latitude in degrees and decimal fractions
1608 <item> $mylongitude - The station longitude in degrees and decimal fractions
1609 <item> $mylocator - The Maidenhead (or QRA) locator of the station
1612 You really also ought to update the $myqth and $myemail variables. And
1613 unless you are absolutely certain you know what you're doing, you
1614 should change nothing else in this file. Note that if you use an "@" or
1615 a "$" character in one of the above strings (typically in $myemail) you must
1616 write them as "\@" or "\$".
1618 <sect1>Incoming telnets
1621 If you want to enable inbound "TELNET" connections (or you are running
1622 Windows 98, NT, 2000 or XP), you've got a little more work to do. From a
1623 handy "DOS box" that's not doing anything else, do the following:-
1626 copy \spider\perl\Listeners.pm \spider\local
1628 notepad listeners.pm
1631 The following line need attention:-
1634 # ["0.0.0.0", 7300],
1637 On my machine, I've simply uncommented the "0.0.0.0" entry by
1638 removing the '#' from the front of the line.
1640 <bf>You MUST carry out this step if you are
1641 running on a Windows 98, NT, 2000 or XP based system</bf>
1643 If you don't have a static hostname for your machine, and you
1644 intend to allow folk to connect to your machine across the
1645 internet, then I'd suggest you pay a visit to www.dyndns.org and
1646 create one for yourself. While it's free, it will take a modest
1647 amount of effort on your part to read, understand and
1648 implement what needs to be done to set this up.
1650 <p>If your machine is connected to the internet <bf>and</bf> you don't
1651 want to allow your machine to be visible to the outside world you
1652 should change the "0.0.0.0" to "127.0.0.1" [which is
1653 "localhost"]. This will then only allow connections from inside your
1654 machine. As was said earlier: if you aren't running Win9x (or you want
1655 to use DXTelnet or somesuch), then you need to have the machine
1656 listening at least to "127.0.0.1" ("0.0.0.0" means <bf>all</bf> IP
1659 <sect1>The AGW packet engine
1662 On the assumption that you'll be using the SV2AGW Packet Engine
1663 to interface your radios to the cluster, it would be a good idea to
1664 download the Packet Engine software! You can get this software from:
1666 <htmlurl url="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwpe.zip" name="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwpe.zip">
1668 Depending upon your TNCs, you may also need to get:
1670 <htmlurl url="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/drivers.zip" name="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/drivers.zip">
1672 A couple of the tools:
1674 <htmlurl url="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwterm.zip" name="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwterm.zip">
1676 <htmlurl url="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwmonitor.zip" name="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwmonitor.zip">
1678 will also help with troubleshooting of the RF links themselves.
1680 Install and configure AGWPE. You should now create your own local copy of
1684 copy c:\spider\perl\AGWConnect.pm
1685 c:\spider\local\AGWConnect.pm
1691 notepad AGWConnect.pm
1694 to bring up an editor window containing the file. You must
1695 consider adjusting the following items in AGWConnect.pm:-
1698 <item>$enable - set to '1' to enable AGWPE interface
1699 <item>$login - the login ID you chose when you set up the SV2AGW security :-)
1700 <item>$passwd - password that matches $login
1703 The login ID and passwd only need to be set if you are accessing AGW separately
1704 via its web interface. This interface is normally not needed for use with DXSpider.
1706 <sect1>Setting up the initial user files
1709 Next you need to create the initial user files, etc. A tool is
1710 supplied which will do this for you. To run the tool:-
1714 perl create_sysop.pl
1717 If all goes according to plan, you will see no output from this
1718 program, and after a brief wait, your DOS prompt will be
1721 Depending on how brave you are, you might now care to try the
1728 If you did everything you were told, your DOS window will now
1729 hold a display which looks something like:-
1732 DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.50
1733 Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
1734 loading prefixes ...
1735 loading band data ...
1736 loading user file system ...
1737 starting listeners ...
1738 Internal port: localhost 27754
1740 reading in duplicate spot and WWV info ...
1741 reading existing message headers ...
1745 @msg = 0 before delete
1746 @msg = 0 after delete
1747 reading cron jobs ...v cron: reading /spider/cmd/crontab
1748 cron: adding 1 0 * * 0
1749 DXUser::export("$main::data/user_asc")
1750 reading database descriptors ...
1751 doing local initialisation ...
1752 orft we jolly well go ...
1756 Now, if that's what you've got, you are very nearly home and dry
1757 (in as far as these particular experiments are concerned, anyhow)
1759 If you are running Windows 9x you can access your new cluster (from
1760 the local machine) by finding yourself another "DOS box" and doing the
1768 If you are running Windows NT, 2000 or XP then winclient.pl does not
1769 work. We don't know why other than this seems to be some kind of
1770 incomaptibility in perl. You can achieve the same thing by telnetting
1771 to the port you defined in Listeners.pm (7300 as default), thus:-
1775 telnet localhost 7300
1778 On getting the <bf>login:</bf> prompt, enter your sysop callsign (the one you
1779 put in DXVars.pm as $myalias).
1781 <p>I would recommend <bf>strongly</bf> that you obtain a better telnet
1782 client than that which comes with windows (I use <htmlurl
1783 url="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html"
1786 <p>Anyway, if you are rewarded with a display which looks something like:-
1789 Hello Iain, this is GB7SJP in Amersham, Bucks running DXSpider V1.50
1790 Cluster: 1 nodes, 1 local / 1 total users Max users 2 Uptime 0 00:00
1791 M0ADI de GB7SJP 4-Mar-2001 1511Z >
1794 You've arrived. Try some commands, and see how they feel. (In
1795 case you were wondering, "Iain", "M0ADI" and "GB7SJP" all came
1796 from the version of DXVars.pm that was on the machine when I
1797 started the winclient.pl)
1799 <p>The interface is very basic. It is a simple command line. There are
1800 better looking interfaces. Most of the "standard" logging and DX
1801 Cluster access programs that are capable of connecting via a TCP or
1802 telnet connection will work as a "Sysop Console" client. You connect
1803 to "localhost" on the port that you defined in Listeners.pm (usually
1804 7300). I recommend packages like <htmlurl
1805 url="http://www.qsl.net/wd4ngb/telnet.htm" name="DXTelnet">.
1807 <sect1>Connecting to other clusters
1810 If you want to connect this to another cluster, then you'll want to
1811 negotiate a link with someone. For experimental purposes, I'm happy to
1812 allow folk to connect to GB7DXA (spud.ath.cx), on the understanding
1813 that the system may or may not be there and may or may not be
1814 connected to anything particularly useful at any given moment. Contact
1815 me by <htmlurl url="mailto:g0rdi@blacksheep.org" name="Email"> if you
1816 want me to set up a connection for you.
1818 <sect>General Information
1821 The following relates to all versions of DXSpider and is not platform related.
1823 <sect1>The crontab file
1826 Login as <em>sysop</em> and create a file in /spider/local_cmd called crontab.
1827 Edit it with your favourite editor and add a line like this (I have included
1831 # check every 10 minutes to see if gb7xxx is connected and if not
1832 # start a connect job going
1834 0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('gb7xxx') unless connected('gb7xxx')
1838 The callsign involved will be the callsign of the cluster node you are
1839 going to connect to. This will now check every 10 minutes to see if
1840 gb7xxx is connected, if it is then nothing will be done. If it is not,
1841 then a connect attempt will be started.
1844 There are probably lots of other things you could use this crontab file for.
1845 If you want to know more about it, look at the
1846 <htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/main/cron.html" name="DXSpider"> website
1847 at the cron page where it is explained more fully.