Add information on setting up the ax25 utils to the installation manual

[spider.git] / txt / installation.txt

  The DXSpider Installation Manual v1.49
  Iain Philipps, G0RDI (g0rdi@77hz.com) and Ian Maude, G0VGS,
  (g0vgs@gb7mbc.net)
  February 2002 revision 1.2

  A reference for SysOps of the DXSpider DXCluster program.
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents

























































  1. Linux Installation

     1.1 Introduction
     1.2 Preparation
     1.3 Installing the software
     1.4 Setting callsigns etc
     1.5 The client program
     1.6 Starting up for the first time

  2. Linux quick installation guide

  3. Setting up the AX25 Utilities

     3.1 Getting Started
     3.2 The kernel
     3.3 Installing the RPM's
     3.4 Configuration
     3.5 axports
     3.6 nrports
     3.7 nrbroadcast
     3.8 ax25d.conf
     3.9 node.conf
     3.10 Getting it all running

  4. Configuration

     4.1 Allowing ax25 connects from users
     4.2 Allowing telnet connects from users
     4.3 Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)
     4.4 Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)
     4.5 Setting up node connects
     4.6 Connection scripts
     4.7 Starting the connection
     4.8 Telnet echo
     4.9 Autostarting the cluster

  5. Microsoft Windows Installation

     5.1 Introduction
     5.2 The requirements
     5.3 The system
     5.4 Perl
     5.5 Additional packages
     5.6 Getting Spider

  6. Installing the software

     6.1 Incoming telnets
     6.2 The AGW packet engine
     6.3 Setting up the initial user files
     6.4 Connecting to other clusters

  7. General Information

     7.1 The crontab file


  ______________________________________________________________________

  1.  Linux Installation

  1.1.  Introduction

  This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.47 on a RedHat
  Linux Distribution.  Wherever possible I will try to include
  differences for other distributions.  I do not intend to try and cover
  the installation of Linux or the setup of the AX25 utilities.  If you
  need help on this then read Iains original installation guide that
  comes with the Spider distribution.


  I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands.  You
  should know how to use tar and how to edit files using your favourite
  editor.


  The crucial ingredient for all of this is Perl.  Earlier versions of
  Spider required perl 5.004, however it is now STRONGLY recommended
  that you use at least version 5.005_03 as this is the version being
  used in the development of Spider.


  In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the
  following modules from http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html , please note
  however that with later versions of perl, some of these modules may be
  included with the distribution.  Get the modules anyway and try to
  install as below.  If they complain, they are probably already a part
  of your perl distribution.



  o  Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz

  o  TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz

  o  IO-1.20.tar.gz (for perl 5.00403 and lower)

  o  Net-Telnet-3.02.tar.gz

  o  Curses-1.06.tar.gz

  o  Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz


  Copy the CPAN modules listed above to a convenient place on your
  computer. One good place would be /usr/local/packages, and the
  instructions which follow will assume that that's where you have put
  them.


  Log in as 'root', and make sure you're at '/root' before you continue.
  Here are exactly the commands you must issue next: -




















  # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz
  # cd Data-Dumper-2.10
  # 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-3.02.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 ..




  Do not fall into the trap of thinking they're all the same, just
  because they nearly are! Pay particular attention to the instructions
  of IO, above.



  1.2.  Preparation

  I will assume that you have already downloaded the latest tarball of
  the DXSpider software and are ready to install it. I am assuming
  version 1.47 for this section but of course you would use the latest
  version.


  Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under.  UNDER NO
  CIRCUMSTANCES USE ROOT AS THIS USER!.  I am going to use the name
  sysop.  You can call it anything you wish.  Depending on your security
  requirements you may wish to use an existing user, however this is
  your own choice.


       # adduser -m sysop





  For SUSE distributions, the command would be ..



       # useradd -m sysop





  Now set a password for the user ...



       # passwd sysop
       # New UNIX password:
       # Retype new UNIX password:
       passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully





  1.3.  Installing the software

  Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group
  permissions.  Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.



       # cd ~sysop
       # tar xvfz spider-1.47.tar.gz
       # ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
       # groupadd -g 251 spider       (or another number)





  If you do not have the command groupadd available to you simply add a
  line in /etc/group by hand.



       # vi /etc/group                (or your favorite editor)





  You also need to add some others to the group, including your own
  callsign (this will be used as an alias) and root.  The finished line
  in /etc/group should look something like this

  spider:x:251:sysop,g0vgs,root


  The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree
  and files ....

       # chown -R sysop.spider spider
       # find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
       # find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;





  This last step allows various users of the group spider to have write
  access to all the directories.  This is not really needed just yet but
  will be useful when web interfaces start to appear.


  Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and
  netrom_call programs.  Check where they are with the locate command
  and alter the permissions with the chmod command like this ..



       # chown root ax25_call netrom_call
       # chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call





  1.4.  Setting callsigns etc

  Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier.  In my case
  that user is called sysop.  Once logged in, issue the following
  commands ....



       $ cd /spider
       $ mkdir local
       $ mkdir local_cmd
       $ cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm
       $ cd local
       $ vi DXVars.pm (or your favourite editor)





  Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster
  callsign, sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own
  environment.



       $mycall = "GB7DJK";





  This is the call sign of your cluster.  If you use an SSID then
  include it here also.



       $myalias = "G1TLH";



  This is the sysop user callsign, normally your own.


  PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS


  Note that this a perl file which will be parsed and executed as part
  of the cluster. If you get it wrong then perl will complain when you
  start the cluster process.  It is important only to alter the text of
  any section.  Some of the lines look a little odd.  Take this line for
  example ....

  $myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";


  There appears to be an extra slash in there.  However this has to be
  there for the file to work so leave it in.


  DON'T alter any file in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every
  release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or
  /spider/local_cmd will automagically be used in preference to the ones
  in /spider/perl EVEN while the cluster is running!


  Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....



       $ cd ../perl





  Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with
  you as the sysop.



       $ ./create_sysop.pl





  1.5.  The client program

  In earlier versions of Spider, all the processes were Perl scripts.
  This was fine but with a lot of users your computer memory would soon
  be used up.  To combat this a new client was written in "C".  This
  client only works for incoming connects at the moment.  Before you can
  use it though it has to be "made".  CD to /spider/src and type make.
  You should see the output on your screen and hopefully now have a
  small C program called client.  Leave it in this directory.



  1.6.  Starting up for the first time

  We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well
  or not!  It should look something like this ...




  $ ./cluster.pl
  DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.47
  Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
  loading prefixes ...
  loading band data ...
  loading user file system ...
  starting listener ...
  reading existing message headers
  reading cron jobs
  orft we jolly well go ...





  If all is well then login on another term or console as sysop and cd
  to /spider/src.  Now issue the following command ...



       $ ./client





  This should log you into the cluster as the sysop under the alias
  callsign we set earlier.  In this case the callsign is G0VGS.  The
  cluster callsign is set in the DXVars.pm file in /spider/local.  In
  this case we will assume that this was set as GB7MBC.  You should
  therefore see this when you login ....



       G0VGS de GB7MBC 19-Nov-1999 2150Z >





  If you do, congratulations!  If not, look over the instructions again,
  you have probably missed something out.  You can shut spider down
  again with the command ....



       shutdown





  and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.



  2.  Linux quick installation guide

  This section is designed for experienced Spider sysops who want to
  install Spider from scratch.  It is simply a check list of things that
  need to be done without any explanations.  The name in brackets at the
  end of each line is the user that should be doing that process.


  o  Login as root

  o  Get the additional CPAN modules and install them (root)

  o  Create the "sysop" user and set a password (root)

  o  Put the Spider tarball in  sysop and untar it (root)

  o  ln -s  sysop/spider /spider (root)

  o  groupadd -g 251 spider (root)

  o  Add any more users you need to the group entry in /etc/group (root)

  o  Set the permissions on the spider tree (root)

  o  Fix permissions on ax25_call and netrom_call (root)

  o  Login as the sysop user

  o  cd to /spider (sysop)

  o  mkdir local (sysop)

  o  mkdir local_cmd (sysop)

  o  cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm (sysop)

  o  cd to /spider/local and edit DXVars to set your details (sysop)

  o  cd ../perl (sysop)

  o  ./create_sysop.pl (sysop)

  o  ./cluster.pl (sysop)


  Spider should now be running and you should be able to login using the
  client program.


  o  Login as root

  o  Enter the correct line in ax25d.conf (root)

  o  Enter the correct line in /etc/services (root)

  o  Enter the correct line in /etc/inetd.conf (root)

  o  killall -HUP inetd (root)


  Spider should now be able to accept logins via telnet, netrom and
  ax25.


  o  Login as sysop

  o  Start the cluster (sysop)

  o  set/node and type for links (sysop)

  o  Write any connect scripts (sysop)

  o  Edit /spider/crontab as required (sysop)

  o  Edit any other files as necessary (sysop)

  o  Set filters, hops and forwarding files (sysop)

  o  Login as root

  o  Enter the correct line in /etc/inittab (root)


  3.  Setting up the AX25 Utilities

  The aim of this section is not to fully cover the installation and
  configuration of all the possible ax25 modules.  I will attempt to
  cover a simple installation and configure 2 serial ports as if they
  had TNC's on them.  I will also show what additional configuration the
  DXSpider program requires.


  Please bear in mind that I am basing this section on a RedHat 7.1
  distribution, if you are using SuSe or any other distibution then your
  mileage may vary.  I will be happy to make any changes and additions
  if you email me any errors or distribution specific requirements.


  You would probably benefit from reading the AX25-HOWTO which is much
  more comprehensive and an interesting configuration program is also
  available called ax25-config which may help you to configure things.


  The following files are extracts from the working files at GB7MBC and
  are in daily use.  However, there are many ways that you can configure
  the ax25 utils, this is just the one I use, it does not mean it is
  necessarily the best or for that matter, the right way!


  3.1.  Getting Started

  There are 2 things you need to do initially.  You need to get the 3
  files required for the ax25 installation and you need to make some
  changes to the kernel configuration.


  The first thing is to get the versions of the ax25 utils that match
  your kernel.  You may also wish to get a node package of some kind.
  There are 2 main node packages in use of which I shall keep to the
  original by Tomi Manninen, OH2BNS as this is included in the ax25 rpms
  as standard.  The other is AWZNode by IZ5AWZ.


  For 2.4 kernels you need these files...



  o  libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm

  o  ax25-tools-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm

  o  ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm


  3.2.  The kernel

  First you need to add Amateur Radio Support to your kernel.  This is a
  main menu item and should be easily found.  Within this header you
  will find lots of options.  For our purposes you need to enable
  Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 Protocol, NET/ROM and the Serial Port KISS
  Driver.  For the purposes of this document I will work under the
  assumption that you include them in the kernel fully, ie not as
  modules.  If you need to look at compiling your kernel for ax25 more
  fully, I would refer to the excellent AX25-HOWTO


  I should say at this stage that NET/ROM is not mandatory.  If you do
  not use it simply ignore any instruction concerning it.


  Now recompile your kernel in the normal way and reboot your system.


  3.3.  Installing the RPM's

  Now install the RPM's you downloaded, libax25 first, then ax25-tools,
  then ax25-apps.



       rpm -ivh libax25-0.0.7-7.i386.rpm
       rpm -ivh ax25-tool-0.0.6-13.i386.rpm
       rpm -ivh ax25-apps-0.0.4-9.i386.rpm





  3.4.  Configuration

  You will find the configuration files in /etc/ax25.  These consist of
  several files ...


  o  axports

  o  nrports

  o  nrbroadcast

  o  ax25d.conf

  o  node.conf


  These are the main files. You will find other files but they do not
  have any use unless you are wanting to use that particular protocol,
  Rose or axip for example.


  NOTE:- before we start it is important to realise that every interface
  requires a different SSID.  You should be able to follow this in the
  following examples.


  3.5.  axports

  This file sets up the ax25 ports you want to use.  An example is below
  for a standard TNC2 ...



       #portname   callsign   baudrate   paclen   window   description
        2m         gb7mbc-2   19200      256      2        2m port on 144.900MHz
        4m         gb7mbc-4   19200      256      2        4m port on 70.325MHz



  Note that the portnames have to be unique.


  The file headings are as follows ...


  portname        -       The name you will refer to the port by
  callsign        -       The ax25 callsign you want to assign to the port
  baudrate        -       The speed you communicate between TNC and computer
  paclen          -       The maximum packet length for ax25 connections
  window          -       The ax25 window parameter.  This is like 'maxframe'
  description     -       A textual description of the port




  3.6.  nrports

  This file sets up the netrom ports you want to use.  An example is
  below and includes a port for both cluster and node.  You will see why
  we need 2 ports later ...



       #portname   callsign   alias   paclen   description
        netrom     gb7mbc-8   BARE    236      Node Netrom Port
        netrom2    gb7mbc-9   MBCDX   236      Cluster Netrom Port





  Note that the portnames have to be unique.


  The file headings are as follows ...


  portname        -       The name you will refer to the port by
  callsign        -       This is the callsign that NET/ROM traffic from this
                          port will use
  alias           -       The NET/ROM alias this port will be assigned
  paclen          -       The maximum size of NET/ROM frames transmitted
  description     -       A textual description of the port




  3.7.  nrbroadcast

  This file sets up the netrom broadcast qualities.  An example is below
  ...



       #axport   min_obs   def_qual   worst_qual   verbose
        4m       5         10         100          1





  The file headings are as follows ...



  axport          -       The port name in axports that you wish to broadcast
                          NET/ROM on.
  min_obs         -       The minimum obsolescence value for the port
  def_qual        -       The default quality for the port
  worst_qual      -       The worst quality for the port.  Any routes under
                          this quality will be ignored
  verbose         -       This flag determines whether you will only broadcast
                          your own node (0) or all known nodes (1)




  3.8.  ax25d.conf

  This file controls any incoming ax25 and NET/ROM connections and
  steers them to the relevant program.  There are lots of configuration
  options you can set here, however they are well covered in the
  AX25-HOWTO.  For our purposes I will show a typical set of parameters.
  An example is below ...



       [gb7mbc-0 via 2m]
       parameters    2 1   6  900 *  15  0
       NOCALL *  *  *  *  *  *  L
       default  * * * * * *  - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25

       [gb7mbc-1 via 2m]
       parameters    2 1   6  900 *  15  0
       NOCALL *  *  *  *  *  *  L
       default *  *  *  *  *  *  0  root  /usr/sbin/node  node

       [gb7mbc-0 via 4m]
       parameters    2 1   6  900 *  15  0
       NOCALL *  *  *  *  *  *  L
       default  * * * * * *  - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25

       [gb7mbc-1 via 4m]
       parameters    2 1   6  900 *  15  0
       NOCALL *  *  *  *  *  *  L
       default *  *  *  *  *  *  0  root /usr/sbin/node  node

       <netrom2>
       parameters 1    10 * * * 3 *
       NOCALL *  *  *  *  *  *  L
       default  * * * * * *  - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25

       <netrom>
       parameters 1    10 * * * 3 *
       NOCALL *  *  *  *  *  *  L
       default *  *  *  *  *  *  0  root  /usr/sbin/node  node





  There are a few things to take note of here.  Firstly, all ax25
  sections are wrapped in [ ] and all NET/ROM sections are wrapped in <
  >.  Secondly you should be able to see that anyone who forgets to set
  their callsign in a TNC and tries to connect with the standard NOCALL
  set into their TNC will not connect, the 'L' means 'lockout'.  Lastly
  and importantly, notice the order of the sections.  They are all done
  in interface order.



  You should be able to see that the normal line for access to the
  cluster is like this ..



       default  * * * * * *  - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25





  however, if you wish your users to be able to use SSID's on their
  callsigns ..



       default  * * * * * *  - sysop /spider/src/client client %s ax25





  For most purposes this is not desirable. The only time you probably
  will need this is when you need to allow other cluster nodes that are
  using SSID's in. In this case it would probably be better to use the
  first example and then add a specific line for that node like this:



       GB7DJK-2  * * * * * *  - sysop /spider/src/client client gb7djk-2 ax25
       default  * * * * * *  - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25





  3.9.  node.conf

  For those of you that wish to run the node, you need to set up the
  node.conf file.  There are a couple of additional files, node.perms is
  very similar to the way ftp permissions are set up in NOS systems and
  node.motd is the message anyone logging into the node will get.  The
  node.conf file sets all the parameters of the node as you would
  expect.  An example is below ...






















  # /etc/ax25/node.conf - LinuxNode configuration file
  #
  # see node.conf(5)

  # Idle timeout (seconds).
  #
  IdleTimeout     1800

  # Timeout when gatewaying (seconds).
  #
  ConnTimeout     40000

  # Visible hostname. Will be shown at telnet login.
  #
  HostName        gb7mbc.ampr.org

  # ReConnect flag.
  #
  ReConnect       off

  # "Local" network.
  #
  #LocalNet       44.139.8.48/32

  # Command aliases. See node.conf(5) for the meaning of the uppercase
  # letters in the name of the alias.
  #
  ##Alias         CAllbook 'telnet %{2:44.17.0.53} 1235 %1 s'
  #Alias          CONVers  'telnet %{2:oh2ti} 3600 "/n %u %{1:139}\n/w *"'
  #Alias          CLuster  'c hkiclh'
  Alias           CONV    "telnet lurpac 3600"
  Alias           BBS     "c 70cm gb7crv"
  Alias           DXC     "telnet localhost 9000"
  Alias           MUD     "telnet homer 4000"
  ##Alias           TEMP    "finger temp@mary.g6phf"
  ##Alias           TNOS    "c ip1 gb7mbc-5"
  ##Alias           TUtor   "telnet gb7mbc 3599"

  # Hidden ports.
  #
  #HiddenPorts    2

  # External commands. See node.conf(5) for the meaning of the uppercase
  # letters in the name of the extcmd.
  #
  # Flags:        1       Run command through pipe
  #               2       Reconnected flag
  #
  #ExtCmd         TPM     3       nobody  /usr/bin/finger finger tpm
  #ExtCmd         ECho    1       nobody  /bin/echo echo \%U \%u \%S \%s \%P \%p \%R \%r \%T \%t \%\% \%0 \%{1:foobar} \%{2} \%3 \%4 \%5

  # Node ID.
  #
  NodeId          "\nBARE:GB7MBC-1"
  #NodeId         \033[01;31m***\033[0m

  # Netrom port name. This port is used for outgoing netrom connects.
  #
  NrPort          netrom

  # Logging level
  #
  LogLevel        3

  # The escape character (CTRL-T)
  #
  EscapeChar      ^T

  # Resolve ip numbers to addresses?
  #
  ResolveAddrs    off

  # Node prompt.
  #
  #NodePrompt     "\n"
  #NodePrompt     "%s@%h \%i> "
  NodePrompt      "\nBARE:GB7MBC-1 \%i > "
  #NodePrompt     "\a\033[36m%U\033[0m de \033[01;32m#LNODE\033[0m:\033[01;33mOH2BNS-10\033[0m> "





  This should be fairly obvious I hope.


  3.10.  Getting it all running

  Ok, now we have all the relevant files configured, the next step is to
  get it all running.


  The first thing to do is attach the TNC's.  Your TNC's should be in
  KISS mode and connected to the serial ports involved.


  You now use the 'kissattach' command to connect the TNC's to the
  system like this ...



       kissattach /dev/ttyS0 2m 44.131.96.199
       kissattach /dev/ttyS1 4m 44.131.96.199





  Assuming that 44.131.96.199 is your IP address.  The devices ttyS0 and
  ttyS1 are com1 and com2 respectively.  Now we can set some parameters
  ...



       kissparms -p 2m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50
       kissparms -p 4m -t 150 -l 150 -s 50 -r 50





  The command 'man kissparms' will give you the explanation of the
  switches.


  Now we need to attach the NET/ROM ports in the same way ...



       nrattach netrom
       nrattach netrom2

  All of the above can be put in a file and called from
  /etc/rc.d/rc.local.  Put all the above commands in a file called
  rc.ax25 and put a line in rc.local to call it.


  Now you can start the daemons that set everything in motion ...



       ax25d
       netromd -i





  All should now be running.  All that remains is to get the node
  working for telnet connections.  If nothing else, this will allow you
  to connect to the node yourself to check on connection status etc.
  There are 2 files that need to be edited.


  First edit /etc/services and add



       node    3000/tcp     #OH2BNS's Node Software





  Assuming you want it to run on port 3000


  Now cd /etc/xinetd.d and edit a new file called node.  It should look
  like this ...



       # default: on
       #       unencrypted username/password pairs for authentication.
       service node
       {
               socket_type     = stream
               wait            = no
               user            = root
               server          = /usr/sbin/node
               log_on_failure  += USERID
               disable         = yes
       }





  You now need to restart the xinetd daemon.  First find out what the
  PID is like so ..



       ps auxw |grep xinetd




  You will get a reply something like this ...



       root       592  0.0  0.1  2256  620 ?        S    Feb07   0:00 xinetd -stayalive -reuse -pidfile /var/run/xinetd.pid





  The PID or Process ID is 592 in this case so now we can issue the
  command ...



       kill -HUP 592





  All should now be operational and you should be able to log into the
  node by using a telnet session to the relevant port, like so ...



       telnet localhost 3000





  If that works, you are just about there.  you should (assuming you
  have radios connected to the TNC's) be able to connect out to other
  stations and receive incoming ax25 and netrom connections.


  4.  Configuration

  4.1.  Allowing ax25 connects from users

  This is dealt with in the previous section


  4.2.  Allowing telnet connects from users


  From version 1.47 there is a new (more efficient) way of doing this
  (see next section) but, if you prefer, the method of doing it
  described here will continue to work just fine.


  Allowing telnet connections is quite simple.  Firstly you need to add
  a line in /etc/services to allow connections to a port number, like
  this ....



       spdlogin   8000/tcp     # spider anonymous login port





  Then add a line in /etc/inetd.conf like this ....

       spdlogin stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client login telnet





  Once this is done, you need to restart inetd like this ....



       killall -HUP inetd





  Now login as sysop and cd spider/src. You can test that spider is
  accepting telnet logins by issuing the following command ....



       ./client login telnet





  You should get a login prompt and on issuing a callsign, you will be
  given access to the cluster.  Note, you will not get a password login.
  There seems no good reason for a password prompt to be given so it is
  not asked for.


  Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console ....



       telnet localhost 8000





  You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before.


  4.3.  Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)

  From version 1.47 you can choose to allow the perl cluster.pl program
  to allow connections directly (i.e. not via the /spider/src/client
  interface program). If you are using Windows then this is the only
  method available of allowing incoming telnet connections.


  To do this you need first to remove any line that you may previously
  have set up in /etc/inetd.conf. Remember to:-



       killall -HUP inetd






  to make the change happen...


  Having done that, you need to copy the file /spider/perl/Listeners.pm
  to /spider/local and then edit it. You will need to uncomment the line
  containing "0.0.0.0" and select the correct port to listen on. So that
  it looks like this:-



       @listen = (
           ["0.0.0.0", 8000],
       );





  As standard, the listener will listen on all interfaces
  simultaneously.  If you require more control than this, you can
  specify each interface individually:-



       @listen = (
           ["gb7baa.dxcluster.net", 8000],
           ["44.131.16.2", 6300],
       );





  This will only be successful if the IP addresses on each interface are
  static.  If you are using some kind of dynamic IP addressing then the
  'default' method is the only one that will work.


  Restart the cluster.pl program to enable the listener.


  One important difference with the internal listener is that no echoing
  is done by the cluster program. Users will need to set 'local-echo' on
  in their telnet clients if it isn't set automatically (as per the
  standards).  Needless to say this will probably only apply to Windows
  users.


  4.4.  Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)

  AGW Engine is a Windows based ax25 stack. You can connect to an AGW
  engine from Linux as well as Windows based machines.


  In order to enable access to an AGW Engine you need to copy
  /spider/perl/AGWConnect.pm to /spider/local and edit it.  Specifically
  you must:-


  o  set $enable to 1.

  o  set $login and $passwd to the values set up in your AGW
     installation.  If you haven't set any there, then you should not
     touch these values.


  o  You can connect to a remote AGW engine (ie on some other machine)
     by changing $addr and $port appropriately.

  o  Restart the cluster.pl program




  4.5.  Setting up node connects

  In order to allow cluster node connections, spider needs to know that
  the connecting callsign is a cluster node.  This is the case whether
  the connect is incoming or outgoing.  In spider this is a simple task
  and can be done in runtime.


  Later versions of Spider can distinguish different software and treat
  them differently.  For example, the WCY beacon cannot be handles by
  AK1A type nodes as AK1A does not know what to do with PC73.  There are
  4 different types of node at present and although they may not have
  any major differences at the moment, it allows for compatibility.  The
  4 types are ...



       set/node        (AK1A type)
       set/spider
       set/dxnet
       set/clx





  For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is
  an AK1A type node.


  Start up the cluster as you did before and login as the sysop with
  client.  The cluster node I am wanting to make a connection to is
  GB7BAA but you would obviously use whatever callsign you required.  At
  the prompt type ...



       set/node gb7baa





  The case does not matter as long as you have a version of DXSpider
  later than 1.33.  Earlier versions required the callsign to be in
  upper case.


  That is now set, it is as simple as that.  To prove it, login on yet
  another console as sysop, cd to spider/src and issue the command ...



       ./client gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)




  You should get an initialisation string from DXSpider like this ...



       ./client gb7baa
       PC38^GB7MBC^~




  If the callsign you just set up as a cluster node is for an incoming
  connect, this is all that needs to be done.  If the connection is to
  be outgoing then a connection script needs to be written.


  Sometimes you make a mistake... Honest, it does happen.  If you want
  to make a node back to being a normal user, regardless of what type it
  is, do:



       unset/node gb7baa





  4.6.  Connection scripts

  Because DXSpider operates under Linux, connections can be made using
  just about any protocol;  AX25, NETRom, tcp/ip, ROSE etc are all
  possible examples.  Connect scripts live in the /spider/connect
  directory and are simple ascii files.  Writing a script for
  connections is therefore relatively simple.


  The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following
  keywords or symbols:-



     #  All lines starting with a # are ignored, as are completely blank
        lines.


     timeout
        timeout followed by a number is the number of seconds to wait
        for a command to complete. If there is no timeout specified in
        the script then the default is 60 seconds.


     abort
        abort is a regular expression containing one or more strings to
        look for to abort a connection. This is a perl regular
        expression and is executed ignoring case.


     connect
        connect followed by ax25, agw (for Windows users) or telnet and
        some type dependent information. In the case of a telnet
        connection, there can be up to two parameters.  The first is the
        ip address or hostname of the computer you wish to connect to
        and the second is the port number you want to use (this can be
        left out if it is a normal telnet session).  In the case of an
        ax25 session then this would normally be a call to ax25_call or
        netrom_call as in the example above. It is your responsibility
        to get your node and other ax25 parameters to work before going
        down this route!


     '  line in a chat type script. The words/phrases normally come in
        pairs, either can be empty. Each line reads input from the
        connection until it sees the string (or perl regular expression)
        contained in the left hand string. If the left hand string is
        empty then it doesn't read or wait for anything. The comparison
        is done ignoring case.  When the left hand string has found what
        it is looking for (if it is) then the right hand string is sent
        to the connection.  This process is repeated for every line of
        chat script.


     client
        client starts the connection, put the arguments you would want
        here if you were starting the client program manually. You only
        need this if the script has a different name to the callsign you
        are trying to connect to (i.e. you have a script called other
        which actually connects to GB7DJK-1 [instead of a script called
        gb7djk-1]).


  There are many possible ways to configure the script but here are
  three examples, one for a NETRom/AX25 connect, one for AGW engines and
  one for tcp/ip.



       timeout 60
       abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
       # don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
       connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
       # you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
       client gb7dxm ax25








       timeout 60
       abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
       # this does exactly the same as the previous example
       # the '1' is the AGW port number to connect thru for g1tlh
       connect agw 1 g1tlh
       # you can leave this out if you call the script 'gb7dxm'
       client gb7dxm ax25








       timeout 15
       connect telnet dirkl.tobit.co.uk
       # tell GB7DJK-1 that it is connected to GB7DJK
       # you can leave this out if you call this script 'gb7djk'
       client gb7djk telnet


  Both these examples assume that everything is set up properly at the
  other end.  You will find other examples in the /spider/examples
  directory.


  4.7.  Starting the connection

  You start the connection, from within a sysop enabled cluster login,
  by typing in the word connect followed by a script name like this ....



       G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2041Z >connect gb7djk-1
       connection to GB7DJK-1 started
       G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >





  This will start a connection using the script called gb7djk-1.  You
  can follow the connection by watching the term or console from where
  you started cluster.pl.  From version 1.47 onwards, you will need to
  set/debug connect first.  You should see something like this ...



       <- D G1TLH connect gb7djk-1
       -> D G1TLH connection to GB7DJK-1 started
       -> D G1TLH G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2046Z >
       timeout set to 15
       CONNECT sort: telnet command: dirkl.tobit.co.uk
       CHAT "login" -> "gb7djk"
       received "
       Red Hat Linux release 5.1 (Manhattan)
       Kernel 2.0.35 on an i586
       "
       received "login: "
       sent "gb7djk"
       CHAT "word" -> "gb7djk"
       received "gb7djk"
       received "Password: "
       sent "gb7djk"
       Connected to GB7DJK-1, starting normal protocol
       <- O GB7DJK-1 telnet
       -> B GB7DJK-1 0
       GB7DJK-1 channel func  state 0 -> init
       <- D GB7DJK-1
       <- D GB7DJK-1 Last login: Sun Dec 13 17:59:56 from dirk1
       <- D GB7DJK-1 PC38^GB7DJK-1^~
       <- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users  Max users 0  Uptime
       0 00:00^5447^~
           etc





  With later versions of Spider there is a set/login command for users.
  This tells them when a user or node logs in or out.  If you do not add
  a line to your scripts after the final line (or before the client line
  which should always be last if needed) then the login/logout
  information will be sent to users before the login actually completes.
  This means if a node is unreachable, it will continue sending logins
  and logouts to users even though it is not actually connecting.  To
  avoid this use the following line ...
  In a script, this might look like ...



       timeout 35
       abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
       connect telnet mary 3000





  4.8.  Telnet echo

  Cluster links in particular suffer greatly from the presence of telnet
  echo.  This is caused by the telnet negotiation itself and can create
  at worst severe loops.  At best it creates unnecessary bandwidth and
  large logfiles!  There are things that can be done to limit this
  problem but will not always work dependent on the route taken to
  connect.


  Telnet echo itself should only be a problem if the connection is being
  made to the telnet port (23).  This port uses special rules that
  include echo negotiation.  If the connection is to a different port,
  such as 7300, this negotiation does not happen and therefore no echo
  should be present.


  Sometimes it is not possible to make a direct connection to another
  node and this can cause problems.  There is a way of trying to
  suppress the telnet echo but this will not always work, unfortunately
  it is difficult to be more specific.  Here is an example of what I
  mean ...



       timeout 35
       abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
       connect telnet mary.lancs.ac.uk





  So, the first connection is made by Spider.  This is fine as Spider
  uses the Net_Telnet script from within perl.  This actually uses TCP
  rather than TELNET so no negotiation will be done on the first
  connection.  Once connected to mary.lancs.ac.uk, the command is sent
  to suppress echo.  Now a telnet is made to a cluster node that is
  accepting connections on port 23.  The problem with this link is that
  the negotiation is made by the remote machine, therefore you have no
  control over it.  The chances are that this link will create echo and
  there will be no way you can stop it.



  4.9.  Autostarting the cluster

  Ok, you should now have DXSpider running nicely and allowing connects
  by cluster nodes or users.  However, it has to be shutdown and
  restarted manually.  It would be much easier to have it start
  automatically.



  This is not only a way to start the cluster automatically, it also
  works as a watchdog, checking the sanity of DXSpider and respawning it
  should it crash for any reason.  Before doing the following, shutdown
  the cluster as you did earlier.


  Login as root and bring up the /etc/inittab file in your favourite
  editor.  Add the following lines to the file near the end ...



       ##Start DXSpider on bootup and respawn it should it crash
       DX:3:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7





  This line works fine for RedHat distributions. It is also fine for
  SuSE up to 7.0.  From Suse 7.1 you need to add runlevels 2 and 5 like
  this ...



       DX:235:respawn:/bin/su -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" sysop >/dev/tty7





  The line required for Slackware distributions is slightly different.
  My thanks to Aurelio, PA3EZL for this information.



       DX:23:respawn:/bin/su - sysop -c "/usr/bin/perl -w /spider/perl/cluster.pl" >/dev/tty7





  This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and
  restart it should it crash for any reason.


  As root type the command telinit q.  DXSpider should start up
  immediately.  You will see the output on tty7 and if you login as
  sysop you should find everything running nicely.


  5.  Microsoft Windows Installation

  5.1.  Introduction

  IMPORTANT:

  What you'll be left with once you've followed these instructions is
  (hopefully) a working DX Spider v1.47 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 (TM) environment. It's not intended to teach
  you anything other than how to perform a minimum configuration of a DX
  Spider installation and have it able to connect across "the internet"
  to other DX Clusters, while accepting inbound TELNET and radio
  connections.


  5.2.  The requirements

  The very first things you're going to need are (in order of
  importance):-


  o  A cup of good, strong tea

  o  A supported Windows platform with an internet connection so you can
     download the necessary software bits and bobs directly to it. There
     are other ways, but this is preferable.

  o  Another cup of good, strong tea

  o  If all goes according to plan, about an hour to spare

  o  Plenty of good, strong tea


  5.3.  The system

  The platform I used to generate these instructions was a "vanilla"
  Microsoft Windows Me 4.90.3000 system, with a 700MHz AMD Athlon
  processor and 96 Mb memory. I've also personally verified that it runs
  on my laptop (Pentium 266MHz, 32 Mb memory, Windows 98 SE v4.10.2222
  A) and a computer that I assembled from a random pile of junk (AMD
  K6-2 333MHz, 64 Mb memory, Windows 98 v4.10.1998). As a result, I have
  reason to believe that what I'm about to describe will perform equally
  on any 32-bit MS Windows environment with 32 Mb of memory.

  Because of the changes that have recently been made to the core
  "cluster.pl" module and the introduction of a very lightweight
  "winclient.pl", I have a sneaking suspicion that this will now run on
  any platform that has reasonably complete support for Perl. Is there
  someone out there with both an enquiring mind and (say) a Macintosh,
  for instance?

  Please bear in mind, though, that my instructions relate solely to how
  to get this going under a Microsoft Windows environment, and I have
  zero intention of trying to make them say otherwise.


  5.4.  Perl

  Install your chosen Perl environment. Unless you have a very good
  reason for not doing so, I strongly suggest that you use ActivePerl
  v5.6. For my testing & development, I used build 623.  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 be rewarded with
  some interesting information about your Perl installation. If you're
  not, you must go back to the beginning and discover what went wrong
  and fix it. It's pointless to proceed unless this simple check is
  passed. Assuming it did work, you may now move on.


  5.5.  Additional packages

  Some extensions ("packages") need to be added to the base Perl
  distribution, and we'll do this next. If you're using the Perl I
  recommended, and don't know any better for yourself, then just blindly
  following these instructions will work just fine. If that didn't
  describe you, then you're on your own.

  Visit the following URL:

  http://www.activestate.com/PPMPackages/zips/6xx-builds-only/

  and download the following files:-



       Data-Dumper.zip
       Net-Telnet.zip
       TimeDate.zip
       Time-HiRes.zip
       DB_File.zip




  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.


  5.6.  Getting Spider

  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 the latest "official" release from:-

  http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html

  or if you want the lastest snapshot of CVS version (which is produced
  every night):-

  http://www.dxcluster.org/download/CVSlatest.tgz

  This is generally the best one to go for as it is completely up to
  date. However, there is always the very slight chance that it might
  unstable. Generally, there will be a note on the website if this is
  the case.


  The only difference between "CVSlatest.tgz" and the latest "official"
  release version is that it is more up to date. Don't confuse this TGZ
  file with "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" - they are two quite
  different things.


  If you went down the CVS route (ie installed wincvs and downloaded
  from sourceforge), then everything will be nicely set out on your
  local disk. If you got the TGZ file, unpack it to somewhere
  convenient. The following examples assume that you put it on drive
  "C:\", for convenience.


  You will need winzip to manipulate the TGZ files (they are bit like
  ZIP files) if you are not using CVS.


  6.  Installing the software

  Ensure that your CVS session or your WINunZIPped file have left you
  with a directory "C:\spider\local" and C:\spider\local_cmd"; if not,
  go to "C:\spider\" and create them. If "C:\spider" is missing, go back
  and figure out why, because it shouldn't be.


  Now create your own local copy of the DXVars.pm file by:-



       copy c:\spider\perl\DXVars.pm.issue
       c:\spider\local\DXVars.pm




  Now you'll need to edit this file using a text editor. If nothing
  else, you can simply



       cd \spider\local




  and then



       notepad DXVars.pm




  to bring up an editor window containing the file. As an absolute
  minimum you must adjust the following items in DXVars.pm:-


  o  $mycall  - Should hold the callsign of your DX Cluster

  o  $myname  - The SysOp's first name

  o  $myalias - the SysOp's callsign. Cannot be the same as $mycall!

  o  $myqth - The station's geographical location (QTH).

  o  $mylatitude - The station latitude in degrees and decimal fractions

  o  $mylongitude - The station longitude in degrees and decimal
     fractions

  o  $mylocator - The Maidenhead (or QRA) locator of the station

  You really also ought to update the $myqth and $myemail variables. And
  unless you are absolutely certain you know what you're doing, you
  should change nothing else in this file. Note that if you use an "@"
  or a "$" character in one of the above strings (typically in $myemail)
  you must write them as "\@" or "\$".



  6.1.  Incoming telnets

  If you want to enable inbound "TELNET" connections (or you are running
  Windows NT, 2000 or XP), you've got a little more work to do. From a
  handy "DOS box" that's not doing anything else, do the following:-





  copy \spider\perl\Listeners.pm \spider\local
  cd \spider\local
  notepad listeners.pm




  The following lines need attention:-



       ["0.0.0.0", 7300],




  On my machine, I've simply uncommented the "0.0.0.0" entry by removing
  the '#' from the front of the line.

  You MUST carry out this step if you are running on a Windows NT, 2000
  or XP based system

  If you don't have a static hostname for your machine, and you intend
  to allow folk to connect to your machine across the internet, then I'd
  suggest you pay a visit to www.dyndns.org and create one for yourself.
  While it's free, it will take a modest an amount of effort on your
  part to read, understand and implement what needs to be done to set
  this up.


  If your machine is connected to the internet and you don't want to
  allow your machine to be visible to the outside world you should
  change the "0.0.0.0" to "127.0.0.1" [which is "localhost"]. This will
  then only allow connections from inside your machine. As was said
  earlier: if you aren't running Win9x (or you want to use DXTelnet or
  somesuch), then you need to have the machine listening at least to
  "127.0.0.1" ("0.0.0.0" means all IP addresses).


  6.2.  The AGW packet engine

  On the assumption that you'll be using the SV2AGW Packet Engine to
  interface your radios to the cluster, you should now create your own
  local copy of AGWConnect.pm by:-



       copy c:\spider\perl\AGWConnect.pm
       c:\spider\local\AGWConnect.pm




  and then



       notepad AGWConnect.pm




  to bring up an editor window containing the file. You must consider
  adjusting the following items in AGWConnect.pm:-


  o  $enable - set to '1' to enable AGWPE interface

  o  $login  - the login ID you chose when you set up the SV2AGW
     security :-)

  o  $passwd - password that matches $login


  6.3.  Setting up the initial user files

  Next you need to create the initial user files, etc. A tool is
  supplied which will do this for you. To run the tool:-



       cd \spider\perl
       perl create_sysop.pl




  If all goes according to plan, you will see no output from this
  program, and after a brief wait, your DOS prompt will be returned.

  Depending on how brave you are, you might now care to try the
  following:-



       perl cluster.pl




  If you did everything you were told, your DOS window will now hold a
  display which looks something like:-



       DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.47
       Copyright (c) 1998-2001 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
       loading prefixes ...
       loading band data ...
       loading user file system ...
       starting listeners ...
       Internal port: localhost 27754
       load badwords: Ok
       reading in duplicate spot and WWV info ...
       reading existing message headers ...
       load badmsg: Ok
       load forward: Ok
       load swop: Ok
       @msg = 0 before delete
       @msg = 0 after delete
       reading cron jobs ...v cron: reading /spider/cmd/crontab
       cron: adding 1 0 * * 0
       DXUser::export("$main::data/user_asc")
       reading database descriptors ...
       doing local initialisation ...
       orft we jolly well go ...
       queue msg (0)





  Now, if that's what you've got, you are very nearly home and dry (in
  as far as these particular experiments are concerned, anyhow)

  If you are running Windows 9x you can access your new cluster (from
  the local machine) by finding yourself another "DOS box" and doing the
  following:-



       cd \spider\perl
       perl winclient.pl




  If you are running Windows NT, 2000 or XP then winclient.pl does not
  work. We don't know why other than this seems to be some kind of
  incomaptibility in perl. You can achieve the same thing by telnetting
  to the port you defined in Listeners.pm (7300 as default), thus:-



       Menu->Start->Run
       telnet localhost 7300




  On getting the login: prompt, enter your sysop callsign (the one you
  put in DXVars.pm as $myalias).


  I would recommend strongly that you obtain a better telnet client than
  that which comes with windows (I use PuTTY).


  Anyway, if you are rewarded with a display which looks something
  like:-



       Hello Iain, this is GB7SJP in Amersham, Bucks running DXSpider V1.47
       Cluster: 1 nodes, 1 local / 1 total users Max users 2 Uptime 0 00:00
       M0ADI de GB7SJP 4-Mar-2001 1511Z >




  You've arrived. Try some commands, and see how they feel. (In case you
  were wondering, "Iain", "M0ADI" and "GB7SJP" all came from the version
  of DXVars.pm that was on the machine when I started the winclient.pl)


  The interface is very basic. It is a simple command line. There are
  better looking interfaces. Most of the "standard" logging and DX
  Cluster access programs that are capable of connecting via a TCP or
  telnet connection will work as a "Sysop Console" client. You connect
  to "localhost" on the port that you defined in Listeners.pm (usually
  7300). I recommend packages like DXTelnet.


  6.4.  Connecting to other clusters

  If you want to connect this to another cluster, then you'll want to
  negotiate a link with someone. For experimental purposes, I'm happy to
  allow folk to connect to GB7DXA (spud.ath.cx), on the understanding
  that the system may or may not be there and may or may not be
  connected to anything particularly useful at any given moment. Contact
  me by Email if you want me to set up a connection for you.


  7.  General Information

  The following relates to all versions of DXSpider and is not platform
  related.


  7.1.  The crontab file

  Login as sysop and create a file in /spider/local_cmd called crontab.
  Edit it with your favourite editor and add a line like this (I have
  included a comment)



       # check every 10 minutes to see if gb7xxx is connected and if not
       # start a connect job going

       0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('gb7xxx') unless connected('gb7xxx')





  The callsign involved will be the callsign of the cluster node you are
  going to connect to.  This will now check every 10 minutes to see if
  gb7xxx is connected, if it is then nothing will be done.  If it is
  not, then a connect attempt will be started.


  There are probably lots of other things you could use this crontab
  file for.  If you want to know more about it, look at the DXSpider
  website at the cron page where it is explained more fully.