[Dxspider-support] AX25 setup

[Ian J Maude]

On Sun, 2002-11-17 at 04:44, Billie & Dave Wilson wrote:
> Still dogging the Linux system, only have enlisted the aid of a
> longtime linux user.
>  
> My Geru has made it through the AX25 setup to 3.9 - node.conf at which
> time he asked "what kind of node are we setting up?"  And I couldn't
> answer that question.
>  
> So I looked through chapter 3 and decided I didn't know what the goals
> were for the chapter.
Hi Dave,
The idea of including the chapter was to try and simplify the setting up
of the ax25 utilities under Linux, something I swore I would never
include in the Spider manual ;-)  I was finally persuaded that a simple
walkthrough would be a good idea.  Anyway, I will try to answer your
points one by one.

>  
> 3.5 axports - setting up two rf ports.  This is more like defining the
> ports.
You are correct here, axports does indeed define the ports, how can you
configure them unless you define them first?
>  
> 3.6 nrports - setting up two netrom ports.  But why netrom ports? 
> Again, this looks like a definition.
Same again :-)

> 3.7 nrbroadcast - sets up the netrom broadcast qualities.  But, points
> to the axports, not the nrports, huh??
The idea of nrbroadcast is to show which ax25 port you wish to broadcast
netrom on.  It would be pointless trying to broadcast netrom over a
virtual netrom port.  This is why you tell it the port name from
axports.

>  
> 3.8 ax25d.conf - control of incoming connections.  Since I haven't
> been able to follow the HOWTO very well, will let this ride for now. 
> Geru is confident he has this set ok.
This is one of those things that is easy when you know how ;-)
in ax25d.conf you are setting what happens when a user connects to your
station.  If they connect to gb7mbc (which is in reality gb7mbc-0 of
course) then what process does it spawn?  2 examples would be...

User connects to gb7mbc (gb7mbc-0)

ax25d.conf says connect to the cluster for this (spawn the spider
client)

User connect to gb7mbc-1

ax25d.conf says connect to the node for this (spawn the node daemon)

>  
> 3.9 node.conf - "For those of you that wish to run the node".  ?? 
> This is where my Geru quizzed, "what node is this?  Spider node? 
> Netrom Node?  Digi node?  Do I need to set it up [yes, no]?"  All he
> got back was silence.  Now I remember why I requested the aid of my
> Geru a while back.
This is a front end node much like bpq node.  It is a simple front end
that allows the user (and sysop) to choose options from a list, BBS,
Cluster, WWConvers, IRCD etc as well as the option of connecting to
other places.  This can be done at whatever level you wish, telnet,
ax25, netrom etc.  It will also show the netrom nodes your station
knows, what connects are in place etc.  If you only intend to run a
cluster and not allow external outgoing connects to anywhere else, you
do not need it.  Maybe I need to do more work on this in the manual?

>  
> If someone could guide me as to whether node.conf needs to be set up
> and if so, why, and which node this is, I'd be greatly appreciative.
See the above answer
>  
> The setup will have two 2 meter rf ports and will connect to another
> spider (k1xx) via the internet.  Running red hat 7.3 (I think).
Sounds good :-)  Good luck with it and let me know if I can be of any
more help.
Ian
> 
> -- 
>  
>  Ian Maude G0VGS Morecambe Lancs UK | ian at gb7mbc.net
>  Sysop of GB7MBC, the Morecambe Bay Cluster
>  Running Linux and DXSpider
> 
>  Find out about Summits on the Air!  
>  Visit the SOTA web site at http://www.sota.org.uk