[Dxspider-support] ARRL contest dumped spots?

[Mikel EA2CW]

...
> 
> Are we sure that our "map" of who is connected where is 100% correct.
> 
...

Dear OM Rene, the answer is not so easy. I will try to answer...

The cluster users connect the net by some ways:

- Telnet direct connection to a node. In this case the node knows which 
IP is the user connecting from.

- DX / Contest Software (s). The software connects then to a node. May 
be then that there is a connection to a node or to any kind of gateway 
to a node.

- Web clusters. The web server knows the IP address of the client.

If in any of these cases, a) the IP of the client is not collected and 
b) then forwarded to the rest of the network nodes, that is, "THIS USER 
IS CONNECTED TO ME" and optionally "FROM nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn IP ADDRESS", 
the rest of the nodes will never know it.

Then, when the spots start coming into that node, and it forwards them 
to the rest, nobody knows whether the spotter is actually connected to 
the origin node. The spots appear suddenly on the net, but the chain of 
connections cannot be assured.

I think the right protocol might be:

1) The user connect the node/software/webcluster

2) The node/software/webcluster collects the data of the connection: 
user callsign, (better if this is made via user/password procedure) and 
the IP of the user.

3) The node broadcasts this information to the rest of the nodes that 
the user has connected "him". Now, all the nodes know which users are 
connected to which nodes.

4) The user sends a spot to his/her cluster and this one then forwards 
the spot to the rest of the nodes.

5) When a user disconnect from a node, this, again, informs of this fact 
to the rest of the nodes, and they "note" the user is not at that node 
anymore (so he/she couldn't send more spots from it).

This way, the "chain of custody" is saved and it would be harder (never 
impossible, of course) to spoof spots.

However, if/when some nodes/softwares/webclusters don't do this, well, 
we are seeing what can happens.

I think that after all this, I have answered your question, at least as 
far as I understand how the things are going. I beg your pardon if there 
are some mistakes in it.

73 de Mikel Berrocal EA2CW-AE2CW
Bilbao, Basque Country
ea2cw at gautxori.com
https://cluster.gautxori.com