Bpq32 MHeard Beacon

G7TAJ/GB7BEX is sending out a MHeard beacon. I thought that would be fun to try it to.
You can find out how Steve GT7TAJ did it here.  https://github.com/TAj-src/BPQ-MHeardBeacon

I use for this the Docker from M0LTE. You can find it here. https://github.com/M0LTE/bpqapi?tab=readme-ov-file

#!/bin/bash
# Create a beacon file with the bpqapi.
# https://github.com/M0LTE/bpqapi?tab=readme-ov-file
# 18-11-2024 Mheard beacon v1.0a
work_dir=/home/pi/linbpq/script
bc_dir=/home/pi/linbpq
# Get the mh list.
curl -X GET http://pi1lap:8080/native/v1/mheard/1 -H accept > "$work_dir/mheard.json"
# Some file manipulation (trouble with {"mheard":[{"callSign":. remove {"mheard":
sed -i 's/^.\{10\}//' "$work_dir/mheard.json"
sed -i 's/.$//' "$work_dir/mheard.json"
# Remove double call`s.
jq 'unique_by(.callSign)' "$work_dir/mheard.json" > "$work_dir/unique-mh.json"
# Only the call`s received today.
jq '[.[] | select(.lastHeard > (now | strftime("%Y-%m-%d")))]' "$work_dir/unique-mh.json" > "$work_dir/today-mh.json"
# Not received any call after 24:00 uur (next day) So today-mh.json is empty [] exit program. If not empty extract callsign`s.
if cat "$work_dir/today-mh.json" | jq -e '. == []'
then
rm -f "$bc_dir/beacon.txt" && exit
else
jq -r '.[] | .callSign' "$work_dir/today-mh.json" > "$work_dir/format.txt"
fi
# Delete the beacon.txt and Change the output format.
rm -f "$bc_dir/beacon.txt"
sed -i '1s/^/Mheard:\n/' "$work_dir/format.txt"
awk ' /^ *$/ {print} !/^ *$/ {printf $0 " "} END {print ""}' "$work_dir/format.txt" > "$bc_dir/beacon.txt"

If you not have received any calll after 24:00 hour midnight on the hf bands the beacon.txt get deleted. You can do also some thing like this to send out a beacon.

# Not received any call after 24:00 uur (next day) So today-mh.json is empty [] exit program. If not empty extract callsign`s. 
if cat today-mh.json | jq -e '. == []' 
then 
  echo "PI1LAP-7 Node - PI8LAP BBS JO11VN" > "bc_dir/beacon.txt" && exit 
else 
  jq -r '.[] | .callSign' "$work_dir/today-mh.json" > "work_dir/format.txt" 
fi 

Config BPQ32 to send out the beacon.


Beacon looks like this

16:45:41T PI1LAP-7>HF Port=1 :
Mheard: GB7BEX GB7BPQ GB7CNR GB7HIB-1 GB7HIB-7 GB7IOW GB7IOW-1 GB7NOT M7TAW M7TAW-3

Add a crontab every 10 minutes. (crontab -e)
*/10 * * * * /home/pi/linbpq/script/get-mh.sh

Ok, Have Fun

RASPBERRY PI4 TRIFECTA TNC-BANK IMAGE COMPANION DOCUMENTATION

In memory of Red PE1RRR, We’ll keep the packets flying. Thanks my friend.
Credits PE1RRR.

DOWNLOAD

WARNING: Cooling

The use of this image is at own risk. Active (fan) or large area heatsink cooling is required to keep the RPI from overheating. For example, a heat sink case such as this one is sufficient if there is adequate airflow around the unit.

While the image does not by default overclock your RPI4, it is necessary to put the RPI into Performance Mode, which will make it run hotter. Overclocking is highly recommended but is a manual step you must take full responsibility for.

Before You Start

  • Network is handled by DHCP. The SSH system is not running by default and this must be manually activated to generate host keys for the system using the raspi-config tool.
  • Having the SSH system enabled will let you log in from a remote system (using PuTTY for example) on your own network, making it a lot easier to transfer copy & paste instructions from this document.
  • You will still need a display, a keyboard and a mouse connected for initial setup.
  • This document is not perfect, it is a work in progress.
  • The image is the first of its kind so it isn’t perfect either.
  • This document has already been updated with additional steps that must be taken to make it fully operational.
  • The image requires at least a 16GB SDCard (8.3GB used) and will auto-resize to the full capacity first on boot up. 16GB is recommended because it is quicker to make a backup of should you wish to do so in the future.
  • Download 2.3GB

WRITING THE IMAGE TO SD CARD

Windows

Writing the image to SD Card is usually quite well documented by the general Raspberry Pi online documentation. It is possible to use Windows tools such as the RPI Imager, however the image file you download may need to be decompressed first using a tool such as WinRAR or 7zip.

Linux

You will need to know which device path your SDCard appears as e.g /dev/sda for the dd command. The image is compressed and will need to be unpacked:

gzip -d rpi4-console-dist.img.gz

Send the image to the SD Card using dd: Be sure that /dev/sdb is your SD card and not your internal hard disk!

sudo dd if=/path-to-the-image/rpi4-console-dist.img of=/dev/sdb bs=16M status=progress

First Boot

Upon first boot the image will resize itself to fit the full capacity of the SD card and then auto-restart the system.

Second Boot

Second boot will eventually present a black screen on the display connected (how useful, this will be addressed possibly in an updated image). If there is no signal then you may have the HDMI connector in the wrong port.

Plug in a mouse and hold right-click on the screen to open the pop up menu. From there, open the Terminal Emulator application.

Will this be a desktop system for you?

This install has been created to be as light as possible on the hardware while keeping plenty of tools available, as such there is no toolbar installed by default, so you may want to install the tint2 package if you wish to actually use this system as a desktop.

sudo apt install tint2

Open /home/pi/.config/autostart.sh, it will not exist.

Fill it with the contents:

# tint2 -- provides panel, systray, clock & taskbar
tint2 &

After installing tint2, a reboot is required for it to run at next logon.

Change the Password

Once logged in you should change the default password to something else using the passwd command on a new terminal line and hit enter. You will be prompted through the process. The current login is: pi and the password is: raspberrypi

Enable Secure Shell (SSH)

By default SSH is disabled as host keys need to be generated for your host that are unique and cannot be shared via an image file. So open up the raspi-config tool and navigate to (3) Interface Options, then select (2) SSH and Enable it.

sudo raspi-config

Bug Fixes

Updated 2023-04-21- There is a bug that needs to be fixed in the provided /home/pi/.asoundrc file, while the system will still function it is necessary to fix this oversight as it will undoubtedly improve performance.

Open the /home/pi/.asoundrc file and find the string ‘44000’, this needs to be adjusted to ‘48000’. The section of code it is in is shown below, marked ‘Correction applied here’

pcm.dmix0 {
    type dmix
    ipc_key 60000
    ipc_key_add_uid false   # let multiple users share
    ipc_perm 0666           # IPC permissions for multi-user sharing (octal, default 0600)
    slave {
        pcm "hw:3,0"
        rate 48000          # Correction applied here.
    }
}

Overclocking

If you do have adequate cooling, it is highly recommended to overclock to get the best performance, editing /boot/config.txt to set it to 2GHz which is from experience so far, safe and stable. Locate the #arm_freq parameter in the config.txt file and add the following below it:

over_voltage=6
arm_freq=2000

Performance Mode

And edit /etc/rc.local to force performance mode at boot:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

Insert the following one-liner BEFORE the ‘exit 0’ line in /etc/rc.local

echo performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Enable Realtime Thread Priority

Tweaks to the host operating system file /etc/security/limits.conf

@audio - rtprio 95
@audio - memlock 512000
@audio - nice -19

The rtpriosetting is the maximum priority a user of the audio group can run a task. The memlock setting is the maximum amount of memory that a member of the audio group can lock with a realtime task. This should be less than the maximum physical amount of memory, some recommend it to be half. nice is the minimum “nice level” a task can be run as (the willingness of a task to give up it’s cpu time).

ALSA Project (https://www.alsa-project.org/wiki/Low_latency_howto)

If not using ‘pi’ user, ensure that your user ID is in the audio group in /etc/groups

After a reboot, verify that the new limits are working with:

ulimit -r

pi@raspberrypi:~/bin $ ulimit -r
95

VARA and ARDOP realtime Thread Priority

Background: Launch VARA with highest priority (99)- is required to compensate for some since discovered latency issues.

When issued as root, the chrt tool overrides the policy set earlier in the limits.conf, running the process as rt (realtime) which will reflect in the indicated priority listing when displayed in the top process monitor program.

Example:

sudo chrt -p 99 `pgrep VARA.exe`

Will modify the thread priority to realtime, on the fly. Using ‘top’, look at the PRI column and it should now be ‘rt’ instead of default ‘20’.

A modified script that will fork chrt into a background subshell, wait 20 seconds while VARA is launched, and then adjusts the process priority of VARA.exe is required.

The following script tweak is needed for the RPI4 TNC image for both the ARDOP and VARA TNCs:

File: /home/pi/bin/startvara 

#!/bin/bash
cd /home/pi/bin
DISPLAY=:2
export DISPLAY
(sleep 20; sudo chrt --pid 99 `pgrep VARA.exe` ) &
/usr/local/bin/wine /home/pi/.wine/drive_c/VARA/VARA.exe

File: /home/pi/bin/startardop

!/bin/bash
cd /home/pi/bin/
(sleep 10; sudo chrt --pid 99 `pgrep piardopc` ) & /home/pi/bin/piardopc 8515 ARDOP2IN ARDOP2OUT

Enable the TNCs

By default, none of the TNCs are started automatically, but can be enabled to do so:

sudo systemctl enable vara
sudo systemctl enable ardop
sudo systemctl enable ardop-gui
sudo systemctl enable qtsm

sudo service vara start
sudo service ardop start
sudo service ardop-gui start
sudo service qtsm start

View the TNCs

To view the running TNCs, attach VNC Viewer to Display “2”.

So long as you have RealVNC client installed on a remote system, such as another Raspberry Pi, or an iPad you can connect to the screen running the TNCs for monitoring purposes. You don’t have to keep the VNC open, they will run happily in the background.

From Terminal: Note: omit the brackets if providing an IP address.

vncviewer [optional IP address]:2 

Login is “pi“, the password is “raspberrypi” unless you have already changed it)

VNC Idle Timeout

By default the VNC will timeout after 3600s (an hour) which can be annoying if you want to leave it open on another desktop to monitor. If you have the tint2 toolbar installed it will be possible to locate annd open the VNC server UI on the desktop and then open up Expert settings to adjust IdleTimeout to 0.

Alternatively, open /home/pi/.vnc/.config.d/Xvnc and append the following line:

IdleTimeout=0

Configuring the QtSoundModem TNC

Due to an oversight on my part, QtSoundModem.ini has the CWID setting enabled with my callsign so you will need to set the timer from 15 minutes to 0. This will be fixed in the next release of the image.

Additionally good info to know beforehand- due to how QtSoundModem GUI config dialog saves settings, the manually configured sound devices do not appear in the dropdown lists because they are “virtual”, therefore the dsnoop/dmix devices that come preconfigured with the image will be overwritten if the dialog is used to change any configuration parameters(!)

The best practice is to edit the ini file in a text editor manually.

To recap, the QtSoundModem.ini file is read-only on purpose. The application tries to write back to the file on each shutdown/closure which causes problems for our special audio sharing setup between the different TNCs, so editing the file must be done by hand, not via the GUI.

With editors like vim, a force-write !wq will write-quit & ignore read-only warning. Easy peasy.

I don’t use nano myself but I know a lot of people do, BUT I don’t know if it i will allow you to do this the same way. If not offered the option when you attempt to overwrite a read-only file, then you can temporarily change the file permission level after stopping the service:

sudo service qtsm stop

cd /home/pi/bin

chmod 644 QtSoundModem.ini

nano QtSoundModem.ini

Make the edits to:

CWIDCall=
CWIDInterval=0

Save and close, then change the permissions back to read-only.

chmod 444 QtSoundModem.ini

Then restart the QtSoundModem’s service:

sudo service qtsm start

TCP Port Defaults

Bear in mind that my ‘defaults’ here are in fact not factory setting defaults.

By default my following ports are set:

QtSoundModem

  • KISS: 7777
  • AGW: 6666

ARDOP

  • 8015

VARA

  • 8300
  • 8301 (data)

OTHER INCLUDED TOOLS/TODOS

Winelink

It’s not a typo, Winelink: VARA on Linux was accomplished courtesy of The Winelink Project on GitHub.

VARA HF 4.7.3 introduced anti-piracy obfuscation to the build which as added so much overhead that it will no longer work on Linux. It is therefore advised to not update to this version.

As of VARA HF version 4.7.5, the aforementioned was removed from the code and functionality has been restored.

[optional] Disable Paket61 socat for TNC2 emulator

sudo systemctl disable paket
sudo service paket stop

[optional] flrig – Radio Head Control

TODO – building and installing.

The source code is located in /home/pi/src, it is already pre-built, so you can already install it with sudo make install from the flrig-version’s subdirectory.

However, because its an old alpha build by now, a fresh build from new source would be better. If you do go ahead an install the tool, it will begin to auto-start due to the systemd service powering it up as soon as it finds /usr/local/bin/flrig binary.

You can stop/start FLRig with sudo service flrig stop/start

QtTermTCP – Packet Terminal

Edit /home/pi/bin/startqtterm and change the DISPLAY variable to the desktop which you need, usually :0 if a local monitor connected to HDMI, in our use case you can direct the display to the virtual TNC’s desktop which is running on desktop :2.

See QtTermTCP for a tutorial video for setting it up with a node.

You can start the program as a service. If QtTermTCP crashes or you close it, systemd will auto-restart the application.

sudo service qtterm start

To have QtTermTCP auto-start on every boot:

sudo systemctl enable qtterm

THIS CONCLUDES THE TNC BANK SETUP

Now just go to your BPQ32 node and define all the ports to each of the TNCs with the appropriate drivers for each TNC type. Good luck! If you get stuck, ask on the groups.io, or try this Google magic search keyword term for official documentation:

cantab uz7ho
cantab qtsoundmodem
cantab VARA 

Ok Ok I will get around to making that document soon. Bookmark my website please and also – consider a donation to my beer/host fund if you feel like it. This document took many hours to write and hours of testing and its still not finished!

ALSO INCLUDED IN THE IMAGE

DOSBOX Toys

Not meant for 3rd Parties – provided for educational purposes only.

Please note that there is no toolbar installed, you may want to install the tint2 package if you wish to actually use this system as a desktop.

sudo apt install tint2

How it works

As this image is dual-purpose, this image is also capable of running old packet applications for fun, but due to performance requirements must not be used if running the system as a TNC-bank.

On this image is DOSBOX with various packages preconfigured to use a virtual serial port pipe to the box with a BPQ32 node running on the local network This is downright complicated and because of this, it is not really recommended for 3rd party use but tinkerers might like it.

Each program such as “superpacket” or “winpack” relies on a listening serial device on a remote BPQ32 based node. Each application has a unique TCP port put aside, and reciprocal listeners must be set up for each port on the remote node box.

The TCP listeners direct the traffic to a pseudo serial device that the node is configured to attach to when it is started. It then talks to the socket using KISS mode, and the applications on the other end are doing the same, with a couple of exceptions.

Caveats

If you leave a BPQ32 node with KISS ports enabled linked to socat pseudo serial services, the node will assume traffic is being sent to them and will then wait for responses. If you run the node long enough with the reciprocal applications themselves not running, this will cause that port’s KISS buffer in the node to get full and cause the whole node to stop responding entirely. Eek. So don’t leave the ports configured on the node if you had enough of running the DOS apps!

ON THE NODE SYSTEM

Here are some examples for BPQ32:

PORT
        PORTNUM=17                     
        HIDE=0                               
        ID=TCP KISS port 8004      
        TYPE=ASYNC                     
        PROTOCOL=KISS          
        FULLDUP=0                      
        COMPORT=/home/pi/port-8004
        SPEED=19200
        CHANNEL=A                      
        QUALITY=192             ; Quality factor applied to node broadcasts heard on
        MINQUAL=230
                                        ; this port, unless overridden by a locked route
                                        ; entry. Setting to 0 stops node broadcasts
        FRACK=5000                      ; Level 2 timout in milliseconds
        RESPTIME=1000           ; Level 2 delayed ack timer in milliseconds
        RETRIES=5                       ; Level 2 maximum retry value
        MAXFRAME=6                      ; Max outstanding frames (1 thru 7)
        PACLEN=128                      ; Default max packet length for this port.
                                        ; PACLEN is ignored for APRS packets
        L3ONLY=0                        ; 1=No user downlink connects on this port
        DIGIFLAG=1                      ; Digipeat: 0=OFF, 1=ALL, 255=UI Only
        USERS=10                        ; Maximum number of L2 sessions, 0 = no limit
        UIONLY=0                        
ENDPORT
 
PORT
        PORTNUM=18                      
        HIDE=0
        ID=TCP KISS port 8006       
        TYPE=ASYNC                      
        PROTOCOL=KISS           
        FULLDUP=0                      
        COMPORT=/home/pi/port-8006
        SPEED=19200                     
        CHANNEL=A                     
        MINQUAL=10             
        QUALITY=244             ; Quality factor applied to node broadcasts heard on
                                        ; this port, unless overridden by a locked route
                                        ; entry. Setting to 0 stops node broadcasts
        FRACK=8000                      ; Level 2 timout in milliseconds
        RESPTIME=2000           ; Level 2 delayed ack timer in milliseconds
        RETRIES=10                      ; Level 2 maximum retry value
        MAXFRAME=3                      ; Max outstanding frames (1 thru 7)
        PACLEN=100                      ; Default max packet length for this port.
                                        ; PACLEN is ignored for APRS packets
        L3ONLY=0                        ; 1=No user downlink connects on this port
        DIGIPORT=0                      ; Port on which to send digi'd frames (0 = same port)
        USERS=10                        ; Maximum number of L2 sessions, 0 = no limit
        UIONLY=0                        
ENDPORT

The serial port listeners on the node box (remote) are run from some start scripts, for example:

For PORT 17 (tcp 8004):

#!/bin/bash
socat -d -d PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/home/pi/port-8004-stay PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/home/pi/port-8004 &
while true
do
socat -d -d open:/home/pi/port-8004-stay,nonblock,echo=0,raw TCP4-LISTEN:8004,reuseaddr,fork
sleep 1
done
# End

For PORT 18 (tcp 8006):

#!/bin/bash
socat -d -d PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/home/pi/port-8006-stay PTY,raw,echo=0,link=/home/pi/port-8006 &
sleep 3
while true
do
socat -d -d open:/home/pi/port-8006-stay,nonblock,echo=0,raw TCP4-LISTEN:8006,reuseaddr,fork
sleep 1
done
# End

ON YOUR DOSBOX SYSTEM

The image has the reciprocal couplings for each of these tcp ports provided as linux services, these can be turned on automatically.

The following ports with self explanatory service names are available:

port-2704  port-8004  port-8005  port-8006  port-8007  port-8009  port-8011

Each has a script in /home/pi/bin/ and needs modifying to change the IP address to the one of your BPQ32 node box.

The above services corrleate to the the various different preconfigured dosbox packages that I have set up for different packet radio applications.

They all run on different TCP ports so that it is actually possible to interconnect the applications through the node. e.g. connect from Winpack to the node, then from the node connect to the SuperPacket application (if it is also running).

Caveat

It is not wise to configure too many kiss-TNC ports as it can have a detrimental effect on the node, sometimes causing BPQ32 to lock up intermittently if you leave the applications closed for a measure of time.

For the purposes of this document I have limited examples to just two:

Port 17 (tcp 8004) and 18 (tcp 8006) respectively for “superpacket” and “winpack”, but there are others defined in the system services already that can be enabled and used if you chose to add extra ports to the node using Port 17 or 18 as examples to iterate up to maximum of Port 32.

For reference

Serial Port Tunnels (client side) – enable and start syntax:

sudo systemctl enable port-8004
sudo systemctl enable port-8006
Start:
sudo service port-8004 start
sudo service port-8006 start

Monitoring

Each port that is started opens a ‘screen’ session for debugging. Each screen session is easily identifiable using “screen -r”

pi@console:~ $ screen -r
There are several suitable screens on:
	5915.Port8004	(07/23/2022 11:16:56 AM)	(Detached)
	5093.Port8006	(07/23/2022 11:08:14 AM)	(Detached)

To view the console’s output:
Example:

screen -r Port8006

CTRL-A then D will detatch the console.

APPLICATIONS

Winpack

Winpack is configured to use DOS BPQ as the communications layer, and utilizes the KISS interface to talk to my remote node. The node’s “socat” serial port is listening on TCP port 8006, using the socat setup described above. This allows the DOSBOX instance to communicate with the node that is on a remote host. The nodes talk to each other via NETROM, the example port setup shown earlier in the document demonstrates that NETROM is enabled and is sending as many nodes as possible on that port. When successfully linked, the Winpack terminal should show a lot of NETROM activity from broadcasts.

The schametic is like this:

LinBPQ Node -- [Kiss Port 17] -- [Serial Socat Listener Port 8006] <-network-> [Remote Serial Socat Connector] <—-> [DOSBOX-Staging] <—-> [DOS BPQCODE.DLL] <--> [Windows 3.11] <--> [Winpack 6.80]

To configure your own callsign you must edit the following file:

/home/pi/dosprogs/BPQ/BPQCFG.TXT

When the ‘winpack‘ script is run it will launch DOSBOX and run the BPQCFG.EXE automatically before auto-booting Windows, this converts the configuration TXT into binary for the BPQCODE to use. Winpack is preconfigured to use the resident BPQ node.

Winpack’s own callsign configuration is pretty straight forward and self explanatory.

Superpacket

Superpacket, on the other hand, is a complex RTFM situation, only for those with the edge! You’re on your own. But it is damn near perfect for multitrack train drifting, on packet radio.

The Other Apps

Apps confirmed and preconfigured to work in the image:

  • Paket 6.1 (paket) – requires the TNC2 emulator port setup, see below.
  • Baycom (baycom) – works via a TFPCX KISS emulator TSR
  • Winpack 6.80 (winpack) – uses NETROM, use the examples given in this document.
  • SuperPacket 9.2 (sp) – uses KISS, see the examples given in this document
  • New Packet Generation 2.0 (npg)
  • TST Host (tsthost)
  • BPQ 4.09 (DOS) – is called by Winpack and will require separate configuration.
  • TheDraw has been included to provide access for text drawing.
  • EasyTERM PMS (DOS based frontend for BPQ from circa 1994, not to be confused with UZ7HO software) Requires DOSBOX config to be updated- see download below:

Take a look in /home/pi/.config/dosbox for the various config files for the applications.

To recap, each DOS application requires a unique BPQ KISS port (or TNC2 emulator) to be configured.

For KISS, see the Ports examples above, they can be used as templates to enable the other applications.

I was able to get Winpack, Superpacket, Baycom, TSTHost, NPG and Paket61 all talking at the same time. It was insane and I am sure the RPI4 cried for mercy.

Enable Paket61 socat for TNC2 emulator

Example TNCPORT for Paket (find a clear spot in the bpq32.cfg configuration file).

TNCPORT
 COMPORT=/home/pi/port-8011
 TYPE=TNC2
 CHANNELS=4
 CONOK=1
 ECHO=0
 AUTOLF=1
ENDPORT

Enable and start the socat services for Paket61

sudo systemctl enable paket
sudo service paket start

Vara500 with UT1HZM

Mar 18 17:52:25 PI1LAP VARAHF UT1HZM connected  VARA HF v4.7.4
Mar 18 18:03:44 PI1LAP VARAHF Disconnecting by FQ
Mar 18 18:03:49 PI1LAP VARAHF UT1HZM Average S/N: -3.8 dB
Mar 18 18:03:49 PI1LAP VARAHF Disconnected      TX: 7113 Bytes (Max: 588 bps)   RX: 148 Bytes (Max: 177 bps)   Session Time: 11:24
17:52:25R CONNECTED UT1HZM PI8LAP 500 Port=4
17:52:25R HF Node PI1LAP-7 Port=4
17:52:25R Incoming Connect from UT1HZM on Port 4 Freq 14103800 Mode VARA 500 
17:52:25R [BPQ-6.0.23.53-B1FWIHJM$] 
17:52:25R Welcome to PI8LAP 
17:52:25R PI8LAP-> 
17:52:25R [BPQ-6.0.23.53-B1FWIHJM$] Port=4
17:52:25R Welcome to PI8LAP Port=4
17:52:25R PI8LAP-> Port=4
17:52:52R [BPQ-6.0.23.1-B1FIHJM$] Port=4
17:52:52R ; MSGTYPES  PTRB17000 Port=4
17:52:52R FF Port=4
17:52:53R [BPQ-6.0.23.1-B1FIHJM$] 
17:52:53R ; MSGTYPES  PTRB17000 
17:52:53R FF 
17:52:53R FA B CX2SA ARRL LETTER ARRL4111 15430 
17:52:53R F> 13 
17:52:53R FA B CX2SA ARRL LETTER ARRL4111 15430 Port=4
17:52:53R F> 13 Port=4
17:53:17R FS - Port=4
17:53:17R FF Port=4
17:53:17R FS - 
17:53:17R FF 
17:53:17R FA B CX2SA ARL PROP ARLP011 8312 
17:53:17R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11947_EI2GYB 8603 
17:53:17R F> 13 
17:53:18R FA B CX2SA ARL PROP ARLP011 8312 Port=4
17:53:18R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11947_EI2GYB 8603 Port=4
17:53:18R F> 13 Port=4
17:53:36R FS -- Port=4
17:53:36R FF Port=4
17:53:36R FS -- 
17:53:37R FF 
17:53:37R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11948_EI2GYB 7667 
17:53:37R FA B KA3BVJ WW SWL 47523_KA3BVJ 4550 
17:53:37R F> 01 
17:53:37R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11948_EI2GYB 7667 Port=4
17:53:37R FA B KA3BVJ WW SWL 47523_KA3BVJ 4550 Port=4
17:53:37R F> 01 Port=4
17:54:05R FS -- Port=4
17:54:05R FF Port=4
17:54:05R FS -- 
17:54:05R FF 
17:54:05R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11946_EI2GYB 10873 
17:54:05R F> 88 
17:54:06R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11946_EI2GYB 10873 Port=4
17:54:06R F> 88 Port=4
17:54:26R FS - Port=4
17:54:26R FF Port=4
17:54:27R FS - 
17:54:27R FF 
17:54:27R FA B CX2SA ARL KEP ARLK019 3851 
17:54:27R FA B LU9DCE WW DXNEWS 6682_LU9DCE 9109 
17:54:27R F> 44 
17:54:27R FA B CX2SA ARL KEP ARLK019 3851 Port=4
17:54:27R FA B LU9DCE WW DXNEWS 6682_LU9DCE 9109 Port=4
17:54:27R F> 44 Port=4
17:54:48R FS -- Port=4
17:54:48R FF Port=4
17:54:48R FS -- 
17:54:48R FF 
17:54:48R FA B LU9DCE WW LINUX 6683_LU9DCE 4222 
17:54:48R FA B LU9DCE WW ALERT 6685_LU9DCE 3132 
17:54:48R FA B LU9DCE WW HUMOR 6686_LU9DCE 1348 
17:54:48R FA B LU9DCE WW PROPA 6690_LU9DCE 1245 
17:54:48R FA B DJ5AV WW DX ARLDOO11 5338 
17:54:48R F> 71 
17:54:48R FA B LU9DCE WW LINUX 6683_LU9DCE 4222 Port=4
17:54:48R FA B LU9DCE WW ALERT 6685_LU9DCE 3132 Port=4
17:54:48R FA B LU9DCE WW HUMOR 6686_LU9DCE 1348 Port=4
17:54:48R FA B LU9DCE WW PROPA 6690_LU9DCE 1245 Port=4
17:54:48R FA B DJ5AV WW DX ARLDOO11 5338 Port=4
17:54:48R F> 71 Port=4
17:55:21R FS ----- Port=4
17:55:21R FF Port=4
17:55:21R FS ----- 
17:55:21R FF 
17:55:21R FA B KF5JRV WW TODAY 1390_KF5JRV 1562 
17:55:21R FA B LU9DCE WW DX 6688_LU9DCE 12713 
17:55:21R F> 6C 
17:55:21R FA B KF5JRV WW TODAY 1390_KF5JRV 1562 Port=4
17:55:21R FA B LU9DCE WW DX 6688_LU9DCE 12713 Port=4
17:55:21R F> 6C Port=4
17:55:41R FS -+ Port=4
17:55:41R FS -+ 
17:55:41R Compressed Message Comp Len 4845 Msg Len 12713 CRC 22d9 
18:00:52R FF Port=4
18:00:52R FF 
18:00:52R FA B LU9DCE WW ALL 6694_LU9DCE 2959 
18:00:52R FA B G8MNY WW TECH 43050_GB7CIP 3265 
18:00:52R FA B G8MNY WW ATV 43048_GB7CIP 4849 
18:00:52R F> 6B 
18:00:52R FA B LU9DCE WW ALL 6694_LU9DCE 2959 Port=4
18:00:52R FA B G8MNY WW TECH 43050_GB7CIP 3265 Port=4
18:00:52R FA B G8MNY WW ATV 43048_GB7CIP 4849 Port=4
18:00:52R F> 6B Port=4
18:01:12R FS +-- Port=4
18:01:12R FS +-- 
18:01:12R Compressed Message Comp Len 1189 Msg Len 2959 CRC 7410 
18:02:27R FF Port=4
18:02:27R FF 
18:02:27R FA B G8MNY WW TECH 43049_GB7CIP 12370 
18:02:27R F> 29 
18:02:27R FA B G8MNY WW TECH 43049_GB7CIP 12370 Port=4
18:02:27R F> 29 Port=4
18:02:46R FS - Port=4
18:02:46R FF Port=4
18:02:46R FS - 
18:02:46R FF 
18:02:46R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11979_EI2GYB 13237 
18:02:46R F> 85 
18:02:46R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11979_EI2GYB 13237 Port=4
18:02:46R F> 85 Port=4
18:03:09R FS - Port=4
18:03:09R FF Port=4
18:03:09R FS - 
18:03:09R FF 
18:03:09R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11980_EI2GYB 5741 
18:03:09R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11981_EI2GYB 8756 
18:03:09R F> 6E 
18:03:10R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11980_EI2GYB 5741 Port=4
18:03:10R FA B EI2GYB WW ASTRO 11981_EI2GYB 8756 Port=4
18:03:10R F> 6E Port=4
18:03:34R FS -- Port=4
18:03:34R FF Port=4
18:03:34R FS -- 
18:03:34R FF 
18:03:34R FQ 
18:03:34R FQ Port=4
18:03:50R DISCONNECTED Port=4
18:03:50R UT1HZM Disconnected

Dxspider secure login

From now on there is the possibility to set up an ssh tunnel to the Dxcluster server.
This gives the advantage that no plan text login and passwords are sent over telnet. And that your connection to the cluster is secured.
Why, suppressing fake spots and abuse of the network.

Howto

Send me your login username (call) and password you want to use. I will setup a account for you.
After this it possible to connect secure to the dxcluster.
Copy and past this line in your terminal. Change “call” with your username.

ssh -L 7300:localhost:7300 -N -p 7322 call@dx.packet-radio.nl

Look like this.

Enter your password and leave the terminal window open.
After this nothing happens, but there is a secure tunnel.
Now it is possible to connect the dxcluster on localhost:7300

Open a new terminal window en telnet to localhost port 7300

This is also possible with Putty.

Save and open a ssh connection.

Now it is possible to connect your log program or what you want to the DxCluster on localhost port 7300

DxSpider update

Kin EA3CV wrote a fantastic script for updating DxSpider.

Kin Wrote :

If there is a new build, it will update and immediately restart the node.
If there are no changes, the sysop is informed.

To install it, copy the file to /spider/local_cmd
From console.pl run load/cmd the first time.
The check_build command can be used like this:

check_build Y           With Backup
check_build N           Without Backup
check_build             Without Backup

If you want to leave it automated, add in /spider/local_cmd/crontab
something like this:

0 4 * * 1,2,3,4,5 run_cmd(“check_build N”)

It can be downloaded from:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6ttq5125qrzev67/check_build.pl?dl=0

This utility is not intended to replace the current update procedure,
it is intended for sysops who feel insecure about upgrading their cluster.
(I don’t feel insecure when it comes to updating software. I like it when it’s easier.)

Basically it does:
            git reset –hard
            git pull
            reinicio

and a full backup of the /home/spysop/spider directory in /home/sysop/backup, which will be overwritten each time check_build is run.

# You need the following package:
# apt install libfile-copy-recursive-perl  or
# cpan install File::Copy::Recursive
# Kin EA3CV, ea3cv@cronux.net
#
# 20230201 v1.0
#

use 5.10.1;
use DXDebug;
use File::Copy::Recursive;
use strict;
use warnings;

my $self = shift;
my $backup = shift;

return (1) unless $self->priv >= 9;

if ($backup eq "Y") {
        my $from_dir = "/home/sysop/spider";
        my $to_dir = "/home/sysop/backup";

        if ( !-d $to_dir ) {
                system('mkdir', $to_dir);
        }

        File::Copy::Recursive::rcopy_glob($from_dir, $to_dir);
}

system('cd /spider');

my $act = $main::gitversion;
$act =~ s/\[r\]//g;
my $res;
my $line = "cd /spider; git reset --hard; git pull";
my @out;

system('git reset --hard');

my $data = qx(git pull);
my $new = `git log --oneline | head -n 1`;

if ($data =~ /Updating/) {
        $res = "There is a new build: $new";
        dbg("DXCron::spawn: $res: $line") if isdbg('cron');
        push @out, $res;
        DXCron::run_cmd("shut");
} elsif ($data =~ /Already|actualizado/) {
        $res = "There is no new build ($main::build  $act)";
        push @out, $res;
        dbg("DXCron::spawn: $res.") if isdbg('cron');
}

return (1, @out)

 

DxSpider Crontab

An crontab example I use with my Dxspider node.

# Check Connect (At minute 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50)

0,5,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('gb7htl') unless connected('gb7htl')
0,5,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('pa1rbz') unless connected('pa1rbz')
0,5,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('pi4cc') unless connected('pi4cc')
0,5,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('n5wls') unless connected('n5wls')
0,5,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('ea2rks-2') unless connected('ea2rks-2')
0,5,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('pa2sq') unless connected('pa2sq')
0,5,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * start_connect('ed1zac-5') unless connected('ed1zac-5')

# Update stats for mrtg (At minute 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 55)
00,05,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * run_cmd('mrtg all')

# Send announce full/local (At minute 0)
#0 * * * * run_cmd('ann full Dxspider telnet dx.packet-radio.nl 7300' . cldate . ' ' . ztime)
#0 * * * * run_cmd('ann local DXspider telnet dx.packet-radio.nl 7300 at ' . cldate . ' ' . ztime)

# Skimmers (At every minute)
* * * * * start_connect('sk0mmr') unless connected('sk0mmr')
* * * * * start_connect('sk1mmr') unless connected('sk1mmr')

# AutoUpdate DXSpider Server (At 04:00 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday)
0 4 * * 1,2,3,4,5 run_cmd("check_build Y")


# AutoUpdate USDB (At 02:00 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday)
0 2 * * 1,3,5 spawn("cd /tmp | wget -qN ftp://ftp.w1nr.net/usdbraw.gz & /spider/perl/create_usdb.pl usdbraw.gz")
5 2 * * 1,3,5 run_cmd("load/usdb")
10 2 * * 1,3,5 spawn("rm /tmp/usdbraw.gz")

# AutoUpdate Keps (At 02:00 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday)
0 2 * * 2,4,6 spawn("cd /tmp | wget -qN http://www.amsat.org/amsat/ftp/keps/current/nasabare.txt & /spider/perl/convkeps.pl -p nasabare.txt &")
5 2 * * 2,4,6 run_cmd("load/keps")
10 2 * * 2,4,6 spawn("rm /tmp/nasabare.txt")

# AutoUpdate CTY.DAT (At 03:00 on Sunday, Tuesday, and Friday)
0 3 * * 0,2,5 spawn("cd /spider/local_data | wget -qN https://www.country-files.com/cty/cty.dat &")
0 3 * * 0,2,5 spawn("cd /spider/local_data | wget -qN https://www.country-files.com/cty/wpxloc.dat &")
0 3 * * 0,2,5 spawn("cd /spider/local_data | wget -qN https://www.country-files.com/cty/wpxloc.raw &")
2 3 * * 0,2,5 spawn("cd /spider/local_data | /spider/perl/create_prefix.pl")
3 3 * * 0,2,5 run_cmd("load/prefix")

# remove old files (At 00:00 in every month from January through December)
0 0 * 1-12 * spawn(q[find /spider/local_data/debug -type f -mtime +2 -exec rm -f {} \;])
2 0 * 1-12 * spawn(q[find /spider/local_data/log -type f -mtime +2 -exec rm -f {} \;])
3 0 * 1-12 * spawn(q[find /spider/local_data/spots -type f -mtime +2 -exec rm -f {} \;])
4 0 * 1-12 * spawn(q[find /spider/local_data/wcy -type f -mtime +1 -exec rm -f {} \;])
5 0 * 1-12 * spawn(q[find /spider/local_data/wwv -type f -mtime +1 -exec rm -f {} \;])

# Blacklist. TOR & Others (At minute 30)
30 * * * * spawn('cd /spider/local_data; wget -qN http://www.dxspider.net/download/badip.torexit')
30 * * * * spawn('cd /spider/local_data; wget -qN http://www.dxspider.net/download/badip.torrelay')
30 * * * * spawn('cd /spider/local_data; wget -qN http://www.dxspider.net/download/badip.global')
31 * * * * run_cmd('load/badip')

 

AEA – Timewave Stuff

PK232 / PK232MBX Manuals and Firmware

Firmware HeatKit 232 (Tnx to Joshua (DO4FN))

Firmware PK232/PK232MBX

AEA PK-88

Firmware PK-88

AEA PK-90

AEA PK-96

Firmware PK-96

AEA PK-900

Firmware PK-900

AEA DSP2232

Firmware DSP2232

AEA DSP-232

 

 

NinoTNC Firmware

 

NinoTNC Firmware

4.06 is what is shipping from ETSY.  (we started shipping the “FAT” processor in January 2021)
3.06 is the same firmware (different RAM/buffer sizes) programmed into the 256 “thin” processor.  

We like .06 for stability and being ‘full’ featured.  

Nino is working on future firmware and he’s been improving things and breaking things. 
Up until now, no new features are added the the code, only clean-ups and improvements to functionality. 
For instance, 1200 baud AX.25 receive is better again than it was before, we think.
Also, there is a new firmware boot loader in the new firmware.  Nino also write a new Python boot loader and that is in the GitHub, zflash and tarpn scripting.

https://github.com/ninocarrillo/flashtnc

I am including the latest test versions, as well as the reliable .06, in the  “tarpn update” and in the zflash commands for people using Raspberry PI.  

In 3.07 / 4.07, Nino pulled apart the memory management, the way the different modes were separated in the program and the way certain timed features were called out.  .07 specifically tested the new memory and MODE-function calling and was definitely not working on all of the functions we had in 0.6.   

Now, several versions later, and many hours of testing and work on Nino’s part and some of the NCPACKET network people’s part, .14 is much better than .07.  However….

3.14 and 4.14 are test versions.   .14 may not be ready for prime time!  There still may be untested features missing or broken in .14 that were working in .06.  

So far we have had no trouble using the boot loader to move back and forth from 3.06 and 4.06 to the new stuff.  

All of the NinoTNC firmware (since 2.81 in October 2020) works in A2, A3 and A4 NinoTNCs.  

Beware that versions 2.90 through 3.05 should not be put on your NinoTNC because the boot loader support in those versions can get you stuck, requiring a PIC-KIT to refresh the chip.   

See the change log for details:
http://tarpn.net/t/nino-tnc/n9600a/n9600a_history.html#changelog

This is how the update process looks like.

pi@pi1lap:~/tarpnflash $ python3 flashtnc.py /home/pi/flashtnc/N9600A-v4-0-6.hex /dev/ttyACM0
Opened port /dev/ttyACM0
Scanning hex file to determine target chip.
Hex file target: dsPIC33EP512GP
Opened file /home/pi/flashtnc/N9600A-v4-0-6.hex
Flushing serial buffer.
Starting TNC reflash mode. Don't interrupt this process, the dsPIC may brick.
Flushing serial buffer again.
TNC successfully entered bootloader mode.
TNC bootlader version:  B
TNC ready for hex file, starting transfer. This will take a few minutes.
Start time:  09:17:38
Lines written:  1000
Lines written:  2000
(snip)
Lines written:  10000
Lines written:  11000
Lines written:  12000
End time:  09:19:49
Line count:  12791
Firmware update successful.

A test Packet

08:28:02R N9600A-3>IDENT Port=1 :
:Test Packet=FirmwareVr:4.06=SerialNmbr:=UptimeMilS:00077666=BrdSwchMod:04060002=AX25RxPkts:00000003=IL2PRxPkts:00000000=IL2PRxUnCr:00000000=TxPktCount:00000114=PreamblCnt:0000001E=LoopCycles:00532CD0
08:27:49R N9600A-3>IDENT Port=1 :
:Test Packet

XRouter Update (XRlin502e)

Paula G8PZT has released a NEW version of XRouter, XRLin502e. Why there is not a release of Xrpi “that question remains”
You can Download it at https://groups.io/g/xrouter/files  (must be registered)

Or Download it from here https://ham.packet-radio.net/packet/xrlin/xrlin502e
And the Release notes here. https://ham.packet-radio.net/packet/xrlin/V502%20Release%20Notes.txt

	XRLin (and XRPi) Release Notes For Version 502
	##############################################
Version 502 has been a long time coming, far too long. This is because a great deal has been added or tweaked since the last release, and the aim was to get it all finalised, documented and thoroughly tested before it became v502.

If new or experimental features are released too soon, future development of them can be stifled or prevented by compatibility issues. During alpha testing it is easy to change things, for example protocols, without compatibility issues. But once released, any further changes have to be backward-compatible to avoid breaking earlier versions.

Several inter-dependent sub-sections of the project were in parallel development when work on it was unexpectedly curtailed at the end of August 2020. There was no time to tidy up loose ends or make notes, and it has not been possible to work on the project since then.

It will take a long time to piece together what work had been in progress at the time, and to write documentation. As that process would further delay the release of v502, I have decided to release it "as-is", with no documentation, no guarantees that it will work, and no guarantees that it won't be broken by the next version.

It may crash. It may not work on your flavour of operating system. It may contain alpha-test diagnostics that fill up your disk or mess up your screen. Use it at your own risk, and PLEASE report the bugs.

Also, there is much unfinished work where the human interface could probably be improved. If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

What's New in 502?
==================

* SYN Cache
* FTP client.
* NFTP (Netrom File Transfer Protocol) server and client.
* NetRomX "Standard Services"
* Packet SMS (Short Message Service) client & server
* IP Packet capture
* Private sysop chat/messaging.
* Bug fixes.
* More colour
* Sounds
* And lots more...

Changelog
=========

The last full release was v501c, back in May 2019. The following is a list of some (but possibly not all) of the changes since then:

- Fixed: "MON ?" now displays syntax help instead of "Error!".

- Fixed: If no Ethernet PORT was defined, the Telnet command always
returned "System Busy" for a non-localhost destination, even
if a kernel route has been defined.

- Fixed: F3 didn't correctly set the monitored ports.

- Fixed: UDP multicasts generated ICMP "port unreachable" responses.

- Fixed: Bug in chat server which had been causing crashes.

- Fixed: Chatserver /ECHO command didn't toggle the echo. /ECHO is no
longer a toggle, the form is "/ECHO [on | off]"

- Fixed: TCPKISS connection bug.

- Fixed: The TIME command was reporting "GMT" even in Australia.
Removed the timezone for now.

- Fixed: SYN scan notification displayed a random number instead of IP
source address.

- Fixed: If nodes table was sorted by callsign, using the SORTBYCALL
config directive, some of the nodes were omitted from nodes
broadcasts.

- Fixed: Missing timestamp on pi version of chat keepalive

- Fixed: Some bugs in PPP, which now works as intended.

- Fixed: Sent/rcvd bytes stats were zero on some types of interface.

- Fixed: TCP RESET command for case when IP is banned.

- Fixed: The LOG command wasn't working. It is now working, and accepts
a numeric argument in addition to the previous ON | OFF.

- Fixed: KISS over TCP was sending incorrect frame format.

- Fixed: Extremely long filenames could cause segfault on FTP.

- Fixed: KISSTCP link was manically retrying.

- Fixed: AXTCP now works again.

- Fixed: INP option 16 (position) tracing now works.

- Fixed: AXIP using 44-net addresses would not work if a TUN interface
was used instead of an Ethernet one. AXIP using non-44-net
addresses was OK, but used the Linux IP address NOT the XRPi
one. This is now fixed. 44-net addresses can now be used for
AXIP if either Ethernet or TUN interface/port combination
exists.

- Fixed: Argument to INFO command was case sensitive.

- Fixed: In chat server, "Version" now reports XRPi or XRLin instead of
generic "Xrouter".

- Added: TUN (tunnel) interface type.

- Added: UDP interface, capable of KISS.

- Added: TCP server interface, supporting many protocols.

- Added: "TNC" protocol, for controlling external TNC's in command mode.

- Added: IGMP tracing.

- Added: IPv6 and ICMPv6 tracing.

- Added: Wireshark-compatible packet capture

- Added: MNDP tracing (seems to be used by HamNet).

- Added: ACL command, with subcommands permit, deny, log, remove and
view.

- Added: "IP BAN SAVE" to save the list of banned IP's. This can be
used in crontab to save the list from time to time in case of
power cuts.

- Added: IP BAN ADD and IP BAN DROP and IP BAN PORT SAVE subcommands.

- Added: TCP/UDP/ALL options to the "IP BAN PORT" (honeypot) command,
for creating protocol specific bans.

- Added: IP BAN PORT LIST to list the banned ports.

- Added: PC[ap] [on |off] command, to control packet capture.

- Added: MON IDS [on | off] command, to control IDS monitoring.
If MON is ON *and* MON IDS is ON, IDS warnings are echoed to
console or remote monitoring session as appropriate. The
default for a remote monitor session is ON, but the default
for consoles is OFF.

- Added: WAIT < (secs<60) | (ms>60) > command for use in BOOTCMDS.SYS.

- Added: "TNC" command for controlling TNC-style peripherals, e.g. real
TNC's or any applications that use plain text commands.

- Added: IFACE command, with subcommands ADD, DROP and LIST. This is
still a work in progress. Interfaces can be added and deleted
on the fly, but the code to configure them is incomplete.

- Added: IDS subcommand to STATS command, to display brief IDS stats.

- Added: Chatserver "/STAT[us]" command to set status/presence
indication. Experimental, it might not work.

- Added: Lots of layer-specific error codes, making it easier to locate
problems.

- Added: NOPARMS to the list of KISSOPTIONS. Setting this option
prevents XRouter from sending KISS parameters to the TNC.

- Added: SYN Cache, plus associated TCP CACHE sub commands.

- Added: SYNCACHESIZE and SYNCACHELIFE configuration directives, which
are used in XROUTER.CFG to set the default cache size and
lifetime. These parameters can also be changed on the fly
using TCP CACHE SIZE and TCP CACHE LIFE commands. If the
directives are not present, they default to 1000 slots and 10
seconds.

- Added: Smurf and Fraggle attack detection.

- Added: Hit counts and last_hit display to banned ports display.

- Added: Honeypot hits to IDS statistics display.

- Added: UDP honeypot (tcp honeypot already existed)

- Added: TCP port scan detection (udp detection already existed)

- Added: Many new commands to TNC2 emulation.

- Added: The ability to ban IP ranges using netmask.

- Added: Saving and reloading of banned ports across restarts.

- Added: Option to enter plain text password using "@" command

- Added: TCP service port into PMS NODE entry (CHAT already done).

- Added: Timestamp, TCP service port and node capability flags to INP3.

- Added: NFTP (Netrom File Transfer Protocol) server, client and
command.

- Added: NFTPROOT configuration directive, defaulting to "FTP".

- Added: APRS, CHARGEN, CHAT, DISCARD, ECHO, INFO, NFTP, NTTY, PMS,
SMS, TIME and WX NetromX services.

- Added: FTP client, with colour, scripting, and 67 commands.

- Added: FTP command, to invoke the FTP client.

- Added: FTPCLI.SYS, containing details of frequently used connections.
All fields in that file except nickname and hostname are
optional, so we can use it simply as a nickname to hostname
translator, or we can login with USER alone and supply
PASSword manually, or we can automate the password and send
the account manually, or we can automate the entire logon.

- Added: FEAT, SIZE and MFMT commands to FTP server.

- Added: SMS server, client and command.

- Added: Security window now displays separate bad login stats for FTP,
Telnet, Telnet proxy and RLogin, plus FTP directory hacks,
TCP scans and total notifications.

- Change: Ports and interfaces are now listed in strict numerical
order, instead of the order in which they are created.

- Change: The PORT DROP command had been disabled long ago because the
code was unfinished and possibly dangerous. This has now been
completed, so the command should be safe to use.

- Change: IDS logs are now stored in LOG directory instead of the main
working directory.

- Change: LOG flags rearranged, and the ability to save logs with CRLF
line endings is added. Bit 0 controls logging on/off as
before. If bit 1 is set logs are written with CRLF (Windows /
DOS) instead of LF (Unix) format. This is useful for those
who view the logs on a Windows machine.
Session logging is now controlled bit bit 2 instead of bit 1.

- Change: The chatserver "/W *" command now shows the user's status /
presence indication.

- Change: If someone logs onto channel 1234 on local chat server, they
show up on the sysop chat window's "online" list, and when
they log off, they are instantly removed from the list
instead of slowly timing out.

- Change: If a local chat user (i.e. one logged directly onto our chat
server) changes status and they are logged onto channel 1234,
the status is echoed to the sysop chat window.

- Change: As chat user connections can sometimes die, even when
keepalives are enabled, keepalives now include a timestamp
allowing the user to verify that the connection really is
alive.

- Change: Chatserver "channel-leave" messages for channel 1234 now
remove users from the "online" list on sysop chat window.
This should reduce the number of long-gone connections that
persist on the chat window.

- Change: TCP sockets stuck in SYN_RECEIVED state are now purged after
a period of inactivity. This is not part of RFC793, but seems
sensible.

- Change: Tidied up wording of TCP/UDP scan reporting.

- Change: INP3 unicasts no longer include IP address if it is private.

- Change: NetromX connections now show the service number,
e.g. G8PZT::18

- Change: A lot more information is saved to XRNODES file, e.g. QTH,
locator, software type and flags, version, timezone, etc.
And the data is reloaded again at start up
.
- Change: Reinstated NCMP infocasts, but much improved on 2001.

- Change: Re-enabled PEERS command in much expanded form. This displays
the closest XRouter neighbours.

- Change: IDS now reports source callsign for valid but unsolicited AXUDP.

- Change: IDS log is now daily, and depends on LOG_IDS flag (256)

- Change: Isolated IDS-reported incidents, such as entering an incorrect
password are not necessarily suspicious and might not be
detected as abuse. But when they are repeated over time to
form patterns they become suspicious. IDS can now recognise
some suspicious patterns of behaviour, and automatically ban
the caller's IP.

- Change: The chat /keepalive command now accepts ON | OFF | , so
the interval can be tailored to the user's particular needs.

- Change: Chat keepalives are now sent only when there is no activity
on the user's connection, instead of rigidly every 10 mins.

- Change: All PZTDOS and NFTP client functions now cope with arguments
that contain spaces, providing such args are enclosed in
double quotes, e.g. COPY "old file" "new text file".
Note that the superfluous use of double quotes is allowed,
e.g. 'GET "fred.txt"', although many functions don't require
them, e.g. 'DEL my big fat file' is ok because DEL only
has one argument so there's no ambiguity.

- Change: CHAT, DISCARD, ECHO, INFO, PMS, TIME and WX commands now
accept a nodecall or alias argument, allowing them to access
those services on other XRouter nodes.

- Change: ECHO, DISCARD and CHARGEN servers can now be aborted using /x
instead of disconnection. This was not part of the original
protocols as defined in the RFC's, but it saves having to log
back in after ending one of these sessions. Ending the session
by disconnection is still allowed.

- Change: Tidied up the columns in INP3 tracing.

- Change: Tidied up ARP trace display.

- Change: Big rewrite of interface routines, which might break some
things and fix others?.

- Change: Prevented invalid protocols from being specified on
interfaces that don't support then, to avoid confusion.

- Change: Major improvements to TNC2 emulation, especially monitoring.

- Change: DHCP tracing, which was disabled way back in XR16 to save
space, is reinstated because space is no longer an issue.

- Change: Reception of IP multicasts was previously blocked, but is now
unblocked. This will allow the sysop to detect potential
attacks instead of being oblivious to them.

- Change: 3 unsucessful FTP login attempts during one session used to
result only in disconnection. It now bans the user's IP as
well. This mitigated brute force and dictionary attacks.

- Change: 5 incorrect FTP logins within a short interval now result in
banning of caller's IP address.

- Change: STATS syntax help improved, and it now displays syntax help if
an invalid stats sub-command is entered.

LOG Flags
~~~~~~~~~

The flags used in the argument to the LOG directive and command are in a state of flux. It hasn't yet been decided which flags are useful and what order they should be in, so they may change again. The eventual aim is for the lower numbers to be used for routine logging and the higher ones for occasional debugging (which may generate a lot of logging).

The flags recognised in v502 are as follows:

Bit Value Function
-------------------------
0 1 Enable/disable logging
1 2 Use CRLF instead of LF line endings
2 4 Log session activity
3 8 Unused
4 16 Unused
5 32 Unused
6 64 Unused
7 128 Log ODN activity.
8 256 Log IDS activity to IDS log
9 512 Log AXTCP activity
10 1024 Generate PCAP file (use with caution)

SYN Cache
~~~~~~~~~

To combat the ever-growing problem of TCP port scanning, which was using up a lot of TCP resources, a SYN cache has been added.

In "normal" RFC793 TCP, a received SYN elicits a SYN|ACK, and the TCP state machine allocates resources then moves to SYN_RECEIVED state, awaiting an ACK from the caller. The nastier port scans tend to send a SYN, wait for the ACK, then move on without sending a reset. This leaves dozens of half-open connections, which eventually prevent new connections from being formed.

With a SYN cache, a received SYN elicits a SYN|ACK as before, but no resources are allocated. The SYN is cached for a short while. If an ACK is received, a normal connection is created, otherwise the SYN is discarded. This makes the TCP stack far more resistant to port scans.

The TCP command has been modified to accommodate the SYN cache - see later.

**************************************************************************

Standard Services
=================

In my view, a major limitation of NetRom is the fact that each "application" (BBS, PMS, CHAT, DXCLUSTER etc.) that has a direct network presence, rather than being accessed via a node's comand line, requires a separate SSID, and only 16 SSID's are possible.

Not only does this limit the maximum number of connectible services per node callsign to 16, but it also clutters up the node table with multiple instances of the same callsign, each with a different SSID. So far it hasn't been too much of an issue, but it is stifling development.

Another problem is that no-one agrees on a standard for SSID's. Some people think SSID 0 should be for users, -1 for nodes, -2 for PMS, -3 for BBS, -8 for chat and so on. Others think -0 should be the node, -8 for the PMS, -11 for chat etc. It's a pig's ear!

If you see "G6XYK-5" in your nodes table, what is it? Maybe it's a NOS system. Maybe it's a "Ping-Pong" chat node. Or is it his FBB BBS?

I don't have the answer to that one, but one thing that can be standardised, at least on XRouters, is "Service Numbers". This is the NetRom equivalent of TCP "port" numbers, which allow multiple services to co-exist on a single IP address.

No matter what the node's call, alias or SSID, you can be sure that, if it's an XRouter, service 1 will always give you information about the node. Likewise, service 2 will always be the PMS, and service 80 will always be the HTTP server.

So if the alias contains "XR", e.g. DOTXR, XRPKT etc, and you want to connect to their PMS, you know that if it's enabled, it's going to be service 2.

This is made possible by an extension to NetRom, using opcode 8 = CREQX, i.e. Extended Connection Request". This opcode allows up to 65535 destination service numbers to be requested. I call this, for want of a better word, "NetromX".

Nodes that don't understand CREQX simply reject the connection (or crash if they have been badly written. lol :-) It's been in use since 2013, and I'm not aware of any problems so far.

To make life simple, TCP and UDP services have "Well Known Ports", and I proposed a similar scheme for NetromX as follows:

No. Service Description
-----------------------
1 INFO Information server
2 PMS Personal Message System
3 BBS Bulletin Board System
4 DX DX cluster/dx-spot feed
5 TPP "Tampa Ping-Pong" chat server
7 ECHO Echoes data back to sender
8 CHAT Chat server
9 DISCARD Data sink
10 RMS (winlink RMS}
11 BPQCHAT BPQ chat server
13 DAYTIME Local date/time (similar to RFC867)
14 APRS APRS Server
16 WX Local weather information
18 SMS Short Message System
19 CHARGEN Generates a test pattern
20 NDATA Reserved for FTP data
21 NFTP Netrom File Transfer Protocol
22 SSH Secure login (if legal?)
23 TELNET Normal login
25 SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
80 HTTP NetromWeb server
87 NTTY Netrom TTY - Keyboard to keyboard chat

There are many other possibilities, not yet finalised.

Standard services facilitate simple commands such as "TIME ", to discover the time, zone and daylight saving at a distant node. Or "PMS " to connect directly to someone's PMS.

It is envisaged that some of the services may be used by network crawlers (human and machine) to harvest data without needing to know the exact format of the commands on all the different types of software.

Standard service numbers cannot be changed. That's the point - they are always the same, like "well-known" TCP/IP numbers, so people can remember and rely on them.

**************************************************************************

NetromX Services Implemented in XRLin/XRPi v502 (numeric order)
===============================================

Information Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Isn't it frustrating to connect to a node, only to find that there is no INFO command, or the sysop hasn't bothered to set up any information?

Where in the world is it? We aren't all familiar with country prefixes!

What software is it running? That affects what commands we must use to find information. What sort of node is it? Just a router, or is it the node underlying a BBS or DX cluster? Where can I find more information about the system, the group, the software etc?

The NetRomX "Information Service" (service no. 1) is intended to answer some of your questions. It is accessed by connecting to service 1 on any XRLin or XRPi running version 501v or later. For example:

C G8PZT 1

The information is provided in a form which is readable by both humans and machines. It is of the ": " form, with each piece of information on a separate line. Every keyword is unique. Only a few have been implemented so far, although others are planned. Your suggestions would be welcome.

The INFO command has been modified to accomodate this feature, so you don't even have to remember the service number or add the "stay" flag. The syntax is now:

I[nfo] [nodecall | nodealias | topic]

Here's a typical session:

info kidder
VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Info:
Trying G8PZT::1...

VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Connected to G8PZT::1

Node-Type: Host / Router
Node-Callsign: G8PZT
Node-Alias: KIDDER
QTH: Kidderminster, Worc's
Maidenhead: IO82VJ
Position: 52.400002 / -2.250000
Sysop-Callsign: (to be done)
Software-Type: AX25+NetRom+IP Router/Node
Software-Name: XrPi
Software-Version: 501y (19/7/20)
Software-Author: Paula G8PZT
Software-Info: http://vk2dot.dyndns.org/xrpi
Software-Uptime: 4d, 11h, 3m, 58s
Local-Time: Fri, 21 May 2021 03:27:06 +0000
Local-Sunrise: 05:05
Local-Sunset: 21:08
Netrom-Known: 250
Netrom-Neighbours: 6
AX25-Links: 6
Amprnet-IP: 44.136.16.6
Amprnet-Name: g8pzt.ampr.org
Netrom-Services: 1,2,7,8,9,13,14,16,18,19,21,23,80,87

VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Welcome back

PMS Service
~~~~~~~~~~~

NetromX service 2 is a direct connection to a node's PMS (Personal Message System).

You may not know what SSID a sysop is using for his PMS this week. Or his PMS might be out of Netrom visibility because its quality is set low. But if you know the nodecall, and it's an XRouter, you always know that the PMS will be on service 2.

The PMS is well documented, so no further explanation is required here.

ECHO Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The NetromX ECHO service simply reflects back a copy of any data it receives, for test and measurement purposes. It behaves the same as the ECHO command, and uses the same service number (7) as the TCP/IP version.

The service terminates upon receipt of "/x" followed by newline, or when the caller disconencts.

CHAT Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can't remember what SSID G8PZT's chat server is on? No problem, just connect to service number 8 using the following command:

c g8pzt 8

Add the "stay" flag if you don't want to be disconnected after leaving the chat...

c g8pzt 8 s

If you can't even remember the service number, just type CHAT G8PZT, and it will do both of the above steps for you...

G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Trying G8PZT::8...

G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Connected to G8PZT::8
Hello Paula
Welcome to the chat server at KIDDER. There are 5 users
Type /HELP if you need help

/b

G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Welcome back

DISCARD Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The NetromX DISCARD service is a "data sink", i.e. it throws away any data it receives. It is intended for test and measurement purposes. It behaves the same as the DISCARD command, and uses the same "well-known" service number (9) as the TCP/IP version.

The service terminates upon receipt of "/x" followed by newline, or when the caller disconects.

CHARGEN Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The CHARGEN service generates a stream of characters for testing purposes. It is very bandwidth hungry and should be used with caution. It uses the same "well known" service number (19) as the TCP/IP version.

Upon opening a connection to NetromX service 19, the server starts sending lines of characters to the caller and continues until the caller types /x followed by newline, or closes the connection. The server accepts no other commands.

Conforming to the de-facto standard, each line of 72 characters is offset by one. This creates a pattern which makes it easy to spot dropped characters. Here's what it looks like:

c g8pzt 19
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Trying G8PZT::19...
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Connected to G8PZT::19

"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghi
#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghij
$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijk
%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijkl
&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklm
'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmn
()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmno
)*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnop

and so on...

DAYTIME Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The DAYTIME service returns the node's current local date and time, for test or general interest purposes. It is accessed via NetromX standard service 13.

Upon connection to service 13, the server sends the local time as a single line of text. The response is currently like this, but may change to include timezone and DST:

Thu May 20 16:37:24 2021

When the caller has received the text, the server terminates the connection.

APRS Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Until now, the APRS server has only been accessible to TCP/IP callers. It is now also available as NetromX service 14.

c g8pzt 14
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Trying G8PZT::14...
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Connected to G8PZT::14

MB7UYL>APXR01:=5224.00N/00215.00Wn Kidderminster, Worc's
{Xrouter 501y}
VE2PKT-4>ID:!4625.96N/07237.66WB 147.435Mhz 1.2Kb, VE2PKT-4,
XRPI Router
VK2DOT-1>ID:!3323.21S/15121.42E# Niagara Park Node - (VK2DOT-1)
44.136.16.1

This server is already well documented on the XRPi website.

Weather Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have you ever wondered what the weather is like at someone else's site? Or maybe you are the sysop of a remote site and you need to know what the weather is doing up there?

The weather service returns local weather information, if available, from the target node. The information is returned in machine-readable plain text form. The server uses NetromX service number 16.

A typical response would look like this:

Observed: Mon 17 May 2021 06:01:23 +0001
Pressure: 1007.2 mB
Temperature: 11.2 C
Humidity: 67 %
Wind: 23 mph
Direction: 178 deg
Gust: 31 mph
Rain-24h: 24.7 mm
Rain-Today: 19.7 mm
Rain-1h: 3.2 mm

When the client has recieved the information, the server terminates the connection.

Some fields may be missing if there is no information in them.

The information is derived from APRS broadcasts, or from the WXNOW or CUMULUS format files generated by home weather stations or weather applications. The filename is specifed by the WXFILE directive in XROUTER.CFG.

Once per minute, XRLin checks the file specified by the WXFILE directive. If the file is present, and the information therein is more up to date than the previous data, the contents are imported.

A WXNOW.TXT file only has 2 lines, for example:

Feb 01 2009 12:34
272/010g006t069r010p030P020h61b1050

where: 272 = Wind direction in degrees.
010 = Average wind speed in MPH.
g006 = Gust speed in MPH
t069 = Temperature in degrees Farenheit
r010 = Rainfall in the last hour in hundreths of an inch.
p030 = Rainfall in the last 24H in hundreths of an inch.
P020 = Rainfall since midnight in hundreths of an inch.
h61 = Humidity in percent.
b1050 = barometric pressure in millibars.

The Cumulus "realtime.txt" file is a text file with a single line of space separated values. It contains a list of key values of the sensors and is re-created frequently. After creation, it can be set to automatically upload to a website (or to XRLin) via FTP.

An example of the format is as follows (all one line):

18/10/08 16:03:45 8.4 84 5.8 24.2 33.0 261 0.0 1.0 999.7 W 6 mph
C mb mm 146.6 +0.1 85.2 588.4 11.6 20.3 57 3.6 -0.7 10.9 12:00
7.8 14:41 37.4 14:38 44.0 14:28 999.8 16:01 998.4 12:06 1.8.2
448 36.0 10.3 10.5 13 0.2 14 260 2.3 3 1 1 NNW 2040 ft 12.3 11.1
420.1 1 13.6

XRLin currently reads the following fields from realtime.txt:

1 Observation date
2 Observation time
3 Temperature
4 Humidity
6 Wind speed
8 Wind direction
9 Rain rate per hour
10 Rain today
11 Barometric pressure
14 Wind units - m/s, mph, km/h, kts
15 Temperature units - degree C, degree F
16 Pressure units - mb, hPa, in
17 Rainfall units - mm, in
41 Gust speed
48 Rainfall last hour

There is another (non-standard) format that XRLin can import from a WX file. This consists of ": " pairs as follows:

Temperature: 22.7
Barometer: 1015
Wind: 6
Direction: 178
Gust: 12
Humidity: 67

The fields can be in any order, and need1 not all be present. They may be seperated by spaces ot tabs.

At present, temperature must be in Centigrade, pressure in millibars, and wind speeds in MPH. There are plans to make this accept other units. It's all a work in progress, so any suggestions are welcome.

So you haven't got a weather station that outputs one of the above formats? No problem...

Using suitable software or scripts you could extract weather information from your WX station and write it to a file in one of the above 3 formats.

You could even pull weather information for your area off the web and write it to a file. But that is beyond the scope of this document.

In my case I am using a cheap RTL dongle and "rtl_433" software on the Pi to receive and decode the 433.9 MHz OOK transmissions from my weather station to its base unit.

SMS Service
~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a short messaging service for XRouter sysops, and has nothing to do with telephone SMS.

The purpose of this service is to receive short, single-line messages (up to 160 characters), and to deliver them to the sysop. It is service number 18.

Although the protocol is plain text, it is intended for use by automatons, not humans.

It is a one-way protocol. Nodes "push" messages to each other, by connecting to each other's SMS service. They cannot poll for mail.

The protocol is not yet finalised. It works, but may need to be tweaked.

The sysop is alerted to the presence of an unread mesage by a flashing "S" on the top status bar. He can then type SMS to view the messages. See SMS command in the "New or modified commands" section below.

NFTP Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~

NFTP (Netrom File Transfer Protocol) is basically a form of FTP over NetRom. It uses fairly standard FTP server commands, but in it's simplest form it shares a single stream for both commands and data. It is service 21, the same number as the TCP version.

Strictly speaking, NFTP is a misnomer, because the protocol can be used on any reliable byte-ordered stream, be that AX25, NetRom or TCP.

Although NFTP can be used by anyone, it is primarily intended for sysops to exchange files with each other. The protocol permits limited access to "public" files without login.

The server can be accessed in one of 3 ways:

If the source node is NetromX-capable, simply connect directly to service 21 on the target node. For example, "C G8PZT 21".

c g8pzt 21
DOTXR:VK2DOT-1} Trying G8PZT::21...
DOTXR:VK2DOT-1} Connected to G8PZT::21
220 G8PZT NFTP ready - Restrictions apply

Alternatively, **if you are the sysop of the source node**, use the "NFTP " command to invoke a client which connects to the target node. See the "New Commands" section below for client details.

If the source node is *not* NetromX-capable, you must connect to the target node then issue the NFTP command, supplying the target node's callsign as an argument. For example, if you were connected to VK2DOT and you wanted to connect to G8PZT's server you would issue "C G8PZT", wait for connection then issue "NFTP G8PZT":

c g8pzt
DOTXR:VK2DOT-1} Connected to G8PZT
nftp g8pzt
G8PZT:KIDDER} Trying server
220 G8PZT NFTP ready - Restrictions apply

Once connected to the server, the HELP command reveals the available commands and their syntax:

help
211-Cmds: ABOR CWD HELP LIST MDTM NLST NOOP
211-Cmds: PASS PWD QUIT REST RETR STOR TYPE USER
211-(Additional commands available after login)
211-
211 Use HELP for syntax etc.

help stor
211-STOR Upload file to server
211 Syntax: STOR

Login (using USER and PASS commands) is optional, and intended only for sysops.

Unlogged users are restricted to a "public" directory, which by default is located at FTP/public. The true location is not shown to users. They cannot climb out of this directory, nor create any directories within it. It is purely a space for sysops and unlogged users to place publicly accessible files, such as useful documents, software etc. For example:

04-19-2021 02:41AM
06-20-2020 04:07AM
04-19-2021 02:41AM 49375 repeaterlist.csv
04-19-2021 02:36AM 93162 rfc8200.txt

4 file(s) 150,729 bytes
2 dir(s) 398,048 bytes free
226 File sent ok

The main protocol differences between FTP and NFTP are in the commands and responses associated with the transfer of data, i.e. commands like LIST, STOR and RETR.

When a file or directory listing is requested using LIST or RETR, the server replies with the line "150 OK n", where n is the exact filesize in bytes. After receiving this line, the client must treat the next "n" received bytes as data, to be saved or displayed. After sending the data, the server sends the line "226 File sent ok", and is ready for the next command.

The syntax to upload a file is "STOR <bytes> <filename>", for example, "STOR 96507 xrpi-manual.txt". If this is acceptable to the server, it responds "150 OK <bytes>". Upon receiving this line, the client must send exactly <bytes> bytes of data. The server will not return to command mode until it has received at least the specified number of bytes. Any excess bytes sent by the client are discarded by the server.

Thus you can read text files directly to your monitor, and create them directly from your keyboard if required.

Service 20 is reserved for possible future use as a separate "data" channel.

HTTP Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Service 80 accesses XRLin's HTTP server, allowing HTTP over Netrom.

HTTP over NetRom? Shock horror! What a phenomenally stupid idea!!! Well maybe it is, maybe not? It's just another communication tool.

This service is not new - it has been in XRouter since Jan 2013. If you access an XRouter's web interface via TCP/IP, it's what allows you to click on certain nodes in the nodes list, and go to their default pages.

Yes it might be slow, but if the HTML is kept clean and tight, it is workable, and unlike the Internet, the addresses are consistent. My node's "NetromWeb" address is simply my callsign.

The service number is not affected by the setting of HTTPPORT, which only affects TCP/IP access to the server.

NTTY Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NetromX Service 87 is Netrom access to TTYLink - keyboard to keyboard chat with the sysop. It is equivalent to telnetting to TCP service 87, or using the YELL command on the target node.

Upon connection, the sysop of the target node is paged, and has 90 seconds to respond. The page consists of a pop-up dialog on top of the sysop's current window, and an audible sound. Note the latter only works on older-style PC's at present.

At any point during or after the 90 seconds, the caller has the option to leave a short one-line message (160 chars max) or to abort the call.

If the sysop takes more than 90 seconds to respond, and the user has not disconnected, the sysop can still use the "talk" command to initiate a chat with the user.

Here's an example session where the sysop responds:

c mobile 87 s

VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Trying G8PZT-1

VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Connected to G8PZT-1

TTYLINK at MOBILE:G8PZT-1
Calling sysop for 90 seconds..
Type 'M' at any time to leave a short message, or 'Q' to quit...

*** G8PZT-1 has come online to talk ***
Hello, why are you calling me?
Because I want to, silly!
Fair enough, it's mad talking to oneself you know...
I know, but no-one else is around.
Ok, bye for now

*** The other end terminated the chat

VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Welcome back

And here's a session where the sysop didn't respond. Although not strictly TTYlink, I feel it's a useful compromise, rather than allow an important call to be missed:

c mobile 87 s

VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Trying G8PZT-1

VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Connected to G8PZT-1

TTYLINK at MOBILE:G8PZT-1
Calling sysop for 90 seconds..
Type 'M' at any time to leave a short message, or 'Q' to quit...
No response, please type a short (1 line) message now...
(or enter a blank line to skip this step)

Can you call me back to discuss xrpi release asap?

Message saved for sysop
Goodbye
VK2DOT-1:DOTXR} Welcome back

The message is stored in the sysop's PMS, and a flashing asterisk on the top left corner of the status bar alerts him to its presence. The sysop can then access his PMS to read the message like this:

CMD(B/H/K/L/R/S/?)>
l
Msg# Stat Rcvd Time To From Subject
6 PR 22/05 03:25 SYSOP G8PZT TTYLink msg from G8PZT@VK2DOT-1

CMD(B/H/K/L/R/S/?)>
r 6

Msg#: 6
Rcvd: 22/05 03:25
From: G8PZT
To: SYSOP
Subj: TTYLink msg from G8PZT@VK2DOT-1

Can you call me back to discuss XRPi release asap?

CMD(B/H/K/L/R/S/?)>

It's all a bit untidy at present, but will hopefully be tidied up in future revisons.

**************************************************************************

Modified / New Commands (alphabetical order):
========================

This may not be a commplete list:

ACL Command
~~~~~~~~~~~

This new command allows the IP Access Control List to be modified on the fly, without having to edit and reload the IPROUTE.SYS file. It has the following sub-commands, revealed by typing ACL by itself:

DENY, LOG, PERMIT, REMOVE, VIEW

Of these ACL PERMIT and ACL DENY were already used in IPROUTE.SYS, and are documented at https://ohiopacket.org/xrpi/docs/ipacl-cmd.htm

Both commands require the following arguments:

<srcip>[/mask][:port] <dstip>[/mask][:port] [proto]

Typing "ACL PERMIT" or "ACL DENY" displays the syntax for the command.

The "ACL VIEW" command displays the access control list. The first column shows the "rule number", and the second column is the "action" for that rule, i.e. permit or deny. The order of the rules is important - rules are applied in the order they are shown. For each rule, the source and destination IPs and netmasks are shown, along with protocol number. The service port numbers are only shown if they are non-zero.

The following example has been horizontally compressed to fit the page:

acl view
G8PZT:KIDDER} IP Access Control List:

# Action Source IP [Mask] SvcPort Dest IP [Mask] SvcPort Proto
1 Permit 192.168.0.0 [255.255.0.0] 0.0.0.0 [0.0.0.0] 0
2 Permit 44.0.0.0 [255.0.0.0] 0.0.0.0 [0.0.0.0] 0
3 Deny 0.0.0.0 [255.255.255.255] 44.0.0.0 [255.0.0.0] 0

The rule number is used by "ACL REMOVE <rule_number>", which removes a rule. After removal, the remaining rules are renumbered.

The "ACL LOG [level]" command displays or sets the ACL logging level. The only levels so far defined are:

Level Actions
-------------------------------------------
0 No ACL logging
1 Log denial events
2 Display denial events on IDS window
3 log and display denial events

if ACL logging is enabled, ACL events go into the main daily log. Be aware that in some cases this might generate a lot of logging, and in other cases virtually nothing. It depends on how strict your rules are, what your IP routing table is like, how open your system is to the outside world, and how much it is attacked.

Logging defaults off, but the ACL LOG command may be used in IPROUTE.SYS.

There is currently no mechanism to save a modified ACL back to the IPROUTE.SYS file, as the command is intended only for on-the-fly changes.

CHAT Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The CHAT command has been modified to allow easy connection to the chat service on other nodes. The new syntax is:

CH[at] [nodecall | nodealias]

CHAT by itself invokes the local chat server (i.e. the one where the user is logged on), as before.

Using "CHAT <nodecall>" is roughly equivalent to issuing the command
"C <nodecall> 8 S". It attempts a connection to the chat service at <nodecall>. If the target node is not NetromX or chat-capable, the connection is refused.

DISCARD Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The DISCARD command has been modified to allow easy connection to the discard service on other nodes. The new syntax is:

DIS[card] [nodecall | nodealias]

DISCARD by itself invokes the local discard server (i.e. the one where the user is logged on), as before.

Using "DISCARD <nodecall>" is roughly equivalent to issuing the command
"C <nodecall> 9 S". It attempts a connection to the discard service at <nodecall>. If the target node is not NetromX or discard-capable, the connection is refused.

If no argument is supplied, or the argument is the callsign or alias of the node where the user is logged on, the local chat server is invoked instead.

ECHO Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ECHO command has been modified to allow easy connection to the echo service on other nodes. The new syntax is:

EC[ho] [nodecall | nodealias]

ECHO by itself invokes the local echo server, as before.

Using "ECHO <nodecall>" is roughly equivalent to issuing the command
"C <nodecall> 7 S". It attempts a connection to the echo service at <nodecall>. If the target node is not NetromX or echo-capable, the connection is refused.

If no argument is supplied, or the argument is the callsign or alias of the node where the user is logged on, the local echo server is invoked instead.

FTP Command
~~~~~~~~~~~

The FTP command is new. It invokes the FTP client.

Some may wonder why an FTP client has been added, when Linux already has one? The answer is simply, "Because I had a need for it!". I won't elaborate why, just to say it has proved very useful to me. It might even prove useful to you. If not, just ignore it.

One good reason for including an FTP client is that it allows FTP over Amprnet, which is something that's not easy to set up in Linux itself.

The client is started by "FTP" or "FTP <hostname | ipaddr | nickname>",
e.g.

FTP 192.168.1.3
FTP g8pzt.ath.cx
FTP gb7kr

Nicknames are specified in FTPCLI.SYS, along with connection details allowing automated login. This and the keepalives were two of the features I personally find most useful.

XRouter's FTP client currently has 67 commands, all of which have brief help and syntax. It will take a while to fully document them all!

ftp
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} FTP client started

FTP> ?
Commands may be abbreviated. Command list:

? < abort account append
ascii bell binary bye case
cd cdup close dir delete
get hash help idle keep
lcd ldel ldir ls list
lmkdir lpwd lrmdir lren lview
mdelete mget mkdir modtime mput
newer nlist open passive preserve
progress prompt put pwd quit
quote reset restart recv reget
rename rhelp rmdir rstatus runique
send site size sndport status
sunique system timeout type user
verbose view

Use "? <cmd>" for specific help on <cmd>

FTP> ? ldir
LDIR List files in local directory
Syntax: LDI[r] [local-path]

FTP> quit

G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Welcome back

IFACE Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The new IFACE command can be used to add, modify, remove, list, start and stop XRouter's interfaces on the fly. It has the following sub-commands:

A[dd], D[isplay], DR[op], L[ist], STA[rt], STO[p]

The A[dd] sub-command is used to create a new interface, for example to create interface 3 (providing iface 3 doesn't already exist):

IFACE ADD 3

The DR[op] sub-command deletes an interface, for example:

IFACE DROP 3

The L[ist] sub-command lists the interfaces:

iface l

G8PZT:KIDDER} Interfaces:

Num Type Prtcl MTU Description
1 external ether 1064 eth0
2 axudp axudp 256
3 axtcp axtcp 340
(End of list)

The D[is[;ay sub-command displays the details of a single interface:

iface d 1

G8PZT:KIDDER} Interface 1:
Type=external, Ptcl=ether, MTU=1064, Descr=eth0
Used by port(s): 1
MAC Address=B8:27:EB:35:5C:5B

The STA[rt] sub-command is used to bring an interface into use, e.g.:

IFACE START 2

The STO[p] sub-command takes an interface out of use, for example:

IFACE STOP 2

You cannot stop an interface which has dependent ports until all those ports have been stopped. At present, stopping an Ethernet interface may cause a segfault.

Certain interface parameters can be changed on the fly, using the general command form:

IFACE <number> <command> [args]

e.g. IFACE 4 ID Paula's Interface

The following parameters are accepted, but as this is a work in progress, they are not all fully functional...

COM CONFIG FLOW ID INTNUM IOADDR KISSOPTIONS MTU NUMBER
PROTOCOL SPEED TYPE

(CONFIG, PROTOCOL and MTU are not yet working)

INFO Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The INFO command has been modified to allow it to query the INFO server of other nodes. The syntax is now:

I[nfo] [nodecall | nodealias | topic]

As before INFO by itself displays a list of topics. Sadly, sysops rarely bother to provide any topics!

The "INFO <nodecall>" form attempts a connection to the INFO service on the target node, with the STAY option set.

If the target node is NetromX capable, and has the INFO server, various data about the target node are returned (see "INFO Service" section above). Otherwise the connection is refused.

The point of this is that the provision of basic useful or interesting information about a node requires absolutely no effort by the sysop.

IP Command
~~~~~~~~~~

New sub-commands "IP BAN ADD" and "IP BAN DROP" allow manual editing of the banned IP list.

IP BAN ADD <ipaddr> [netmask]

IP BAN DROP <ipaddr>

The short forms of those commands, IP BAN and IP UNBAN, still work....

IP BAN <ipaddr> [netmask]

IP UNBAN <ipaddr>

The new sub-command "IP BAN SAVE" saves the list of banned IP addresses to the file IPBAN.SYS. The contents of the file are reloaded at boot-up.

The ban list is always saved at closedown, but this command can be used in CRONTAB.SYS to additionallly save the ban list from time to time in case of power cuts.

New sub-commands IP BAN PORT ADD, IP BAN PORT DROP, IP BAN PORT LIST, and IP BAN PORT SAVE allow management of the "honeypot" ports, as shown in the following examples:

ip ban port add
G8PZT:KIDDER} Syntax: ADD <TCP|UDP|ALL> <start> [end]

ip ban port add tcp 445
G8PZT:KIDDER} Ok

ip ban port list
G8PZT:KIDDER} Banned (honeypot) ports:
Start End Last-hit Hits Protocols
445 445 xx/xx xx:xx 0 TCP
(End of list)

ip ban port save
G8PZT:KIDDER} Ok

ip ban port drop
G8PZT:KIDDER} Syntax: DROP <TCP|UDP|ALL> <start> <end>

ip ban port drop tcp 445 445
G8PZT:KIDDER} Ok

ip ban port list
G8PZT:KIDDER} Banned (honeypot) ports:
Start End Last-hit Hits Protocols
(End of list)

(I think IP BAN PORT ADD was present in earlier versions, but without the portocol field which allows protocol-specific honeypots).

What's a honeypot? In this context, it's a sticky trap, set up on popular TCP or UDP ports, for catching internet low-life.

Hackers generally start their attacks by probing for open TCP ports, and to save time they often start with the most popular ones - telnet, SSH, HTTP, VNC and so on. If they find an open port, they tend to inform each other, then they all concentrate their attacks on that port.

Unless you have a particular service port open, the chances are that anyone who tries to connect to it is up to no good. So the honeypot is a mitigation measure. It LOOKS like an attractive open port, but it's not! Anyone who connects to it gets their IP address logged and banned. After that they can't do any more attacking unless they change their IP address.

OK, it's not foolproof. Nation states and sophisticated hackers have access to virtually unlimited IP addresses. But it slows them down, and the IDS alerts you that there is problem.

When I was running XR16 v187 as my main internet router a few years ago, I put all my sensitive services on non-standard ports, and honeypotted their normal ports. Thus it was very unlikely that anyone would find my FTP or VNC ports for instance, because they always got trapped on port 21 and 5900. It was an extra layer of security.

Now, I guess no-one will be running XRrouter as their main internet router these days, so the honeypot is mainly for protecting XRPi and gathering data on attackers and their tactics.

LOG Command
~~~~~~~~~~~

The LOG command now accepts a numeric argument in addition to the previous ON or OFF.

Syntax: LOG [on | off | n]

Where n is a number between 0 and 65535 formed by adding
together the flags corresponding to the desired options.
(See LOG Flags above)

For example "LOG 0" disables all logging. "LOG 5" turns on session-layer logging, with CRLF line endings. "LOG 1029" does the same, but adds packet capture.

LOG by itself reports the current state. If logging is enabled, "LOG OFF" temporarily turns it off, but doesn't change the choice of flags. "LOG ON" restores the previous state.
For example:

log
G8PZT:KIDDER} Logging is enabled
Logging level = 1029

log off
G8PZT:KIDDER} Logging is disabled

log on
G8PZT:KIDDER} Logging is enabled
Logging level = 1029

Admittedly the terminology and ergomnomics of this command could be improved.

MON Command
~~~~~~~~~~~

There have been some modifications to the MON command. The permitted arguments are now ON, OFF and IDS. Any other argument now displays syntax help instead of the unhelpful "Error!" message.

mon ?
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Syntax: MO[n] [ON | OFF | IDS [on | off]]

The MON IDS [on | off] sub-command controls IDS monitoring as follows:

If MON is ON *and* MON IDS is ON, IDS warnings are echoed to the console (or remote monitoring session if you are logged on remotely). This allows you to keep an eye on the IDS while doing other things.

This was mainly intended for use on remote monitorng sessions, so the default for a *remote* monitor session is ON. The default for consoles is OFF.

NFTP Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The NFTP command is new. It invokes the NFTP client, used to exchange files with other sysops.

Syntax is "NF[tp] <target>"

If <target> is the callsign or alias of the node where the user is logged on, it invokes the local NFTP server at that node. This mode is available to non-sysops, and uses fairly standard FTP server commands, such as LIST, STOR, RETR etc.

If <target> is the callsign or alias of any other node, and the user is a verified sysop, it invokes a client which connects to the target server.

The client uses standard FTP client commands such as DIR, GET, PUT etc.

NFTP> help
Commands may be abbreviated. Command list:
? abort ascii binary bye
cd cdup close dir delete
get hash help lcd ldel
ldir ls list lmkdir lpwd
lrmdir lren lview mkdir modtime
nlist open put pwd quit
restart recv rename rmdir send
status user verbose view

Use "HELP <cmd>" for specific help on <cmd>
NFTP>

Most of these commands should be familiar to FTP users.

The NFTP client has full access to the local system, so is available only to sysops.

Note that the client uses a "standard" L4 connection to the server, rather than an "extended" (L4X) one. This results in a rather clumsy connection sequence, but allows other software authors to incorporate NFTP, if they so desire, without needing to implement L4X. The next version of XRLin/XRPi will use L4X if the target node supports it, otherwise it will use normal L4.

A typical usage scenario would be like this:

Sysop ALICE is chatting with sysop BOB on XR sysop chat.
She wants his help, because her TUN interface doesn't work.

Bob says "send me your XROUTER.CFG and I'll have a look".

Alice types "NFTP BOB", then "PUT XROUTER.CFG" to send it,
informing BOB via the chatserver.

BOB studies Alice's file, but sadly can't find the error.

Meanwhile sysop CHARLES has downloaded the file from BOB,
and spots the error. He corrects it and uses "NFTP ALICE",
then "PUT XRNEW.CFG" to send it back to ALICE.

BOB downloads the new file and is enlightened. ALICE copies it
from FTP/public to her XRPI working directory and reboots. The
TUN interface now works. CHARLES is a genius!

CHARLES writes a useful HOWTO about the TUN interface, and
uploads it to ALICE's public directory, from where DICK, EDDIE,
FRANK etc can download it.

No-one needed to know anyone else's email address. No-one needed to copy files from their node machine to an email machine and back. There was no need to set up accounts and passwords. No-one had privileged access to anyone elses machine. It could all be done from XRouter's console.

PCAP Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The new PCAP command controls IP packet capture. The syntax is:

PC[ap] [on | off]

If enabled, every IP datagram entering or leaving XRLin's IP stack is recorded to a "pcap" file which can be examined with Wireshark.

This can be useful when chasing obscure crashes or doing a security audit. Other authors will no doubt use it to reverse-engineer XRouter's protocols, which incidentally are not secret, just so-far undocumented.

The default packet capture state is controlled by the LOG_PCAP bit (1024) in the argument to the "LOG" command, or in the "LOG=" directive in XROUTER.CFG. If the bit is set by the LOG= directive, packet capture is on by default, otherwise it is off.

Packet capture can generate huge files, especially if you are using FTP to transfer large amounts of data, so it is not recommended for long-term use.

PEERS Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The sysop-only PEERS command, disabled since 2001, has been re-enabled. This command displays the closest NCMP-capable neighbours. At the moment, only XRouters (XR16/XR32/XRLin/XRPi) are NCMP-capable.

peers
G8PZT:KIDDER} Peers:
Nodecall RTT Hop Last-cnfrmd Last-update Latitude Longitude S/ware
G8PZT 0 1 26/05 04:18 26/05 04:18 0000.00N 00000.00E ?
ZL2BAU-3 248 3 26/05 04:10 xx/xx xx:xx 4444.26S 17103.23E ?
VK2DOT-1 31 1 26/05 04:18 xx/xx xx:xx 3323.21S 15121.42E ?
G8PZT-1 6 1 26/05 03:50 26/05 03:50 5008.75N 00507.50W XRLin
VE2PKT-4 8 1 26/05 04:17 xx/xx xx:xx 4625.96N 07237.66W ?
VE3UIM-7 16 1 26/05 04:16 xx/xx xx:xx 4453.53N 07600.74W ?
(End of list)

RTT is the smoothed round trip time in 1/100ths of a second, e.g 6 = 60ms. It is a running average, so it may show longer round trip times if traffic is heavy.

Hop is the no. of hops to the peer, where 1 = direct link.

Last-cnfrmd shows when the peer was last confirmed to be NCMP-capable, by the reception of any form of NCMP message from it. Over time, sysops may change from one brand of software to another, keeping the same callsign and alias. So we can't assume that a PEERS entry is valid unless the last-comfirmed date/time is relatively up to date.

Last-update shows the most recent time when the peer responded to a neighbour discovery request.

S/ware show what software the peer is running, if known.

The old DOS and Windows versions of XRouter are NCMP-capable, so they will show up in the peers list. But they use an earlier version of the protocol which doesn't support the "last-update" feature and don't report the software version.

PMS Command
~~~~~~~~~~~

The PMS command has been modified to allow easy connection to the PMS service on other nodes. The new syntax is:

PM[s] [nodecall | nodealias]

PMS by itself invokes the local PMS (i.e. the one where the user is logged on), as before.

Using "PMS <nodecall>" is roughly equivalent to issuing the command
"C <nodecall> 2 S". It attempts a connection to the PMS service at <nodecall>. If the target node is not NetromX or chat-capable, the connection is refused.

PORT Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The PORT DROP sub-command had been disabled long ago because the code was unfinished and possibly dangerous. The code has now been completed, so the command should be safe to use.

The existing online documentation doesn't mention these PORT subcommands:

PORT ADD <portnum> <ifacenum> <id>
PORT DROP <portnum>
PORT LIST
PORT START <portnum>

So typing "? P[orts]" or "P[orts] ?" now produces the syntax help:

Syntax: P[orts] [A[dd] | D[rop] | L[ist] | S[tart]]

SMS Command
~~~~~~~~~~~

The format and function of this command have been changed. The new syntax is as follows:

SMS [nodecall [text]]

Examples: SMS
SMS G8PZT
SMS G8PZT I'll be on sysop chat at 3pm UTC

The first form invokes the SMS client, from where you view the conversations, read, send, and delete messages.

The second form initiates the sending of a message, and prompts for the message body.

The third form sends a message instantly and returns to the command line.

This is a short messaging service for XRouter sysops, and has nothing to do with telephone SMS. Nor is it to be confused with the SMS command you may remember from the original DOS XRouter (XR16).

History: In that original form, the SMS command sent short messages as UI frames on a specified port. It had been envisaged as part of a system for users to send short messages to anyone, whatever node they were on. Protocols for transporting and delivering the messages were developed in April 2001, but to be truly effective it needed other software authors to incorporate the protocols. Unfortunately it was around that time that the UK packet network began to disintegrate. The number of users plummeted as Broadband Internet became widespread, and no-one seemed to be developing packet any longer. The command persisted mainly for test purposes, and was eventually disabled in 2011.

Nowadays, at least on the XRouter network, it appears there are no "users" as such - only the node operators themselves. But those sysops have a need to communicate with each other. Some of them leave messages for each other on the sysop chat, but that tends to scroll off the screen and get lost. It is also very public, and unecessarily broadcasts the message to every chat server. The PMS can be used, but it isn't very "instant", and has no sense of "conversation"; only a random list of incoming messages.

To try and solve this problem, the SMS idea was resurrected as a sysop-only private instant-messaging system.

Unlike the BBS system, SMS messages are delivered directly from the source node to the recipient node, without intermediate store and forward. Thus it curently only works with nodes that are in your list. However, as most XRouter nodes are known to each other, it's not much of a problem.

There is a "read receipt" mechanism, so the sender knows whether or not his message has been received and read.

The recipent is alerted to the presence of a mesage by a flashing "S" on the top status bar. He can then type SMS to view the conversation list, which displays the new message(s). If there is more than one new message in a conversation, it displays the first unread one.

sms
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Starting SMS Client..

SMS Conversations:

Nodecall New Date/Time Text
G8PZT-14 0 09/06 02:56 another test back from g8pzt-14
G8PZT 0 18/05 03:27 test at 03:25 tuesday

R)ead S)end A)rchive D)elete E)xit SMS

Note that unlike a PMS or BBS, this is CONVERSATION not MESSAGE oriented.

Each {nodecall} in the above list indicates a conversation with the sysop of that node. A conversation consists of one or more messages between you and the other party in strict chronological sequence. Both sides of the conversation are included.

The argument to each command, with the exception of "E)xit", is a {nodecall}, i.e. a conversation. So "A)rchive G8PZT" archives the conversation to a file, removing it from the list.

R)ead Reads a conversation
S)end Sends a message to a conversation
A)rchive Removes conversation & archives it to disk.
D)elete Permanently deletes a conversation.
E)xit Exits the client and returns to the node.

"R G8PZT" reads the conversation between you and G8PZT, starting at the first unread message. If there are no unread messages it displays the last message.

In this example there are both previous and subsequent messages, which can be displayed using the Next and P)revious commands:

r g8pzt

Sent: 18/05/21 03:27:20
To: G8PZT

test at 03:25 tuesday

S)end, N)ext, P)revious, C)onversations, E)xit SMS

The "S)end" option is a little ambiguous in this menu, and shows how unfinished the user interface is!! Things like that would have been ironed out if I hadn't been forced to abandon the project prematurely. It really means "create a new message", not "send the above message".

The C)onversations option returns you to the list of conversations.

STATS Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A new IDS sub-command displays brief IDS (Intrusion Detection System) statistics. This is mainly for use by remote sysops, because all the information is already available to console sysops via the "Security Monitor" window.

s ids

G8PZT:KIDDER} Security stats:

TCP Scans: SYN=837 FIN=0 ACK=152 NUL=0 MAI=37 XMS=0 OTH=1632
Bogus SYNs: 2083
Rejected Logins: Telnet=77, Rlogin=0, FTP=7, TelProxy=0
Malicious Logins: Telnet=334, Rlogin=0, FTP=47, TelProxy=0
FTP directory hacks: 0
IDS Notifications: 132682
IP frames from banned senders: 3155
IP Fragmentation attacks: Tiny=5 Huge=0 Overlapped=3
Smurfs: 0 Fraggles: 0
Honeypot Hits: 27

Note that if your node is AX25-only, or completely hidden behind a firewall, many of these stats will be 0, which is a good thing :-)

The syntax help for STATS was badly out of date, so this has now been updated, and is also displayed if you type an unrecognised stats subcommand, e.g. "S ?"

Syntax: S[tats] [ IDS | IP | L1 | L2 | L3 | L4 | TCP | * ]

TALK Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The TALK command now accepts either a session number or a node callsign, the latter facilitating private sysop-to-sysop chat.

I.e. the new syntax is: TALK <sessnum | nodecall>.

If the argument is a session number, e.g. "talk 123", it allows the sysop to talk to a logged-in user as before. The following applies only to the new mode:

If the argument is a node callsign or alias, e.g. "talk VK2DOT" it initiates a private keyboard to keyboard chat with the sysop of that node, if he is available. This is not related to the "sysop chat" channel on the chat server. It is the NetRom equivalent of the TTYLINK command.

Note this currently only works if the target node is running XRLin or XRPi. Other types of node will not respond to the request.

The sysop of the target node has 90 seconds to respond. At any point during or after the 90 seconds, the caller has the option to leave a short one-line message (160 chars max) or to abort the call. Messages are saved into the sysop's PMS.

If the sysop takes more than 90 seconds to respond, and the user has not disconnected, the sysop can still use the "talk <sessnum>" form of the command to initiate a chat with the user.

TCP Command
~~~~~~~~~~~

A new CACHE subcommand has been added to the TCP command, with the following syntax:

TCP CACHE <LIFE | SIZE | STATUS>

The LIFE subcommand displays or sets the lifetime of a cached SYN. The default is 10 seconds.

tcp cache life
G8PZT:KIDDER} Lifetime = 5 seconds

tcp cache life 10
G8PZT:KIDDER} Lifetime = 10 seconds

The SIZE subcommand displays or sets the maximum no of SYNS that can be simultaneously cached. The deault is 1000. Note you can't have more than 9999 slots, but 9999 slots and a 10 sec lifetime would cope with 999 SYNs per second.

tcp cache size
G8PZT:KIDDER} Size = 9999 slots

tcp cache size 1000
G8PZT:KIDDER} Size = 1000 slots

The STATUS subcommand displays the status and cache statistics:

tcp cache status
G8PZT:KIDDER} SYN cache status:

1264 Qualifying SYNs rcvd
0 Dropped - invalid MSS
0 Dropped - RST flag
0 Dropped - cache full
11 Duplicate SYNs
1253 SYNs cached
489 Successful connections
238 Timeouts - valid MSS
526 Timeouts - bad MSS

Cache size: 1000 slots, Slot lifetime: 10 secs
Slots currently active: 0, Peak occupancy: 4

 

TIME Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The TIME command is no longer sysop-only, and has been slighly modified to allow it to query the time servers on other nodes. It still requires sysop privileges to change the time.

The new syntax is:

TI[me] [nodecall | hh:mm]

Examples:

TIME
TIME G8PZT
TIME 12:47

TNC Command
~~~~~~~~~~~

The new "TNC" command is for controlling TNC-style peripherals, e.g. real TNC's or any applications that use plain text commands.

Syntax: TNC <portnum>

Where <portnum> references a PORT whose PROTOCOL is "TNC".

After issuing the TNC command, the session talks directly to the TNC in plain text mode. This could be used for example to interface with an ARDOP TNC.

WAIT Command
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The new WAIT command is intended for use only in BOOTCMDS.SYS. It causes execution to pause for the specified time. This can be used between commands that need time to execute.

Syntax: WAIT <(secs<60) | (ms>60)>

If the argument to WAIT is less than 60, it is treated as SECONDS, otherwise it is treated as milliseconds.

The following example shows 300ms pauses betwen Linux shell commands when setting up a tunnel interface. The sequence does not work if the pauses are removed.

# BOOTCMDS.SYS
#
# For setting up tunnels:
# Assign the address 192.168.0.98 to the Linux end of tun99:
shell ip address add 192.168.0.98 dev tun99
#
wait 300
#
# Tell Linux that 192.168.0.99 is on the other end of tun99:
shell ifconfig tun99 dstaddr 192.168.0.99
#
wait 300
#
# Bring up the Linux end of the interface:
shell ip link set dev tun99 up

 

WX Command
~~~~~~~~~~

The WX command has been slightly modified, to allow it to query other nodes' weather servers.

As before, typing "WX" by itself lists up to 5 APRS weather stations from which data has been heard, in order of proximity.

Also as before, typing "WX <callsign>" returns the most recent weather information from that station.

However, if <callsign> is not in the list of stations returns by WX", a connection to that node's weather service is attempted. If successful, the weather information is returned, like this:

wx g8pzt
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Trying G8PZT::16...
G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Connected to G8PZT::16

Observed: Mon 17 May 2021 06:01:23 +0001
Pressure: 1007.2 mB
Temperature: 11.2 C
Humidity: 67 %
Wind: 23 mph
Direction: 178 deg
Gust: 31 mph
Rain-24h: 24.7 mm
Rain-Today: 19.7 mm
Rain-1h: 3.2 mm

G8PZT-1:MOBILE} Welcome back

The special case "WX LOCAL" returns - yes you've guessed it - the local WX information.

Random Notes:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the "Session Monitor" window, the amount of space available for "watching" a specific session is limited by the terminal height. It's about 3 rows with a 25 row terminal, but grows by one row for every additional terminal row. e.g. a 40-row terminal gives 18 rows of "watch"

Sound Output
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Raspberry Pi's and modern laptops do not have the traditional "PC speaker", so up till now XRLin/XRPi have been unable to make the usual sounds. This has now changed. A sound device can be used instead.

To enable sounds (assuming a suitable sound device is present), put the following new directive anywhere in XROUTER.CFG

# Audio device for sound output:
# Default OSS device is /dev/dsp (/dev/audio on Rasp pi)
#
AUDIODEVICE=/dev/dsp
#

This uses OSS, (a) because I have found OSS to work much better than ALSA, and (b) because ALSA requires libasound to be installed, and I hate dependencies!

In order to use sound you must first run the command

sudo modprobe snd-pcm-oss

The downside of OSS is that it won't share the audio device, so if you have XRouter's audio enabled but another app is using the sound device, XRouter will fail at boot.

Jnos and QtSoundModem

Today I was playing with Jnos, on my main system I have BPQ32 running with Direwolf and QtSoundModem. BPQ32 uses the Kiss port on Direwolf and the AGW port on QtSoundModem. Now I know that Jnos can easily handle the AGW interface/driver, so I linked Jnos with the AGW poort of Direwolf.

attach agwpe agw 44.137.31.70 8000
ifconfig agw description "AGW - 1200 baud port"
ax25 hport agw on
trace agw 0111

Direwolf is running on 144.850Mhz 1k2 and 430.950Mhz 9k6

Now I thought it would be nice to hook Jnos to QtSoundModem as well. But BPQ32 already uses the AGW port of QtSoundModem. Now I had read that Maiko VE4KLM had written a Kiss over tcp/ip for Winrpr. Who doesn’t dare don’t win. Here we go.

QtSoundmodem is running on 14.102Mhz 300Baud with 1100Hz on the left channel and 2000Hz on the right channel.

Autoexec.nos

attach winrpr qt0 44.137.31.76 8105
attach kiss qt0 1 qt1
#
ifconfig qt0 description "Kiss tcp/ip port 14.102Mhz 1100Hz"
ifconfig qt1 description "Kiss tcp/ip port 14.102Mhz 2200Hz"
trace qt0 0x211 qt0.log 1000
trace qt1 0x211 qt1.log 1000
#
ax25 hport qt0 on
ax25 hport qt1 on

The winrpr is the kiss over tcp/ip driver of Jnos. It`s written to use with Winrpr.

jnos> ifconfig  
qt1      IP addr 44.137.31.67 MTU 256 Link encap AX25
         Link addr PD9Q-1   BBS PD9Q   Paclen 256   Irtt 5000
         BCText: PD9Q Jnos Packet BBS/Gateway
         flags 0xcb0 trace 0x211 netmask 0x00000000 broadcast 0.0.0.0
         sent: ip 0 tot 0 idle 0:00:01:51
         recv: ip 0 tot 0 idle 0:00:01:51
         descr: Kiss tcp/ip port 14.102Mhz 2200Hz
qt0      IP addr 44.137.31.67 MTU 256 Link encap AX25
         Link addr PD9Q-1   BBS PD9Q   Paclen 256   Irtt 5000
         BCText: PD9Q Jnos Packet BBS/Gateway
         flags 0x400 trace 0x211 netmask 0x00000000 broadcast 0.0.0.0
         sent: ip 0 tot 0 idle 0:00:01:51
         recv: ip 0 tot 0 idle 0:00:01:51
         descr: Kiss tcp/ip port 14.102Mhz 1100Hz

Some trace of the tun0 interface, there is traffic back and forward from Jnos to the remote QtSoundModem.

Mon Feb 21 15:34:09 2022 - tun0 sent:
IP: len 40 44.137.31.67->44.137.31.76 ihl 20 ttl 254 prot TCP
TCP: 1025->8105 Seq x1040001 Ack x3bf15fb1 ACK Wnd 5840

Mon Feb 21 15:34:13 2022 - tun0 recv:
IP: len 159 44.137.31.76->44.137.31.67 ihl 20 ttl 64 DF prot TCP
TCP: 8105->1025 Seq x3bf15fb1 Ack x1040001 ACK PSH Wnd 64240 Data 119
0000  ....n......b...a..033  .IR2UFV-15  00:00:06:12  14.1033  .IW7DVM
0040       00:00:08:37  14.1033  .SM7PET+    00:00:12:36  14.

Mon Feb 21 15:34:13 2022 - tun0 recv:
IP: len 159 44.137.31.76->44.137.31.67 ihl 20 ttl 64 DF prot TCP
TCP: 8105->1025 Seq x3bf15fb1 Ack x1040001 ACK PSH Wnd 64240 Data 119
0000  ....n......b...a..033  .IR2UFV-15  00:00:06:12  14.1033  .IW7DVM
0040       00:00:08:37  14.1033  .SM7PET+    00:00:12:36  14.

Mon Feb 21 15:34:13 2022 - tun0 sent:
IP: len 40 44.137.31.67->44.137.31.76 ihl 20 ttl 254 prot TCP
TCP: 1025->8105 Seq x1040001 Ack x3bf16028 ACK Wnd 5840

Here is a trace of the log file (trace qt0 0x211 qt0.log 1000)

Mon Feb 21 15:25:03 2022 - qt0 recv:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: UT1HZM->SM7PET I(P) NR=2 NS=3 pid=Text
0000  00 a6 9a 6e a0 8a a8 e0 aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 61 56  .&.n .(`*(b.4.aV
0010  f0 4d 69 6e 65 2c 20 4c 3e 20 43 61 6c 6c 2c 20  pMine, L> Call, 
0020  4c 3c 20 43 61 6c 6c 2c 20 4c 40 20 3d 20 4c 69  L< Call, L@ = Li
0030  73 74 20 74 6f 2c 20 66 72 6f 6d 20 6f 72 20 61  st to, from or a
0040  74 0d 20 20 20 4c 4c 20 6e 75 6d 20 3d 20 4c 69  t.   LL num = Li
0050  73 74 20 6d 73 67 20 6e 75 6d 2c 20 4c 20 6e 75  st msg num, L nu
0060  6d 2d 6e 75 6d 20 3d 20 4c 69 73 74 20 52 61 6e  m-num = List Ran
0070  67 65 0d 20 20                                   ge.

Mon Feb 21 15:25:17 2022 - qt0 recv: 
KISS: Port 0 Data 
AX25: IW7DVM->APRS v WIDE3-3 UI pid=Text
0000  00 82 a0 a4 a6 40 40 e0 92 ae 6e 88 ac 9a 60 ae  .. $&@@`..n.,.`.
0010  92 88 8a 66 40 67 03 f0 21 34 30 32 33 2e 32 38  ...f@g.p!4023.28
0020  4e 5c 30 31 37 31 37 2e 31 31 45 2d 48 46 20 42  N\01717.11E-HF B
0030  65 61 63 6f 6e 20 31 34 2e 31 30 35 20 4c 53 42  eacon 14.105 LSB
0040  20 33 30 30 62 64 20 2d 20 54 61 72 61 6e 74 6f   300bd - Taranto

Connect from my Jnos system to UT1HZM on port qt0 (qtsoundmodem 300Baud 1100Hz port)

Mon Feb 21 15:08:33 2022 - qt0 recv:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: UT1HZM->PD9Q-15 I(P) NR=0 NS=0 pid=Text
0000  00 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 fe aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 61 10  . .r"@@~*(b.4.a.
0010  f0 55 54 31 48 5a 4d 7d 20 57 61 69 74 2e 2e 2e  pUT1HZM} Wait...
0020  0d                                               .

Mon Feb 21 15:08:33 2022 - qt0 sent:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: PD9Q-15->UT1HZM RR(F) NR=1
0000  00 aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 60 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 ff 31  .*(b.4.` .r"@@.1

Mon Feb 21 15:08:38 2022 - qt0 recv:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: UT1HZM->PD9Q-15 I NR=0 NS=1 pid=Text
0000  00 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 fe aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 61 02  . .r"@@~*(b.4.a.
0010  f0 4b 52 53 3a 55 54 31 48 5a 4d 2d 35 7d 20 43  pKRS:UT1HZM-5} C
0020  6f 6e 6e 65 63 74 65 64 20 74 6f 20 42 42 53 0d  onnected to BBS.

Mon Feb 21 15:08:39 2022 - qt0 sent:
KISS: Port 0 Data
AX25: PD9Q-15->UT1HZM RR NR=2
0000  00 aa a8 62 90 b4 9a 60 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 ff 41  .*(b.4.` .r"@@.A

Now the trace of port qt1 (tail -f qt1.log)

Mon Feb 21 15:22:31 2022 - qt1 sent:
KISS: Port 1 Data
AX25: PD9Q-15->TEST SABM(P)
0000  10 a8 8a a6 a8 40 40 e0 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 7f 3f  .(.&(@@` .r"@@.?

Mon Feb 21 15:22:31 2022 - qt1 sent:
KISS: Port 1 Data
AX25: PD9Q-15->TEST SABM(P)
0000  10 a8 8a a6 a8 40 40 e0 a0 88 72 a2 40 40 7f 3f  .(.&(@@` .r"@@.?

Boooommm Crashed……dammmm

It went so well. But now Jnos crashed. The winrpr driver is probably not written for two ports. Receiving is fine, but a packet that leaves the system on port qt1, Jnos can’t handle that.

So I removed this line (attach kiss qt0 1 qt1) from autoexec.nos and Jnos is running just fine. It is a pity that it only runs on 1 port, and that is the same as the AGW port. Maybe Maiko VE4KLM will look at it again.