QRZ! Ham Radio 4/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 4.iso/files/tcpip/k5jb/k351upd.usr

Text File | 1994-08-05 | 12.7 KB | 216 lines

                     Version Update Notes for the Operator

                                   July 1994

A complete and updated set of instructions is contained in the user document-
ation.  This file contains notes that should be useful to those who may be
replacing an earlier version of NET.  NET is intended for those who don't
know any better (like a worm in a sauerkraut barrel).  Once you become educat-
ed and sophisticated you will want to run NOS (JNOS, GRINOS, WNOS, SuperNOS,
or WonderNOS).  Those of you who suffer from arrested development, like me,
may be satisfied with NET.  NOS is wonderful and does everything, even balance
your checkbook, and run Nintendo, but NET only does TCP/IP over amateur radio,
blush!.

These notes reflect the changes that might affect NET's operation over the
last couple of releases.

The main changes were to simplify things for the amateur radio user.  Setting
up and running NET is so simple now that the program, autoip.exe in etcfiles-
.lzh is almost obsolete.  (I did update autoip.exe for this release.)  NET
will start and run if the correct directories are set up and it is given five
configuration commands and six start commands, and not all these are actually
required.  The five configuration commands are:

 Your AX.25 call sign, e.g. k5jb-10
 Your IP address, e.g. 44.78.0.2
 Your host name (normally same as your call sign except no ssid, e.g. k5jb
 The attach command that tells it about your com: port.
 A route add default command, e.g. route add default ax0
   (This latter command is not required but is recommended.)

A couple of the start commands are kind of silly (echo, discard), but every-
body starts them.  Telnet, smtp, ftp, and finger standard with TCP/IP oper-
ation so you probably would want to start them.

The ax25 mboxcall makes things easier for non-IP users (unenlightened) who
play with your system, and the ax25 vcipcall make things easier if you deal
with NOS stations that are using the BBS jump-start command (malicious).  If
you have to use Net/ROM to get around (isolated and depraved) you have to add
some netrom commands.

That is it!  If you don't have the directories set up correctly, or NET can't
find the files it needs or would like to have, it will tell you.  Oh yeah, NET
doesn't set your TNC into KISS mode.  You still have to do that yourself.

The autoexec.net example in etcfiles.lzh has been updated to reflect this
simplification, but contain examples of most common commands you would use for
special applications.

Here is a synopsis of the changes made since the last TAPR library update:

June-Nov 93 k30-k31 - Changes to NET were mostly internal with miscellaneous
corrections to improve code portability between different kinds of computers.
With help from Bob, N0QBJ, I made necessary changes to make NET compile under
OS9/68K.  I removed the shell command from the MS-DOS version because it was
worthless, and since there were interrupts going on, unpredictable.  I Added a
receive overrun counter to the MS-DOS version.  It reports as a part of the ip
stat command.  If you are flatlining your computer (I am with a 10 MHz AT
running a BBS simultaneously and using a whole bunch of ports) you may find
this information interesting.

11/7/93 k32-k33 - Added AX.25 segmentation (only so the NOS users couldn't
point fingers), along with an ax25 seg command, and revised lapb handling to
try and reduce obsolete packets queuing in KISS TNC.  Did it by making t2
effective.  The latter made an ENORMOUS improvement in AX.25 connected mode
operation.  Added ability to tune interface mtu after program start by add-
ing param <iface> mtu command.  Corrected error in uploading to an incoming
telnet session, and corrected a midnight anomaly in the PC clock.  (It was
jumping back to zero and causing the timer to do an hour's worth of looping
which caused some interesting ax.25 problems!)  Wrote some advice regarding
parameters and put it in Chapter 5 of the operator's manual.

1/14/94 k34 - This is the most modified release yet.  Replaced the vcircuit
scheme (for dealing with ROSE circuits) with an IP only virtual circuit call
sign.  This greatly simplified dealing with ROSE and NOS (the BBS with inci-
dental TCP/IP) and substantially reduced code size.  The ax25 vcipcall command
syntax is, ax25 vcipcall [<call-ssid>].  In conjunction with this, I changed
two commands, the arp add, and the route add commands.  In arp add, I added
another "hardware" type to the arp table.  This new type, "vax25", signals NET
to use virtual circuit to reach a specific station.  In route add, I changed
the syntax to, route add <dest addr>[/<bits>] <if name> [gateway|*] [metric].
The [gateway|*] permits using a value for metric without specifying a gateway.
This metric value, if present, replaces the interface mtu for a specific
route, permitting you to tune by route.

I also enabled NET to operate in AX.25 Version 1 protocol as well as Version
2.  NET's default on starting is V2, but can be changed with the ax25 version
[V1|V2] command.  (The default governs with what version NET starts a connect-
ion.  Regardless of the default, NET will switch to the same version used by
the other end.)  Along with these changes I did some completion work on the
ax25 stat and tcp stat commands, and incidentally added a "time since last
heard" report to the tcp stat command.  With this information you can tell
which sessions are zombies and can be reset.

Since I was in a cosmetic improvement mood, I added a prompt, "FTP>" to the
ftp client.  I also added a message of the day (motd) command for incoming
telnet sessions. Default is none. motd <One line message> creates one, motd -
(dash) deletes it.  Also added an axmotd command so a custom greeting could be
made for AX.25 and Netrom chat users.  There is a default.  This axmotd will
be sent to an AX.25 connectee even if the mbox is not turned on.  Note that an
incoming telnet or AX.25 chat session will automatically become your current
session.  If this bothers you, Tough!  (Or get a programmer to define POLITE
in config.h and recompile NET for you -- or I will do it for the cost of a
postage stamp.)

I wrote a multidrop KISS driver (mdkiss.c) that takes over when you use the
command attach asy, and specify mode ax25.  It is backward compatible with
the previous KISS driver, but if an additional argument for the number of
pseudo ports is given, it creates them, appending "0", "1", etc to the name.

This driver replaced the KPC-4 driver and I guess you could have 16 virtual
ports with this goofy thing.  Prior to version k35, this was called extended
KISS, which was a poor choice of names since there is something else called
extended KISS.

In the MS-DOS version, I added bios routines to simulate the alternate video
attributes on incoming telnet traffic as was done in the Unix version with
curses, and extended the process to AX.25 as well as Netrom sessions.  This
may cause some problems with some non-standard MS-DOS computers.  If it does I
want to know about it!  There is rudimentary color control.  The routines have
one known flaw, having to do with scrolling and inherited attribute, but I am
not concerned about perfection here.  You who are ambitious programmers could
use the basic bios routines to do a windowing terminal thing.  (I don't happen
to like split screen, except for teletype.)

In the Unix version, I made some alternative telunix.c (remote login) files to
deal with different kinds of pseudo terminal problems, and created a new cli-
ent, telserv.c which uses Unix's IPC message processes to communicate with a
separate server.  I assigned it port 87, one used by NOS ttylink, until I
decide what to do with it.  (If you are a Unix programmer I can supply you
with the toy demonstration server to use as a model.  Hell, I can even supply
it to you if you aren't a Unix programmer, but that would be kind of useless.)

I completed the "shell" (!) code in Unix so it creates a child process enabl-
ing NET to continue to run in the background while you are shelled out at the
terminal.  This is much simpler to use than "shl" the shell layer manager.
(This code is still being changed as I release k34 but appears to run OK at
this time.)

I corrected errors in AX.25 Mailbox (in s jy1@w1aw, the @ was punched out),
and converted all callsigns to lower case, which reduced SMTP processing
cycles by one.  I corrected an omission in netrom chat session that allowed
incoming stuff to interrupt your typing.  Corrected error that permitted
you to enter garbage call signs when doing connects.  Added some constraint
on some of the user variables (e.g. AX.25 T1 & T2), and removed erroneous
scaling of T2 and T3 times for digipeat strings.  Corrected errors in smtp t,
netrom obs, and netrom nodet commands that showed awful things if you set to
zero.  While messing with mail addressing, (in k35) I enabled the ability to
handle messages with multiple redirection, e.g. To: user%host2%host1@host0.

In order to make NET easier for you, the radio amateur, to set up, as I worked
through them, I made defaults more closely match the radio environment so it
is unnecessary to correct defaults by putting commands in autoexec.net, (e.g.
when an attach asy command refers to ax25 hardware type the default tcp mss is
automatically set to 216).  Likewise, I changed several defaults to more real-
istic values for radio (e.g. tcp irtt, netrom ttl, ip ttl).  Non-radio users
will just have to know what they are doing to use NET over the telephone.
Since most operators have no business broadcasting contents of their NET/ROM
node tables, I made the netrom verbose option a compiler option, defaulted
off.  If someone actually wants to use use NET as a Net/ROM switch, contact me
for a custom version, or if you have a compiler, grep for NR_VERBOSE in the
source code to see where to enable verbose.

To further assist you, if you are a new user, I added tests to create Note,
Warning, and Error messages when NET starts.  Error conditions stop NET.

There are only four changes that may affect your previous autoexec.net or
startup.net file.  They are the netrom verbose, netrom bcstifle, mbox and
attach kpc4 commands.  As mentioned above, the netrom verbose command is hist-
ory.  The netrom bcstifle and mbox commands were changed to respond to on|off
to be consistent with other commands.  Incidentally mbox is now defaulted on.
If you were using the Kantronics KPC-4 or KAM with both ports active you must
now use the attach asy command instead of attach kpc4.

I made the exit command  require an argument to help prevent accidental exit.
(Error message reads, "Usage: exit please".)  I fixed up the trace command so
it was easier to use and added an option, info_only, default active, which
prevents display of AX.25 supervisory frames in tracing.  I removed some spur-
ious linefeeds in the trace display, and added a space between displayed
frames.

I replaced the requirement for typing in memory addresses for TCP, AX.25, and
Netrom control blocks with numbers (1, 2, ...).  The numbers are displayed
with the stat command and further reference (for tcp stat #, tcp kick #, etc.)
is by that index number.  The TCP reference numbers are created when you do
the tcp stat command, and remain unchanged until you do tcp stat again.  AX.25
and Netrom numbers are handled differently; they are dynamic and can change
between stat commands if sessions open or close.

The final changes before release dealt with smtp.  Because of brain-damaged
Wampes that Bob, W6SWE, encounters, I had to provide a way to send "QUIT" in a
separate packet.  Since this lowers NET's performance, it is not the default.
You who have to deal with Wampes might have to use an undocumented command,
smtp timer w, which will change NET's behavior when sending mail.  This is a
toggle.  You can see the current state with the smtp timer command.  If wampes
is in effect, a "W" will appear to the right of timer values.  Since I was
meddling in smtp portions of the code, I worked them over to stop chronic
addition of lines to the ends of messages.  I also fixed an error in BM that
was adding an unnecessary line to the last message in the mail file.

8/5/94 k35 - Most of the modifications were cosmetic, and I edited the above
material to include changes that would affect operations.  There was a lot
of twiddling to try and make the NET> prompt appear consistently, and it
still doesn't do it.  I fixed some old errors here and there.  With the
receipt of a new, fully functional Coherent, I removed old patchwork that
enabled NET to hobble along under earlier Coherent versions.

73 es Enjoy!

Joe Buswell, [e-mail]
[44.78.0.2]
3312 N. Idylwild Dr,
Midwest City OK 73110-1643
Internet: [e-mail]  (That's correct -- No "ampr")