As stated previously, the aim of this document is not to tell you how to -configure Linux or the ax25 utilities. However, you do need to add a line -in your ax25d.conf to allow connections to DXSpider for your users. For -each interface that you wish to allow connections on, use the following format ... +
Upto v1.44 it was not possible for the user to set their own filters. From +v1.45 though that has all changed. It is now possible to set filters for just +about anything you wish. If you have just updated from an older version of +DXSpider you will need to update your new filters. You do not need to do +anything with your old filters, they will be renamed as you update.
-
-
-default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
-
-or, if you wish your users to be able to use SSID's on their callsigns .. -
-
-
-default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %s ax25
-
-For most purposes this is not desirable. The only time you probably will need this is -when you need to allow other cluster nodes that are using SSID's in. In this case it -owuld probably be better to use the first example and then add a specific line for that -node like this: -
-
-
-GB7DJK-2 * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client gb7djk-2 ax25
-default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
-
--
-From version 1.47 there is a new (more efficient) way of doing this (see next section) but, -if you prefer, the method of doing it described here will continue to work just fine. -
-
Allowing telnet connections is quite simple. Firstly you need to add a line -in /etc/services to allow connections to a port number, like this .... -
-
-
-spdlogin 7300/tcp # spider anonymous login port
-
-Then add a line in /etc/inetd.conf like this .... -
-
-
-spdlogin stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client login telnet
-
-There are 3 basic commands involved in setting and manipulating filters. These +are accept, reject and clear. First we will look +generally at filtering. There are a number of things you can filter in the +DXSpider system. They all use the same general mechanism.
-
Once this is done, you need to restart inetd like this .... +
In general terms you can create a 'reject' or an 'accept' filter which can have +up to 10 lines in it. You do this using, for example ...
-killall -HUP inetd
+
+accept/spots .....
+reject/spots .....
-
-
Now login as sysop and cd spider/src. You can test that spider -is accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command .... +
where ..... are the specific commands for that type of filter. There are filters +for spots, wwv, announce, wcy and (for sysops) connects. See each different +accept or reject command reference for more details. +
There is also a command to clear out one or more lines in a filter. They are ...
-./client login telnet
+clear/spots 1
+clear/spots all
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. +
There is clear/xxxx command for each type of filter.
-
Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console .... +
and you can check that your filters have worked by the command ...
-telnet localhost 7300
+
+show/filter
-
You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before. +
For now we are going to use spots for the examples, but you can apply the same +principles to all types of filter.
-
From version 1.47 you can chose to allow the perl cluster.pl program to
-allow connections direct (i.e. not via the /spider/src/client
-interface program). If you are using Windows then this is the only method
-available of allowing incoming telnet connections.
+
There are two main types of filter, accept or reject. You +can use either to achieve the result you want dependent on your own preference +and which is more simple to do. It is pointless writing 8 lines of reject +filters when 1 accept filter would do the same thing! Each filter has 10 +lines (of any length) which are tried in order. If a line matches then the +action you have specified is taken (ie reject means ignore it and accept +means take it)
-
To do this you need first to remove any line that you may previously have set -up in /etc/inetd.conf. Remember to:- +
If you specify reject filters, then any lines that arrive that match the filter +will be dumped but all else will be accepted. If you use an accept filter, +then ONLY the lines in the filter will be accepted and all else will be dumped. +For example if you have a single line accept filter ...
-killall -HUP inetd
+accept/spots on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
then you will ONLY get VHF spots from or to CQ zones +14, 15 and 16.
-
to make the change happen... -
-
Having done that then you need to copy the file
-/spider/perl/Listeners.pm to /spider/local and
-then edit it. You will need to uncomment the line containing "0.0.0.0"
-and select the correct port to listen on. So that it looks like this:-
+
If you set a reject filter like this ...
-@listen = (
- ["0.0.0.0", 7300],
-);
+reject/spots on hf/cw
-
As standard, the listener will listen on all interfaces simultaniously. If you require more -control than this, you can specify each interface individually:- +
Then you will get everything EXCEPT HF CW spots. You could make this +single filter even more flexible. For example, if you are interested in IOTA +and will work it even on CW even though normally you are not interested in +CW, then you could say ...
-@listen = (
- ["gb7baa.dxcluster.net", 7300],
- ["44.131.16.2", 6300],
-);
+reject/spots on hf/cw and not info iota
-
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 which will work. -
-
Restart the cluster.pl program to enable the listener. -
-
One important difference with the internal listener is that no echoing is done by the -cluster program. Users will need to set 'local-echo' on in their telnet clients if -it isn't set automatically (as per the standards). Needless to say this will probably -only apply to Windows users. -
-
AGW Engine is a Windows based ax25 stack. You can connect to an AGW engine from Linux -as well as Windows based machines. -
-
In order to enable access to an AGW Engine you need to copy /spider/perl/AGWConnect.pm
-to /spider/local and edit it. Specifically you must:-
-
-
$enable to 1.$login and $passwd to the values set up in your AGW installation.
-If you haven't set any there, then you should not touch these values.$addr
-and $port appropriately.-
-
In order to allow cluster node connections, spider needs to know that the -connecting callsign is a cluster node. This is the case whether the connect -is incoming or outgoing. In spider this is a simple task and can be done in -runtime. -
-
Later versions of Spider can distinguish different software and treat them -differently. For example, the WCY beacon cannot be handles by AK1A type -nodes as AK1A does not know what to do with PC73. There are 4 different -types of node at present and although they may not have any major -differences at the moment, it allows for compatibility. The 4 types are ... +
But in that case you might only be interested in iota and say:-
-set/node (AK1A type)
-set/spider
-set/dxnet
-set/clx
+accept/spots not on hf/cw or info iota
which achieves exactly the same thing. You should choose one or the other +until you are comfortable with the way it works. You can mix them if you +wish (actually you can have an accept AND a reject on the same line) but +don't attempt this until you are sure you know what you are doing!
-
For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is an -AK1A type node. -
-
Start up the cluster as you did before and login as the sysop with client. -The cluster node I am wanting to make a connection to is GB7BAA but you would -obviously use whatever callsign you required. At the prompt type ... +
You can arrange your filter lines into logical units, either for your own +understanding or simply convenience. Here is an example ...
-set/node gb7baa
+reject/spots 1 on hf/cw
+reject/spots 2 on 50000/1400000 not (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
What this does is to ignore all HF CW spots and also rejects any spots on VHF +which don't either originate or spot someone in Europe.
-
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. +
This is an example where you would use a line number (1 and 2 in this case), if +you leave the digit out, the system assumes '1'. Digits '0'-'9' are available. +This make it easier to see just what filters you have set. It also makes it +more simple to remove individual filters, during a contest for example.
-
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 ... +
You will notice in the above example that the second line has brackets. Look +at the line logically. You can see there are 2 separate sections to it. We +are saying reject spots that are VHF or above APART from those in +zones 14, 15 and 16 (either spotted there or originated there). If you did +not have the brackets to separate the 2 sections, then Spider would read it +logically from the front and see a different expression entirely ...
-./client gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
+(on 50000/1400000 and by_zone 14,15,16) or call_zone 14,15,16
-
You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ... +
The simple way to remember this is, if you use OR - use brackets. Whilst we are +here CASE is not important. 'And BY_Zone' is just the same as 'and by_zone'. +
As mentioned earlier, setting several filters can be more flexible than +simply setting one complex one. Doing it in this way means that if you want +to alter your filter you can just redefine or remove one or more lines of it or +one line. For example ...
-./client gb7baa
-PC38^GB7MBC^~
+reject/spots 1 on hf/ssb
If the callsign you just set up as a cluster node is for an incoming connect, -this is all that needs to be done. If the connection is to be outgoing then -a connection script needs to be written. -
-
Sometimes you make a mistake... Honest, it does happen. If you want to make a node -back to being a normal user, regardless -of what type it is, do: +
would redefine our earlier example, or
-unset/node gb7baa
+clear/spots 1
-
Because DXSpider operates under Linux, connections can be made using just about -any protocol; AX25, NETRom, tcp/ip, ROSE etc are all possible examples. -Connect scripts live in the /spider/connect directory and are simple ascii files. -Writing a script for connections is therefore relatively simple. -
-
The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following keywords -or symbols:- -
-
-
All lines starting with a # are ignored, as are completely
-blank lines.
-
-
timeout followed by a number is the number of seconds to wait for a
-command to complete. If there is no timeout specified in the script
-then the default is 60 seconds.
-
-
abort is a regular expression containing one or more strings to look
-for to abort a connection. This is a perl regular expression and is
-executed ignoring case.
-
-
connect 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!
-
-
' 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.
-
-
client starts the connection, put the arguments you would want here
-if you were starting the client program manually. You only need this
-if the script has a different name to the callsign you are trying to
-connect to (i.e. you have a script called other which actually
-connects to GB7DJK-1 [instead of a script called gb7djk-1]).
-
-
There are many possible ways to configure the script but here are three examples, -one for a NETRom/AX25 connect, one for AGW engines and one for tcp/ip. +
To remove all the filter lines in the spot filter ...
-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
+clear/spots all
-
-
-
-
-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
-
--
-
-
-
-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
-
--
Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the other end. -You will find other examples in the /spider/examples directory. -
-
You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login, by typing -in the word connect followed by a script name like this .... -
-
-
-G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2041Z >connect gb7djk-1
-connection to GB7DJK-1 started
-G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
-
-This will start a connection using the script called gb7djk-1. You can
-follow the connection by watching the term or console from where you started
-cluster.pl. From version 1.47 onwards, you will need to set/debug connect first.
-You should see something like this ...
+
You can filter in several different ways. The options are listed in the +various helpfiles for accept, reject and filter.
-
-
-<- D G1TLH connect gb7djk-1
--> D G1TLH connection to GB7DJK-1 started
--> D G1TLH G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2046Z >
-timeout set to 15
-CONNECT sort: telnet command: dirkl.tobit.co.uk
-CHAT "login" -> "gb7djk"
-received "
-Red Hat Linux release 5.1 (Manhattan)
-Kernel 2.0.35 on an i586
-"
-received "login: "
-sent "gb7djk"
-CHAT "word" -> "gb7djk"
-received "gb7djk"
-received "Password: "
-sent "gb7djk"
-Connected to GB7DJK-1, starting normal protocol
-<- O GB7DJK-1 telnet
--> B GB7DJK-1 0
-GB7DJK-1 channel func state 0 -> init
-<- D GB7DJK-1
-<- D GB7DJK-1 Last login: Sun Dec 13 17:59:56 from dirk1
-<- D GB7DJK-1 PC38^GB7DJK-1^~
-<- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users Max users 0 Uptime
-0 00:00^5447^~
- etc
-
--
With later versions of Spider there is a set/login command for users. This -tells them when a user or node logs in or out. If you do not add a line to -your scripts after the final line (or before the client line which should always -be last if needed) then the login/logout information will be sent to users -before the login actually completes. This means if a node is -unreachable, it will continue sending logins and logouts to users even though it -is not actually connecting. To avoid this use the following line ... -
-
-
-'connect' ''
-
--
In a script, this might look like ... +
Sometimes all that is needed is a general rule for node connects. This can +be done with a node_default filter. This rule will always be followed, even +if the link is isolated, unless another filter is set specifically. Default +rules can be set for nodes and users. They can be set for spots, announces, +WWV and WCY. They can also be used for hops. An example might look like +this ...
-timeout 35
-abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
-connect telnet mary 3000
-'ogin:' 'gb7mbc'
-'>' 'telnet 44.131.93.96 7305'
-'connect' ''
+accept/spot node_default by_zone 14,15,16,20,33
+set/hops node_default spot 50
This filter is for spots only, you could set others for announce, WWV and WCY. +This filter would work for ALL nodes unless a specific filter is written to +override it for a particular node. You can also set a user_default should +you require. It is important to note that default filters should be +considered to be "connected". By this I mean that should you override the +default filter for spots, you need to add a rule for the hops for spots also.
-
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. +
Once you are happy with the results you get, you may like to experiment.
-
Telnet echo itself should only be a problem if the connection is being made to -the telnet port (23). This port uses special rules that include echo negotiation. -If the connection is to a different port, such as 7300, this negotiation does -not happen and therefore no echo should be present. -
-
Sometimes it is not possible to make a direct connection to another node and this -can cause problems. There is a way of trying to suppress the telnet echo but -this will not always work, unfortunately it is difficult to be more specific. -Here is an example of what I mean ... +
The previous example that filters hf/cw spots and accepts vhf/uhf spots from EU +can be written with a mixed filter, for example ...
-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' ''
+rej/spot on hf/cw
+acc/spot on 0/30000
+acc/spot 2 on 50000/1400000 and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
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. +
Note that the first filter has not been specified with a number. This will +automatically be assumed to be number 1. In this case, we have said reject all +HF spots in the CW section of the bands but accept all others at HF. Also +accept anything in VHF and above spotted in or by operators in the zones +14, 15 and 16. Each filter slot actually has a 'reject' slot and +an 'accept' slot. The reject slot is executed BEFORE the accept slot. +
+
It was mentioned earlier that after a reject test that doesn't match, the default +for following tests is 'accept', the reverse is true for 'accept'. In the example +what happens is that the reject is executed first, any non hf/cw spot is passed +to the accept line, which lets through everything else on HF. The next filter line +lets through just VHF/UHF spots from EU.