IMPORTANT: +
What you'll be left with once you've followed these instructions +is (hopefully) a working DX Spider v1.47 system that is capable +of accepting or originating "internet" connections, plus inbound +AX.25 and TCP/IP radio connections. If the absence of outbound +radio connections is a serious limitation for you, it would be +better for you to wait a couple more weeks until this support has +been added. +
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. +
+
The very first things you're going to need are (in order of +importance):- +
+
+
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. +
+
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. +You can get this from:- +http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html
You will need to choose either the MSI or the AS package. My +recommendation is that you choose the MSI package and deal with +the consequences if your system isn't equipped with support for +the latest MS Installer; you'll be better off in the long run. +The build 623 download is 7,460 KB, so now is a really good time +to have some tea 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. +
+
Some extensions ("packages") need to be added to the base Perl +distribution, and we'll do this next. If you're using the Perl I +recommended, and don't know any better for yourself, then just +blindly following these instructions will work just fine. If that +didn't describe you, then you're on your own. +
Visit the following URL: +
+http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/6xx-builds-only/
and download the following files:- +
+
+
+Data-Dumper.zip
+Net-Telnet.zip
+TimeDate.zip
+Time-HiRes.zip
+DB_File.zip
+
+Make yourself a convenient directory to unpack all of these zip +files into (I put mine in "D:\ppm>") and do the following (the +bits you type in are blue ). Note that where these files land +will be directly related to where you chose to install your +ActivePerl (mine, as you can probably guess from what follows, +went into "D:\Perl"):- +
+
+
+D:\ppm>ppm install Data-Dumper.ppd
+Installing package 'Data-Dumper.ppd'
+Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.bs
+Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.dll
+Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.exp
+Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.lib
+Installing D:\Perl\html\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.html
+Installing D:\Perl\site\lib\Data\Dumper\Dumper.pm
+Writing D:\Perl\site\lib\auto\Data\Dumper\Dumper.packlist
+D:\ppm>
+
+I'm not going to bother you with exhaustive details of the rest +of them, but suffice it to say you need to: +
+
+
+ppm install DB_File.ppd
+ppm install Net-Telnet.ppd
+ppm install TimeDate.ppd
+ppm install Time-HiRes.ppd
+
+If all that seemed to work OK, time to move along. Before anyone +who is familiar with PPM tells me that we didn't need to download +and keep those files locally, I knew that. I also knew that PPM +is sometimes awkward to configure via firewalls, and that +sometimes the repositories don't always work the way we'd hope. I +do it that way because it suits me. +
+
Get the current version of the DX Spider distribution. This needs +to be v1.47 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 my package from:- +
+http://www.dcc.rsgb.org/WinSpider.zip
or if you want the lastest CVS version (which is produced every night) +
+http://www.dxcluster.org/download/CVSlatest.tgz
If you went down the CVS route, then everything will be nicely +set out on your local disk. If you got the ZIP file, unpack it to +somewhere convenient. The following examples assume that you put +it on drive "C:\", for convenience. +
NOTE: This distribution method will go away as soon as the first +v1.47 tarball is released. You can use WinZip to unpack that, and +my life will be made easier by not needing to keep this .ZIP file +updated. +
+