home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Atari Mega Archive 1
/
Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
/
telecomm
/
sticpsrc.lzh
/
DOC
/
NODE.ARC
/
NODE.TXT
< prev
Wrap
Text File
|
1990-06-23
|
16KB
|
549 lines
Configuring a remote-controlled node using NET.PE1CHL
Because some nodes are now converting from NET/ROM running on a
TNC2 clone to a PC or Atari ST, using an SCC (8530) board and
running TCP/IP NET, some guidelines are collected in this
document to help configuration of such a node.
Auto-start of program
The system must be configured in such a way, that it will
automatically start the NET program when powered-up or RESET, and
will re-start whenever the NET program exits. This can be easily
accomplished:
- Atari ST systems:
Create a folder (directory) on the startup disk, named AUTO.
Copy the NET program into this folder, and name it "NET.PRG"
(not NET.TOS, as it is normally distributed).
After that, copy a program into the AUTO folder that will
reboot the machine. Such programs are available in the
public domain, and can be obtained from PE1CHL too.
- MS-DOS systems:
At the end of the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the startup disk, put
the "NET" command to start "NET.EXE", and on the following
line put a command to re-boot the system. Programs to do
that are available in the public domain, and are usually
called something like "BOOT.COM", "REBOOT.COM" etc. You can
create your own "BOOT.COM" by creating a file with the 5-
byte sequence "EA 00 00 FF FF", using DEBUG.
The effect of the above setup is the same for both machines:
during the startup procedure the NET program is started, and it
normally stays running (i.e. the startup procedure never
terminates). Should the NET program ever exit, the next line in
the procedure (or the next program in the AUTO folder) will
reboot the machine, and the NET program will be re-started.
Watchdog
In the event of a program crash, it is very inconvenient to have
to reset the machine manually. Program crashes occur infre-
quently, and only when no operator is watching.
The program has a feature that allows the connection of a
hardware watchdog circuit, that will RESET the machine when the
program seems to hang.
The principle of such a circuit, is to generate a RESET pulse
when no activity has been sensed on the input of the circuit
during a certain interval of time. The program can generate a
pulse on some output pin (e.g. a DATA line of the parallel
printer port) at each pass through the main loop.
It is also possible to connect the PTT output of a channel to
such a circuit, because the channel will always transmit the
nodelist at fixed intervals, so the node has crashed when the
transmitter is not activated for a long time.
For the Atari version of the program, the watchdog command also
allows the definition of a software timeout that will cause a
RESET of the machine after a certain period of inactivity,
without requiring external hardware. This method provides some
protection against crashes, but is less reliable than the
hardware-assisted approach.
The command to activate the watchdog pulses is:
- Atari ST systems:
watchdog 180 600 01
This enables 2 forms of watchdog:
1. A software timer that will reset the machine when no
activity has occurred for 180 seconds (or for 600
seconds when a "shell" command has been given).
2. An pulse output will be given on the lowest bit (D0) of
the parallel printer output at each pass through the
program loop. Other outputs can be selected by speci-
fying a different 3rd parameter. A value of 00 for the
3rd parameter will disable the pulses on the parallel
output.
- MS-DOS systems:
watchdog xxx xx
Example configuration files
Below, the configuration files in use at PI8NOS (as of June 1990)
are listed. These are real-life configuration files, that have
been in use and have been maintained for nearly a year.
The hardware in use at PI8NOS is an Atari Mega-ST2, with an 8-
channel SCC interface and a 300baud modem connected to the AUX
(RS232) port.
----------------------------------------------------------------
AUTOEXEC.NET
----------------------------------------------------------------
# NET configuration file for PI8NOS network station in Hilversum
# uses special SCC interface board with 4 Z8530s installed
# AUX (rs232) is used as a connection to an async modem for remote control
# MIDI is not used
# Drive A: is a 720K floppy, drive G: is a 1MB RAMDisk
#
setenv NETDISK a:
setenv RAMDISK g:
#
# define buffers for use by SCC driver
memstat 100000
buffers 64 2 128
#
# attach commands for SCC driver. first init, then attach the channels.
attach scc 4 init fffd00 8 3 7 -2 fffd3f 3 p4915200
# 4 thru 7 are spare channels
#attach scc 7 ax25 ax3 256 d4800 pi8nos-8
#attach scc 6 ax25 ax2 256 d4800 pi8nos-7
#attach scc 5 ax25 ax1 256 d4800 pi8nos-6
#attach scc 4 ax25 ax0 256 d4800 pi8nos-5
# 3 is west-link on 430.800
attach scc 3 ax25 ln.w 256 d1200 pi8nos-4
# 2 is south-link on 1299.900
attach scc 2 ax25 ln.s 256 d1200 pi8nos-3
# 1 is east-link on 1240.400/1299.400
attach scc 1 ax25 ln.e 256 d1200 pi8nos-2
# 0 is north-link on 1240.800
attach scc 0 ax25 ln.n 256 d1200 pi8nos-1
#
# attach the NET/ROM interface & set the call to be used by NET/ROM level 3
#
attach netrom pi8nos
#
# filtering of unwanted AX.25 stations
#
ax25 exclude nocall
ax25 exclude pi8nos
#
# setup some directories and files. RAMDisk is faster so transfer commonly
# used files like HOSTS.NET to it. FTP public area is also on RAMDisk, and
# is initialized with some of our configuration files.
#
cd ${NETDISK}\net
mkdir -f ${RAMDISK}\tmp ${RAMDISK}\net ${RAMDISK}\net\mqueue ${RAMDISK}\public
#
copy $NETHOSTS ${RAMDISK}\net\hosts.net
setenv NETHOSTS ${RAMDISK}\net\hosts.net
#
setenv TMPDIR ${RAMDISK}\tmp
setenv TMP $TMPDIR
del -f $TMPDIR\*.*
#
copy ${NETMAILQ}*.* ${RAMDISK}\net\mqueue
del -f ${NETMAILQ}*.txt ${NETMAILQ}*.wrk ${NETMAILQ}*.lck
setenv NETMAILQ ${RAMDISK}\net\mqueue\
del -f ${NETMAILQ}*.lck
#
copy ${NETDISK}\net\nr_info.txt ${RAMDISK}\net
copy alias $NETHOSTS routes.net finger\*.txt ${RAMDISK}\public
setenv ENVSTYLE
setenv TIMEZONE MET:0
shell =${NETDISK}\arc.ttp
#
# remainder of configuration
#
source config.net
#
# Addresses, IP routing table and ARP commands, Misc
#
hostname pi8nos.ampr.org
ip address pi8nos
source routes.net
log ${NETDISK}\net\net.log startup
log proc
watchdog 120 600 1
#
# NET/ROM configuration. Filtering and routes are in NETROM.NET
#
netrom info ${RAMDISK}\net\nr_info.txt
netrom interface ln.n "HVS" 224
netrom interface ln.s "HVS" 224
netrom interface ln.e "HVS" 220
netrom interface ln.w "HVS" 192 lap
netrom tcpip link "#TCPIP"
source netrom.net
netrom route save ${RAMDISK}\net\netrom.rts
source ${RAMDISK}\net\netrom.rts
#
# KISS and AX25 stuff for each TNC connected
#
mheard ln.n 23
mheard ln.s 23
mheard ln.e 23
mheard ln.w 23
ax25 digipeat ln.n gate
ax25 digipeat ln.s gate
ax25 digipeat ln.e gate
ax25 digipeat ln.w gate
#ax25 persist ln.n 128 5 128 60 900
#ax25 persist ln.s 128 5 128 60 900
#ax25 persist ln.e 128 5 128 60 900
ax25 persist ln.w 128 24 64 60 900
#
# AX25 ports. 1=TNC 2=NetDigi 3=MHEARD 4=Bridge
#
ax25 port 2 digi pi8nos-9 ln.n gate
ax25 port 2 digi pi8nos-10 ln.e gate
ax25 port 2 digi pi8nos-11 ln.s gate
ax25 port 2 digi pi8nos-12 ln.w gate
ax25 port 3 conn pi8nos-9 ln.n multi
ax25 port 3 conn pi8nos-10 ln.e multi
ax25 port 3 conn pi8nos-11 ln.s multi
ax25 port 3 conn pi8nos-12 ln.w multi
ax25 port 4 conn pi8nos-15
ax25 port 6 conn pi8nos-14
#
# SCC driver interface groups
#
param ln.n group 001
param ln.s group 106
param ln.e group 103
param ln.w group 000
#
# initialize SCC driver on ln.n
#
param ln.n 2 128
param ln.n 7 1
param ln.n 8 15
#
# initiali