<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
- <TITLE>The DXSpider Installation and Administration Manual : Configuration</TITLE>
+ <TITLE>The DXSpider Installation and Administration Manual: Configuration</TITLE>
<LINK HREF="adminmanual-4.html" REL=next>
<LINK HREF="adminmanual-2.html" REL=previous>
<LINK HREF="adminmanual.html#toc3" REL=contents>
+<link rel=stylesheet href="style.css" type="text/css" title="default stylesheet">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<A HREF="adminmanual-4.html">Next</A>
<H2><A NAME="ss3.1">3.1 Allowing ax25 connects from users</A>
</H2>
-<P>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 ...
+<P>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 ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>or, if you wish your users to be able to use SSID's on their callsigns ..
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss3.2">3.2 Allowing telnet connects from users</A>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %s ax25
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<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:
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+GB7DJK-2 * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client gb7djk-2 ax25
+default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss3.2">3.2 Allowing telnet connects from users </A>
</H2>
-<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 ....
+<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>
+<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 ....
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<P>This needs to be added above the standard services such as ftp, telnet etc. Once this is done, you need to restart inetd
-like this ....
+<P>Once this is done, you need to restart inetd like this ....
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<P>
-<P>Now login as <EM>sysop</EM> and cd spider/perl. You can test that spider is accepting telnet logins by issuing the
-following command ....
+<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 ....
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-client.pl login telnet
+./client login telnet
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<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>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>
<P>Assuming all is well, then try a telnet from your linux console ....
<P>
<P>
<P>You should now get the login prompt and be able to login as before.
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss3.3">3.3 Setting up node connects</A>
+<H2><A NAME="ss3.3">3.3 Setting up telnet connects (from 1.47 onwards)</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>From version 1.47 you can choose to allow the perl cluster.pl program to
+allow connections directly (i.e. not via the <CODE>/spider/src/client</CODE>
+interface program). If you are using Windows then this is the only method
+available of allowing incoming telnet connections.
+<P>
+<P>To do this you need first to remove any line that you may previously have set
+up in /etc/inetd.conf. Remember to:-
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+killall -HUP inetd
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
+<P>to make the change happen...
+<P>
+<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 "0.0.0.0"
+and select the correct port to listen on. So that it looks like this:-
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+@listen = (
+ ["0.0.0.0", 8000],
+);
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
+<P>As standard, the listener will listen on all interfaces simultaneously.
+If you require more control than this, you can specify each interface
+individually:-
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+@listen = (
+ ["gb7baa.dxcluster.net", 8000],
+ ["44.131.16.2", 6300],
+);
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
+<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>
+<P>Restart the cluster.pl program to enable the listener.
+<P>
+<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.
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss3.4">3.4 Setting up for AGW Engine (1.47 onwards)</A>
+</H2>
+
+<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>
+<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:-
+<P>
+<UL>
+<LI> set <CODE>$enable</CODE> to 1.</LI>
+<LI> set <CODE>$login</CODE> and <CODE>$passwd</CODE> to the values set up in your AGW installation.
+If you haven't set any there, then you should not touch these values.</LI>
+<LI> You can connect to a remote AGW engine (ie on some other machine) by changing <CODE>$addr</CODE>
+and <CODE>$port</CODE> appropriately.</LI>
+<LI> Restart the cluster.pl program</LI>
+</UL>
+
+<P>
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss3.5">3.5 Setting up node connects</A>
</H2>
-<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>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>
-<P>Start up the cluster as you did before and login as the sysop with client.pl.
-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 ...
+<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 ...
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+set/node (AK1A type)
+set/spider
+set/dxnet
+set/clx
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
+<P>For now, we will assume that the cluster we are going to connect to is an
+AK1A type node.
+<P>
+<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 ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<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>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>
-<P>That is now set, it is as simple as that. To prove it, login on yet another console as sysop and issue the command ...
+<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 ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-client.pl gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
+./client gb7baa (using the callsign you set as a node)
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-client.pl gb7baa
+./client gb7baa
PC38^GB7MBC^~
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<P>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>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>
+<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:
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss3.4">3.4 Connection scripts</A>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+unset/node gb7baa
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss3.6">3.6 Connection scripts</A>
</H2>
-<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.
+<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>
-<P>The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following keywords or symbols:-
-<P>
+<P>The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the following keywords
+or symbols:-
+<P>
+<DL>
+<P>
+<DT><B>#</B><DD><P>All lines starting with a <CODE>#</CODE> are ignored, as are completely
+blank lines.
+<P>
+<DT><B>timeout</B><DD><P><CODE>timeout</CODE> 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.
+<P>
+<DT><B>abort</B><DD><P><CODE>abort</CODE> 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.
+<P>
+<DT><B>connect</B><DD><P><CODE>connect</CODE> 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!
+<P>
+<DT><B>'</B><DD><P><CODE>'</CODE> 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.
+<P>
+<DT><B>client</B><DD><P><CODE>client</CODE> 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]).
+</DL>
+<P>
+<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.
<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-
-# 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 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 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]).
+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
</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>
<P>
-<P>There are many possible ways to configure the script but here are two examples, one for a NETRom/AX25 connect and
-one for tcp/ip.
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
timeout 60
abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
-# don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
-connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
+# 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'
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<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.
+<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.
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss3.5">3.5 Starting the connection</A>
+<H2><A NAME="ss3.7">3.7 Starting the connection</A>
</H2>
-<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 ....
+<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 ....
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
G0VGS de GB7MBC 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<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>. You should see something like this ...
+<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 <CODE>set/debug connect</CODE> first.
+You should see something like this ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
<- 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^~
+<- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users Max users 0 Uptime
+0 00:00^5447^~
etc
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<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 <I>before</I> the login actually
-completes. This means if a node is unreachable, it will continue sending logins and logouts to users even though it
+<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
+<I>before</I> 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 ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss3.6">3.6 Telnet echo</A>
+<H2><A NAME="ss3.8">3.8 Telnet echo</A>
</H2>
-<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>
-<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 8000, this negotiation does not happen and therefore no
-echo should be present.
-<P>
-<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 ...
+<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>
+<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>
+<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 ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
'connect' ''
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<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.
-<P>
-<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss3.7">3.7 Automating things</A>
-</H2>
-
-<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 and if connection scripts fail they have to be started again manually too, not
-much use if you are not at the console! So, in this section we will automate both. Firstly starting the cluster.
-<P>
-<H3>Autostarting the cluster</H3>
-
-<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>
-<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 ...
-<P>
-<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
-<PRE>
-##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
-</PRE>
-</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<P>
-<P>This will automatically start DXSpider on tty7 (ALT-F7) on bootup and restart it should it crash for any reason.
-<P>
-<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.
-<P>
-<P>So far so good, now to automate script connections...
-<P>
-<H3>The crontab file</H3>
-
-<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)
-<P>
-<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
-<PRE>
-# 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') if !connected('gb7xxx')
-</PRE>
-</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<P>
-<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>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.
<P>
-<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
-<A HREF="http://www.dxcluster.org/cron.html">DXSpider</A> website at the cron page where it is
-explained more fully.
<P>
<HR>
<A HREF="adminmanual-4.html">Next</A>