[Dxspider-support] DXSpider<>FlexNet Network

[Dirk Koopman]

Bob

Thank you for the comprehensive explanation of your tests. Let me
comment on some of it and also try to outline my policy on writing
stuff.

Firstly, in order for me to see what is going on on the polling front I
think you should capture a 'session' with 'set/debug raw agw' in effect.
I would like to study the packets and see where the problem lies. I have
a suspicion that this is an AGW problem (but I am prepared to be proved
wrong). 

As for providing a 'digi' type connect on AGW (this is only an issue on
AGW), I am reluctant to do this. AGW needs a completely separate pathway
to do digi type connects as opposed to 'normal' point to point connects.
I don't know why this is, but it *is* so. Whilst anything is possible
(ie it could be done), I have limited testing facilities for AGW and,
frankly, I don't want to do it unless I really have to.

In general, I don't much want to spend time on machine specific
interfaces. For instance, I understand that flexnet have a tcp/ip based
interface (ie you run flexnet either as a 'TSR' or on a separate machine
with this 'shim' and I could connect to it using a standard TCP
connect). This isn't documented anywhere in a language that I understand
nor, despite repeated attempts, can I get information about how to go
about it from flexnet's authors.

Similarly, BPQ32 has an OCX control which could be wrapped up so that it
accepts TCP connections and then behaves as normal node. No-one seems
interested in doing this and I don't have the time nor the inclination
to learn M$ speak programming to do it myself.  Then there is the TheNet
crowd...

One success: I have used and (occasionally) run xrouter by g8pzt via a
simple TCP connect both outgoing and incoming. It is largely BPQ
compatible (ie it runs all the interfaces that BPQ16 does [+ a few
more]) but it really works best (and least kludgily) on a dedicated
(old) machine with a network card. I am not aware of how well it fits
with flexnet connects. 

Also linux has DAMA slave ax25 connect built in. It can happily be
persuaded to do digi connects or whatever is required. I, personally,
would be happier if more people tried linux but I do know that that the
(poor) ax25 documentation is quite a large barrier to successful
implementation. 

I will write an interface to any software that has a documented, network
connection protocol for it. I will *not* write stuff that requires a
compilation on (particularly) M$ machines as I am not geared up for
doing it, and, more to the point, it is a maintenance nightmare. 

I *will* assist someone else to provide interfaces to these bits of
software though.

Dirk G1TLH
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