1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN">
4 <title>Connecting to other Clusters</title>
5 <meta name="Keywords" content="DX Cluster, DXSpider, Spider, Packet Cluster, DXCluster, Pavillion Software, AK1A, AX25, AX.25, WWV, Packet Radio, Amateur Radio, Propagation, DX, DXing, G1TLH, GB7TLH, Dirk Koopman, Mailing list, Linux, RedHat, PERL">
6 <meta name="Description" content="Software and systems for realtime digital communications between amateur radio stations for the provision of information on propagation conditions and stations operating">
7 <meta name="Author" content="Dirk Koopman G1TLH">
10 <body TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000ff" VLINK="#800080" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
11 <FONT COLOR="#606060">
13 <h2>Connecting to other Clusters</h2>
18 <address><a href="mailto:djk@tobit.co.uk">Dirk Koopman G1TLH</a></address>
20 <!-- Created: Sun Dec 13 20:25:14 GMT 1998 -->
22 Last modified: Sun Dec 20 17:04:05 GMT 1998
24 <p>At the moment, anybody can connect inwards at any time from outside, either by ax25 or by
25 telnet (assuming you have followed the instructions in <a href="install.html">installation</a>
26 instructions. However, in order to connect outwards, you will need to create <em>connect</em> scripts.
28 <p><em>Connect</em> scripts live in the <tt>/spider/connect</tt> directory and are simple ascii scripts
29 that are written using a normal editor. There are a couple of examples in the issue directory.
31 <p>Here are a couple of basic types, first a telnet connection:-
35 connect telnet dirkl.tobit.co.uk
38 client gb7djk-1 telnet
40 <p>and an ax25 example:-
43 abort (Busy|Sorry|Fail)
44 # don't forget to chmod 4775 netrom_call!
45 connect ax25 /usr/sbin/netrom_call bbs gb7djk g1tlh
53 <p>A connection is started manually by typing in <tt>connect <scriptname></tt> on a sysop enabled
54 <tt>client.pl</tt> session. For example:-
56 G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2041Z > connect gb7djk-1
57 connection to GB7DJK-1 started
58 G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2043Z >
61 <p>You can watch the progress of the connection (if you have the standard debugging enabled) on the
62 <tt>cluster.pl</tt> screen and you should see something like this:-
64 <- D G1TLH connect gb7djk-1
65 -> D G1TLH connection to GB7DJK-1 started
66 -> D G1TLH G1TLH de GB7DJK 13-Dec-1998 2046Z >
68 CONNECT sort: telnet command: dirkl.tobit.co.uk
69 CHAT "login" -> "gb7djk"
71 Red Hat Linux release 5.1 (Manhattan)
72 Kernel 2.0.35 on an i586
76 CHAT "word" -> "gb7djk"
82 Connected to GB7DJK-1, starting normal protocol
83 <- O GB7DJK-1 telnet
85 GB7DJK-1 channel func state 0 -> init
87 <- D GB7DJK-1 Last login: Sun Dec 13 17:59:56 from dirk1
88 <- D GB7DJK-1 PC38^GB7DJK-1^~
89 <- D GB7DJK-1 PC18^ 1 nodes, 0 local / 1 total users Max users 0 Uptime 0 00:00^5447^~
93 <p>The connect scripts consist of lines which start with the
94 following keywords or symbols:-
98 <p><li><b>#</b> All lines starting with a <b>#</b> are
99 ignored, as are wholly blank lines.
101 <p><li><b>timeout</b> followed by a number is the number of
102 seconds to wait for a command to complete. If there is no
103 <b>timeout</b> specified in the script then the default is 60
106 <P><li><b>abort</b> is a regular expression containing one or
107 more strings to look for to abort a connection. This is a perl
108 regular expression and is executed ignoring case.
110 <p><li><b>connect</b> followed by <b>ax25</b> or <b>telnet</b>
111 and some type dependent information. In the case of a
112 <b>telnet</b> connection, there can be up to two parameters,
113 the first is the ip address or hostname of the computer you
114 wish to connect to and the second is the port number you want
115 to use (this can be left out if it is a normal telnet
118 <p>In the case of an <b>ax25</b> session then this would
119 normally be a call to <tt>ax25_call</tt> or
120 <tt>netrom_call</tt> as in the example above. It is your
121 responsibility to get your node and other ax25 parameters to
122 work before going down this route!
124 <p><li><b>'</b> is the delimiting character for a word or
125 phrase of an expect/send line in a <tt>chat</tt> type
126 script. The words/phrases normally come in pairs, either can
127 be empty. Each line reads input from the connection until it
128 sees the string (or perl regular expression) contained in the
129 left hand string. If the left hand string is empty then it
130 doesn't read or wait for anything. The comparison is done
133 <p>When the left hand string has found what it is looking (if
134 it is) then the right hand string is sent to the connection.
136 <p>This process is repeated for every line of <tt>chat</tt> script.
138 <p><li><b>client</b> starts the connection, put the arguments
139 you would want here if you were starting the client program
140 manually. You only need this if the script has a different
141 name to the callsign you are trying to connect to (i.e. you
142 have a script called <tt>other</tt> which actually connects to
143 <tt>GB7DJK-1</tt> [instead of a script called
148 <!-- Standard Footer!! -->
151 <FONT COLOR="#606060"><hr></font>
152 <font color="#FF0000" size=-2>
153 Copyright © 1998 by Dirk Koopman G1TLH. All Rights Reserved<br>
155 <font color="#000000" size=-2>$Id$</font>