--- /dev/null
+<!doctype linuxdoc system>
+
+<article>
+
+<!-- Title information -->
+
+<title>The DXSpider Installation Manual v1.50</title>
+<author>Iain Philipps, G0RDI (g0rdi@77hz.com),
+Ian Maude, G0VGS, (g0vgs@gb7mbc.net) and Charlie
+Carroll, K1XX, (k1xx@ptcnh.net)</author>
+<date>February 2003 revision 0.5</date>
+
+<abstract>
+A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
+</abstract>
+
+<!-- Table of contents -->
+<toc>
+
+<!-- Begin the document -->
+
+<sect>Linux Installation
+
+<sect1>Introduction
+
+<P>
+This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.50 on a
+<htmlurl url="http://www.redhat.com" name="RedHat"> Linux Distribution.
+Wherever possible I will try to include differences for other distributions.
+
+<P>
+I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands. You should
+know how to use <em>tar</em> and how to edit files using your favourite editor.
+
+<P>
+The crucial ingredient for all of this is
+<htmlurl url="http://www.perl.org" name="Perl">. Earlier versions of
+Spider required perl 5.004, however it is now <it>STRONGLY</it> recommended
+that you use at least version 5.005_03 as this is the version being used
+in the development of Spider.
+
+<P>
+In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the
+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
+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.
+
+<P>
+<itemize>
+<item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Data/Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz" name="Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz">
+<item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Date/TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz" name="TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz">
+<item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/IO/IO-1.20.tar.gz" name="IO-1.20.tar.gz (for perl 5.00403 and lower)">
+<item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/Net-Telnet-3.02.tar.gz" name="Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz">
+<item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Curses/Curses-1.06.tar.gz" name="Curses-1.06.tar.gz">
+<item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Time/Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz" name="Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz">
+<item> <htmlurl url="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Digest/Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz" name="Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz">
+</itemize>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+Log in as 'root', and make sure you're at '/root' before you continue. Here are exactly the commands you must issue next: -
+
+<verb>
+# 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 ..
+</verb>
+
+<P>
+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 <em>IO</em>, above.
+
+
+<sect1>Preparation
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under. <bf><it>UNDER
+NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE ROOT AS THIS USER!</it></bf>. I am going to use
+the name <em>sysop</em>. 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.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# adduser -m sysop
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+For SuSE distributions, the command would be ..
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# useradd -m sysop
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Now set a password for the user ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# passwd sysop
+# New UNIX password:
+# Retype new UNIX password:
+passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<sect1>Installing the software
+
+<P>
+Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group
+permissions. Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# cd ~sysop
+# tar xvfz spider-1.50.tar.gz
+# ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
+# groupadd -g 251 spider (or another number)
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+If you do not have the command <em>groupadd</em> available to you simply
+add a line in /etc/group by hand.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# vi /etc/group (or your favorite editor)
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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
+
+<tt>
+spider:x:251:sysop,g0vgs,root
+</tt>
+
+<P>
+The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree and files ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# chown -R sysop.spider spider
+# find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
+# find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+This last step allows various users of the group <em>spider</em> 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.
+
+<P>
+Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and netrom_call
+programs. Check where they are with the <em>locate</em> command and alter
+the permissions with the <em>chmod</em> command like this ..
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# chown root ax25_call netrom_call
+# chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<sect1>Setting callsigns etc
+
+<P>
+Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier. In my case that
+user is called <em>sysop</em>. Once logged in, issue the following commands ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+$ cd /spider
+$ mkdir local
+$ mkdir local_cmd
+$ cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm
+$ cd local
+$ vi DXVars.pm (or your favourite editor)
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster callsign,
+sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own environment.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+$mycall = "GB7DJK";
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+This is the call sign of your cluster. If you use an SSID then include it here
+also.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+$myalias = "G1TLH";
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+This is the sysop user callsign, normally your own.
+
+<P>
+<bf>PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS</bf>
+
+<P>
+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 ....
+
+<tt>
+$myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";
+</tt>
+
+<P>
+There appears to be an extra slash in there. However this has to be there
+for the file to work so leave it in.
+
+<P>
+DON'T alter any file in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every
+release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or /spider/local_cmd
+will automagically be used in preference to the ones in /spider/perl EVEN
+while the cluster is running!
+
+<P>
+Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+$ cd ../perl
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with you as
+the sysop.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+$ ./create_sysop.pl
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<sect1>The client program
+
+<P>
+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
+<em>incoming</em> connects at the moment. Before you can use it though it
+has to be "made". CD to /spider/src and type <em>make</em>. You
+should see the output on your screen and hopefully now have a small C program
+called <em>client</em>. Leave it in this directory.
+
+
+<sect1>Starting up for the first time
+
+<P>
+We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well or not!
+It should look something like this ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+$ ./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 ...
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+If all is well then login on another term or console as <em>sysop</em> and
+cd to /spider/src. Now issue the following command ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+$ ./client
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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 ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+G0VGS de GB7MBC 19-Nov-1999 2150Z >
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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 ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+shutdown
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.
+
+
+<sect>Linux quick installation guide
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<itemize>
+<item>Login as root
+<item>Get the additional CPAN modules and install them (root)
+<item>Create the "sysop" user and set a password (root)
+<item>Put the Spider tarball in ~sysop and untar it (root)
+<item>ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider (root)
+<item>groupadd -g 251 spider (root)
+<item>Add any more users you need to the group entry in /etc/group (root)
+<item>Set the permissions on the spider tree (root)
+<item>Fix permissions on ax25_call and netrom_call (root)
+<item>Login as the sysop user
+<item>cd to /spider (sysop)
+<item>mkdir local (sysop)
+<item>mkdir local_cmd (sysop)
+<item>cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm (sysop)
+<item>cd to /spider/local and edit DXVars to set your details (sysop)
+<item>cd ../perl (sysop)
+<item>./create_sysop.pl (sysop)
+<item>./cluster.pl (sysop)
+</itemize>
+
+<P>
+Spider should now be running and you should be able to login using the
+client program.
+
+<itemize>
+<item>Login as root
+<item>Enter the correct line in ax25d.conf (root)
+<item>Enter the correct line in /etc/services (root)
+<item>Enter the correct line in /etc/inetd.conf (root)
+<item>killall -HUP inetd (root)
+</itemize>
+
+<P>
+Spider should now be able to accept logins via telnet, netrom and ax25.
+
+<itemize>
+<item>Login as sysop
+<item>Start the cluster (sysop)
+<item>set/node and type for links (sysop)
+<item>Write any connect scripts (sysop)
+<item>Edit /spider/crontab as required (sysop)
+<item>Edit any other files as necessary (sysop)
+<item>Set filters, hops and forwarding files (sysop)
+<item>Login as root
+<item>Enter the correct line in /etc/inittab (root)
+</itemize>
+
+<sect>Setting up the AX25 Utilities
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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
+comprehensive and an interesting configuration program is also available
+called <htmlurl url="http://1409.org/projects/index.html" name="ax25-config"> which
+may help you to configure things.
+
+<P>
+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!
+
+<sect1>Getting Started
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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 <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/ham/packet/linux/awznode/" name="AWZNode"> by IZ5AWZ.
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+For 2.4 kernels you need these files...
+
+<P>
+<itemize>
+<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">
+<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">
+<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">
+</itemize>
+
+<sect1>The kernel
+
+<P>
+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
+<htmlurl url="http://www.fokus.gmd.de/linux/HOWTO/html_single/AX25-HOWTO.html#AEN151" name="AX25-HOWTO">
+
+<P>
+I should say at this stage that NET/ROM is not mandatory. If you do not use it
+simply ignore any instruction concerning it.
+
+<P>
+Now recompile your kernel in the normal way and reboot your system.
+
+<sect1>Installing the RPM's
+
+<P>
+Now install the RPM's you downloaded, libax25 first, then ax25-tools,
+then ax25-apps.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+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
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<sect1>Configuration
+
+<P>
+You will find the configuration files in /etc/ax25. These consist of
+several files ...
+
+<itemize>
+<item>axports
+<item>nrports
+<item>nrbroadcast
+<item>ax25d.conf
+<item>node.conf
+</itemize>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<sect1>axports
+
+<P>
+This file sets up the ax25 ports you want to use. An example is below
+for a standard TNC2 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+#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
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Note that the portnames have to be unique.
+
+<P>
+The file headings are as follows ...
+
+<verb>
+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
+</verb>
+
+<sect1>nrports
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+#portname callsign alias paclen description
+ netrom gb7mbc-8 BARE 236 Node Netrom Port
+ netrom2 gb7mbc-9 MBCDX 236 Cluster Netrom Port
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Note that the portnames have to be unique.
+
+<P>
+The file headings are as follows ...
+
+<verb>
+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
+</verb>
+
+<sect1>nrbroadcast
+
+<P>
+This file sets up the netrom broadcast qualities. An example is below ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+#axport min_obs def_qual worst_qual verbose
+ 4m 5 10 100 1
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+The file headings are as follows ...
+
+<verb>
+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)
+</verb>
+
+<sect1>ax25d.conf
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+[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
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+You should be able to see that the normal line for access to the
+cluster is like this ..
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+however, if you wish your users to be able to use SSID's on their callsigns ..
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %s ax25
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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:
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+GB7DJK-2 * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client gb7djk-2 ax25
+default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<sect1>node.conf
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# /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> "
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+This should be fairly obvious I hope.
+
+<sect1>Getting it all running
+
+<P>
+Ok, now we have all the relevant files configured, the next step is to get
+it all running.
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+You now use the 'kissattach' command to connect the TNC's to the system like this ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+kissattach /dev/ttyS0 2m 44.131.96.199
+kissattach /dev/ttyS1 4m 44.131.96.199
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+kissparms -p 2m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
+kissparms -p 4m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+The command 'man kissparms' will give you the explanation of the switches.
+
+<P>
+Now we need to attach the NET/ROM ports in the same way ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+nrattach netrom
+nrattach netrom2
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+Now you can start the daemons that set everything in motion ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+ax25d
+netromd -i
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+First edit /etc/services and add
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+node 3000/tcp #OH2BNS's Node Software
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Assuming you want it to run on port 3000
+
+<P>
+Now cd /etc/xinetd.d and edit a new file called node. It should look like this ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# 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
+}
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+You now need to restart the xinetd daemon. First find out what the PID is
+like so ..
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+ps auxw |grep xinetd
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+You will get a reply something like this ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+root 592 0.0 0.1 2256 620 ? S Feb07 0:00 xinetd -stayalive -reuse -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+The PID or Process ID is 592 in this case so now we can issue the command ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+kill -HUP 592
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+telnet localhost 3000
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<sect>Configuration
+
+<sect1>Allowing ax25 connects from users
+
+<P>
+This is dealt with in the previous section
+
+<sect1>Allowing telnet connects from users
+
+<P>
+>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.
+
+<P>
+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 ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+spdlogin 8000/tcp # spider anonymous login port
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Then add a line in /etc/inetd.conf like this ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+spdlogin stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client login telnet
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Once this is done, you need to restart inetd like this ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+killall -HUP inetd
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Now login as <em>sysop</em> and cd spider/src. You can test that spider
+is accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+./client login telnet
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+telnet localhost 8000
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before.
+
+<sect1>Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)
+
+<P>
+>From version 1.47 you can choose to allow the perl cluster.pl program to
+allow connections directly (i.e. not via the <tt>/spider/src/client</tt>
+interface program). If you are using Windows then this is the only method
+available of allowing incoming telnet connections.
+
+<P>
+To do this you need first to remove any line that you may previously have set
+up in /etc/inetd.conf. Remember to:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+killall -HUP inetd
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+to make the change happen...
+
+<P>
+Having done that, you need to copy the file
+<em>/spider/perl/Listeners.pm</em> to <em>/spider/local</em> and
+then edit it. You will need to uncomment the line containing &dquot;0.0.0.0&dquot;
+and select the correct port to listen on. So that it looks like this:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+@listen = (
+ ["0.0.0.0", 8000],
+);
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+As standard, the listener will listen on all interfaces simultaneously.
+If you require more control than this, you can specify each interface
+individually:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+@listen = (
+ ["gb7baa.dxcluster.net", 8000],
+ ["44.131.16.2", 6300],
+);
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+Restart the cluster.pl program to enable the listener.
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<sect1>Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)
+
+<P>
+AGW Engine is a Windows based ax25 stack. You can connect to an AGW engine
+from Linux as well as Windows based machines.
+
+<P>
+In order to enable access to an AGW Engine you need to copy
+<em>/spider/perl/AGWConnect.pm</em> to <em>/spider/local</em> and edit it.
+Specifically you must:-
+
+<itemize>
+<item> set <tt>$enable</tt> to 1.
+<item> set <tt>$login</tt> and <tt>$passwd</tt> to the values set up in your AGW installation.
+If you haven't set any there, then you should not touch these values.
+<item> You can connect to a remote AGW engine (ie on some other machine) by changing <tt>$addr</tt>
+and <tt>$port</tt> appropriately.
+<item> Restart the cluster.pl program
+</itemize>
+
+
+<sect1>Setting up node connects
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+set/node (AK1A type)
+set/spider
+set/dxnet
+set/clx
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is an
+AK1A type node.
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+set/node gb7baa
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+./client gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+./client gb7baa
+PC38^GB7MBC^~
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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.
+
+<P>
+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:
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+unset/node gb7baa
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<sect1>Connection scripts
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following keywords
+or symbols:-
+
+<descrip>
+
+<tag/#/All lines starting with a <tt>#</tt> are ignored, as are completely
+ blank lines.
+
+<tag/timeout/<tt>timeout</tt> 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.
+
+<tag/abort/ <tt>abort</tt> 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.
+
+<tag/connect/<tt>connect</tt> 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!
+
+<tag/'/<tt>'</tt> is the delimiting character for a word or phrase of an expect/send
+ 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.
+
+<tag/client/<tt>client</tt> 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]).
+</descrip>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+timeout 60
+abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
+# don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
+connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
+'Connect' ''
+'Connect' 'c np7'
+'Connect' 'c gb7dxm'
+# you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
+client gb7dxm ax25
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+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
+'Connect' ''
+'Connect' 'c np7'
+'Connect' 'c gb7dxm'
+# you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
+client gb7dxm ax25
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+timeout 15
+connect telnet dirkl.tobit.co.uk
+'login' 'gb7djk'
+'word' 'gb7djk'
+# tell GB7DJK-1 that it is connected to GB7DJK
+# you can leave this out if you call this script 'gb7djk'
+client gb7djk telnet
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the other end.
+You will find other examples in the /spider/examples directory.
+
+<sect1>Starting the connection
+
+<P>
+You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login, by typing
+in the word <em>connect</em> followed by a script name like this ....
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2041Z >connect gb7djk-1
+connection to GB7DJK-1 started
+G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+This will start a connection using the script called <em>gb7djk-1</em>. You can
+follow the connection by watching the term or console from where you started
+<em>cluster.pl</em>. From version 1.47 onwards, you will need to <tt>set/debug connect</tt> first.
+You should see something like this ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+<- 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
+
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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
+<it>before</it> 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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+'connect' ''
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+In a script, this might look like ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+timeout 35
+abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
+connect telnet mary 3000
+'ogin:' 'gb7mbc'
+'>' 'telnet 44.131.93.96 7305'
+'connect' ''
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<sect1>Telnet echo
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+timeout 35
+abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
+connect telnet mary.lancs.ac.uk
+'ogin:' 'gb7mbc'
+'word:' 'mypasswd'
+'\$' 'stty -echo raw'
+'\$' 'telnet 44.131.93.96'
+'connect' ''
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+
+<sect1>Autostarting the cluster
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite editor. Add
+the following lines to the file near the end ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+##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
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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 ...
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+DX:235:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+The line required for Slackware distributions is slightly different. My thanks to
+Aurelio, PA3EZL for this information.
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+DX:23:respawn:/bin/su - sysop -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" >/dev/tty7
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and restart
+it should it crash for any reason.
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+As root type the command <em>telinit q</em>. DXSpider should start up
+immediately. You will see the output on tty7 and if you login as <em>sysop</em>
+you should find everything running nicely.
+
+<sect>Microsoft Windows Installation
+
+<sect1>Introduction
+
+<P>
+<bf>IMPORTANT:</bf>
+
+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 ™ 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.
+
+<sect1>The requirements
+
+<P>
+The very first things you're going to need are (in order of
+importance):-
+
+<itemize>
+<item>A cup of good, strong tea
+<item>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.
+<item>Another cup of good, strong tea
+<item>If all goes according to plan, about an hour to spare
+<item>Plenty of good, strong tea
+</itemize>
+
+<sect1>The system
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<sect1>Perl
+
+<P>
+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:
+<htmlurl url="http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html"
+name="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
+'v', because an upper-case 'V' means something else. You should
+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.
+
+<sect1>Additional packages
+
+<P>
+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:
+
+<htmlurl url="http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/6xx-builds-only/"
+name="http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/6xx-builds-only/">
+
+and download the following files:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+Data-Dumper.zip
+Net-Telnet.zip
+TimeDate.zip
+Time-HiRes.zip
+DB_File.zip
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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"):-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+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>
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+I'm not going to bother you with exhaustive details of the rest
+of them, but suffice it to say you need to:
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+ppm install DB_File.ppd
+ppm install Net-Telnet.ppd
+ppm install TimeDate.ppd
+ppm install Time-HiRes.ppd
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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.
+
+<sect1>Getting Spider
+
+<P>
+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:
+
+<htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html" name="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html">
+
+or if you want the lastest snapshot of CVS version (which is produced
+every night):-
+
+<htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/CVSlatest.tgz" name="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. <bf>Do not confuse
+the "CVSlatest.tgz" file with "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" - they
+are two quite different things.</bf> "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" is
+explained in a section within the Admin manual.
+
+<p>
+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
+(<htmlurl url="http://www.winzip.com" name="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.
+
+<sect>Installing the software
+
+<P>
+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:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+copy c:\spider\perl\DXVars.pm.issue
+c:\spider\local\DXVars.pm
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+Now you'll need to edit this file using a text editor like Notepad. If nothing
+else, you can simply
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+cd \spider\local
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+and then
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+notepad DXVars.pm
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+to bring up an editor window containing the file. As an absolute
+minimum you must adjust the following items in DXVars.pm:-
+
+<itemize>
+<item> $mycall - Should hold the callsign of your DX Cluster
+<item> $myname - The SysOp's first name
+<item> $myalias - the SysOp's callsign. Cannot be the same as $mycall!
+<item> $myqth - The station's geographical location (QTH).
+<item> $mylatitude - The station latitude in degrees and decimal fractions
+<item> $mylongitude - The station longitude in degrees and decimal fractions
+<item> $mylocator - The Maidenhead (or QRA) locator of the station
+</itemize>
+
+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 "\$".
+
+<sect1>Incoming telnets
+
+<P>
+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:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+copy \spider\perl\Listeners.pm \spider\local
+cd \spider\local
+notepad listeners.pm
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+The following line need attention:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# ["0.0.0.0", 7300],
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+On my machine, I've simply uncommented the "0.0.0.0" entry by
+removing the '#' from the front of the line.
+
+<bf>You MUST carry out this step if you are
+running on a Windows 98, NT, 2000 or XP based system</bf>
+
+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.
+
+<p>If your machine is connected to the internet <bf>and</bf> 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 <bf>all</bf> IP
+addresses).
+
+<sect1>The AGW packet engine
+
+<P>
+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:
+
+<htmlurl url="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwpe.zip" name="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwpe.zip">
+
+Depending upon your TNCs, you may also need to get:
+
+<htmlurl url="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/drivers.zip" name="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/drivers.zip">
+
+A couple of the tools:
+
+<htmlurl url="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwterm.zip" name="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwterm.zip">
+
+<htmlurl url="http://www.raag.org/sv2agw/agwmonitor.zip" name="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:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+copy c:\spider\perl\AGWConnect.pm
+c:\spider\local\AGWConnect.pm
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+and then
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+notepad AGWConnect.pm
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+to bring up an editor window containing the file. You must
+consider adjusting the following items in AGWConnect.pm:-
+
+<itemize>
+<item>$enable - set to '1' to enable AGWPE interface
+<item>$login - the login ID you chose when you set up the SV2AGW security :-)
+<item>$passwd - password that matches $login
+</itemize>
+
+The login ID and passwd only need to be set if you are accessing AGW separately
+via its web interface. This interface is normally not needed for use with DXSpider.
+
+<sect1>Setting up the initial user files
+
+<P>
+Next you need to create the initial user files, etc. A tool is
+supplied which will do this for you. To run the tool:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+cd \spider\perl
+perl create_sysop.pl
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+If all goes according to plan, you will see no output from this
+program, and after a brief wait, your DOS prompt will be
+returned.
+
+Depending on how brave you are, you might now care to try the
+following:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+perl cluster.pl
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+If you did everything you were told, your DOS window will now
+hold a display which looks something like:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.50
+Copyright (c) 1998-2002 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
+loading prefixes ...
+loading band data ...
+loading user file system ...
+starting listeners ...
+Internal port: localhost 27754
+load badwords: Ok
+reading in duplicate spot and WWV info ...
+reading existing message headers ...
+load badmsg: Ok
+load forward: Ok
+load swop: Ok
+@msg = 0 before delete
+@msg = 0 after delete
+reading cron jobs ...v cron: reading /spider/cmd/crontab
+cron: adding 1 0 * * 0
+DXUser::export("$main::data/user_asc")
+reading database descriptors ...
+doing local initialisation ...
+orft we jolly well go ...
+queue msg (0)
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+cd \spider\perl
+perl winclient.pl
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+Menu->Start->Run
+telnet localhost 7300
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+On getting the <bf>login:</bf> prompt, enter your sysop callsign (the one you
+put in DXVars.pm as $myalias).
+
+<p>I would recommend <bf>strongly</bf> that you obtain a better telnet
+client than that which comes with windows (I use <htmlurl
+url="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html"
+name="PuTTY">).
+
+<p>Anyway, if you are rewarded with a display which looks something like:-
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+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 >
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+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)
+
+<p>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 <htmlurl
+url="http://www.qsl.net/wd4ngb/telnet.htm" name="DXTelnet">.
+
+<sect1>Connecting to other clusters
+
+<P>
+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 <htmlurl url="mailto:g0rdi@blacksheep.org" name="Email"> if you
+want me to set up a connection for you.
+
+<sect>General Information
+
+<P>
+The following relates to all versions of DXSpider and is not platform related.
+
+<sect1>The crontab file
+
+<P>
+Login as <em>sysop</em> 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)
+
+<tscreen><verb>
+# 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')
+</verb></tscreen>
+
+<P>
+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.
+
+<P>
+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
+<htmlurl url="http://www.dxcluster.org/cron.html" name="DXSpider"> website
+at the cron page where it is explained more fully.
+
+</article>
+
+