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+ <TITLE>The DXSpider Administration Manual v1.49: Routing and Filtering</TITLE>
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-<H2><A NAME="s1">1. Installation (Original version by Iain Phillips, G0RDI)</A></H2>
+<H2><A NAME="s1">1. Routing and Filtering</A></H2>
<H2><A NAME="ss1.1">1.1 Introduction</A>
</H2>
-<P>This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.46 on a
-<A HREF="http://www.redhat.com">RedHat</A> Linux Distribution.
-Wherever possible I will try to include differences for other distributions.
-I do not intend to try and cover the installation of Linux or the setup
-of the AX25 utilities. If you need help on this then read Iains original
-installation guide that comes with the Spider distribution.
+<P>From DXSpider version 1.48, major changes were introduced to the way
+node connections are treated. This is part of an ongoing process to
+remove problems with loops and to enable talk and other functions to
+propagate across the whole of the worldwide cluster network. In fact,
+in a Spider network, it would be useful, perhaps even necessary to
+have loops. This would give real resilience to the network, meaning
+that if a link dropped, the information flow would simply come in and
+go out via a different route. Of course, we do not have a complete
+network of Spider nodes, there are other programs out there. Some of
+these do not have any protection from loops. Certainly AK1A does not
+handle loops well at all. It is therefore necessary to have some form
+of protection for these nodes.
+<P>
+<P>In fact DXSpider has had a simple system for some time which is called
+<I>isolation</I>. This is similar to what in other systems such as
+<B>clx</B>, is called <I>passive mode</I>. A more detailed explanation
+of <I>isolation</I> is given further below. This system is still available
+and, for simple networks, is probably all that you need.
+<P>
+<P>The new functionality introduced in version 1.48 allows filtering the node
+and user protocol frames on a "per interface" basis. We call this
+<I>route filtering</I>. This is used <B>instead of</B>
+<I>isolation</I>.
+<P>
+<P>What this really means is that you can control more or less completely
+which user and node management PC protocol frames pass to each of your
+partner nodes. You can also limit what comes into your node from your
+partners. It is even possible to control the settings that your partner
+node has for the routing information that it sends to you
+(using the <I>rcmd</I> command).
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2 Route Filters</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>Initially when route filters were being tested we generated a
+"default" filter. Unfortunately it quickly became apparent that this
+might suit the UK cluster network but didn't really fit anybody else.
+However using a default filter is an appropriate thing to do. How, is
+explained further on.
+<P>
+<P>The first thing that you must do is determine whether you need to use
+route filtering <B>at all</B>. If you are a "normal" node with two or
+three partners and you arranged in an "official" non-looping tree type
+network, then <B>you do not need to do route filtering</B> and you will
+feel a lot better for not getting involved. If you are successfully using
+<I>isolation</I> then you also probably don't need to use route filtering.
+<P>
+<P>To put it simply, you should not mix Isolation and Route Filtering. It
+will work, of sorts, but you will not get the expected results. If you
+are using Isolation sucessfully at the moment, do not get involved in
+Route Filtering unless you have a good supply of aspirin! Once you have
+started down the road of Route Filtering, do not use Isolation either.
+Use one or the other, not both.
+<P>
+<P>You will only require this functionality if you are "well-connected". What
+that means is that you are connected to several different parts of (say)
+the EU cluster and, at the same time, also connected to two or three places
+in the US which, in turn are connected back to the EU. This is called a
+"loop" and if you are seriously looped then you need filtering.
+<P>
+<P>I should at this stage give a little bit of background on filters. All
+the filters in Spider work in basically the same way. You can either
+accept or reject various options in order to create the filter rules
+you wish to achieve. Some filters are user settable, others can only
+be altered by the sysop. Route filtering can only be done by the sysop.
+<P>
+<P>
+Anyway, without further discouragement, let me start the process
+of explanation.
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.3">1.3 The node_default filter</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>All normal systems should have a default routing filter and it should
+usually be set to send only the normal, unlooped, view of your
+"national" network. Here in the UK that means nodes from the UK and
+Eire, in EU it is more complex as the networks there grew up in a more
+intertwined way.
+<P>
+<P>
+The generic commands are:-
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+reject/route node_default <filter_option>
+
+or
+
+accept/route node_default <filter_option>
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>where filter_option is one of the following ...
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+call <prefixes>
+call_dxcc <numbers>
+call_itu <numbers>
+call_zone <numbers>
+channel <prefixes>
+channel_dxcc <numbers>
+channel_itu <numbers>
+channel_zone <numbers>
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>Please be careful if you alter this setting, it will affect
+<B><I>ALL</I></B> your links! Remember, this is a <I>default</I>
+filter for node connections, not a <I>per link</I> default.
<P>
-<P>I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands. You should
-know how to use <EM>tar</EM> and how to edit files using your favourite editor.
+<P>For the default routing filter then you have two real choices: either
+a "national" view or the "safe" option of only your own
+callsign. Examples of each (for my node: GB7DJK) are:-
<P>
-<P>The crucial ingredient for all of this is
-<A HREF="http://www.perl.org">Perl</A>. Earlier versions of
-Spider required perl 5.004, however it is now <I>STRONGLY</I> recommended
-that you use at least version 5.005_03 as this is the version being used
-in the development of Spider.
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+acc/route node_default call_dxcc 61,38
+acc/route node_default call gb7djk
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>GB7DJK uses the first of these. The DXCC countries can be obtained from the
+<I>show/prefix</I> command.
+<P>
+<P>The example filters shown control <I>output</I> <B>TO</B> all your
+partner nodes unless they have a specific filter applied to them (see
+next section).
<P>
-<P>In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the
-following modules from
-<A HREF="http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html">http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html</A> ...
+<P>It is also possible to control the <I>incoming</I> routing
+information that you are prepared to accept <B>FROM</B> your partner
+nodes. The reason this is necessary is to make sure that stuff like
+mail, pings and similar commands a) go down the correct links and b)
+don't loop around excessively. Again using GB7DJK as an example a typical
+default input filter would be something like:
<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+rej/route node_default input call_dxcc 61,38 and not channel_dxcc 61,38
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>What this does is accept node and user information for our national
+network from nodes that are in our national network, but rejects such
+information from anyone else. Although it doesn't explicitly say so,
+by implication, any other node information (not from the UK and Eire)
+is accepted.
<P>
-<UL>
-<LI> MD5-1.7.tar.gz</LI>
-<LI> Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz</LI>
-<LI> TimeDate-1.08.tar.gz</LI>
-<LI> IO-1.20.tar.gz</LI>
-<LI> Net-Telnet-3.02.tar.gz</LI>
-<LI> Curses-1.05.tar.gz</LI>
-<LI> Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz
-</LI>
-</UL>
+<P>As I imagine it will take a little while to get one's head around all of
+this you can study the effect of any rules that you try by watching the
+debug output after having done:-
<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+set/debug filter
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>After you have got tired of that, to put it back the way it was:-
<P>
-<P><EM>Do</EM> get the latest versions of these packages and install them
-but use the above list as the earliest versions usable.
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+unset/debug filter
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2 Preparation</A>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.4">1.4 General route filtering</A>
</H2>
-<P>I will assume that you have already downloaded the latest tarball of
-the DXSpider software and are ready to install it. I am assuming version
-1.46 for this section but of course you would use the latest version.
+<P>Exactly the same rules apply for general route filtering. You would
+use either an accept filter or a reject filter like this ...
<P>
-<P>Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under. <B><I>UNDER
-NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE ROOT AS THIS USER!</I></B>. I am going to use
-the name <EM>sysop</EM>. You can call it anything you wish. Depending
-on your security requirements you may wish to use an existing user,
-however this is your own choice.
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+reject/route <node_call> <filter_option>
+
+or
+
+accept/route <node_call> <filter_option>
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
+<P>Here are some examples of route filters ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-# adduser -m sysop
+rej/route gb7djk call_dxcc 61,38 (send everything except UK+EIRE nodes)
+rej/route all (equiv to [very] restricted mode)
+acc/route gb7djk call_dxcc 61,38 (send only UK+EIRE nodes)
+acc/route gb7djk call gb7djk (equiv to SET/ISOLATE)
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>In practice you will either be opening the default filter out for a
+partner by defining a specific filter for that callsign:-
<P>
-<P>Now set a password for the user ...
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+acc/route gb7baa all
+acc/route gb7baa input all
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>or restricting it quite a lot, in fact making it very nearly like an
+<I>isolated</I> node, like this:-
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-# passwd sysop
-# New UNIX password:
-# Retype new UNIX password:
-passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
+acc/route pi4ehv-8 call gb7djk
+rej/route pi4ehv-8 input call_dxcc 61,38
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>This last example takes everything except UK and Eire from PI4EHV-8
+but only sends him my local configuration (just a PC19 for GB7DJK and
+PC16s for my local users).
+<P>
+<P>It is possible to write <B>much</B> more complex rules, there are up
+to 10 accept/reject pairs per callsign per filter. For more information
+see the next section.
+<P>
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss1.3">1.3 Installing the software</A>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.5">1.5 General filter rules</A>
</H2>
-<P>Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group
-permissions. Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.
+<P>Upto v1.44 it was not possible for the user to set their own filters. From
+v1.45 though that has all changed. It is now possible to set filters for just
+about anything you wish. If you have just updated from an older version of
+DXSpider you will need to update your new filters. You do not need to do
+anything with your old filters, they will be renamed as you update.
+<P>
+<P>There are 3 basic commands involved in setting and manipulating filters. These
+are <EM>accept</EM>, <EM>reject</EM> and <EM>clear</EM>. First we will look
+generally at filtering. There are a number of things you can filter in the
+DXSpider system. They all use the same general mechanism.
+<P>
+<P>In general terms you can create a "reject" or an "accept" filter which can have
+up to 10 lines in it. You do this using, for example ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-# cd ~sysop
-# tar xvfz spider-1.46.tar.gz
-# ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
-# groupadd -g 251 spider (or another number)
+
+accept/spots .....
+reject/spots .....
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<P>If you do not have the command <EM>groupadd</EM> available to you simply
-add a line in /etc/group by hand.
+<P>where ..... are the specific commands for that type of filter. There are filters
+for spots, wwv, announce, wcy and (for sysops) connects. See each different
+accept or reject command reference for more details.
+<P>There is also a command to clear out one or more lines in a filter. They are ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-# vi /etc/group (or your favorite editor)
+clear/spots 1
+clear/spots all
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<P>You also need to add some others to the group, including your own callsign
-(this will be used as an alias) and root. The finished line in /etc/group
-should look something like this
-<P><CODE>spider:x:251:sysop,g0vgs,root</CODE>
+<P>There is clear/xxxx command for each type of filter.
<P>
-<P>The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree and files ....
+<P>and you can check that your filters have worked by the command ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-# chown -R sysop.spider spider
-# find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
-# find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;
+
+show/filter
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<P>This last step allows various users of the group <EM>spider</EM> to have
-write access to all the directories. This is not really needed just yet
-but will be useful when web interfaces start to appear.
+<P>For now we are going to use spots for the examples, but you can apply the same
+principles to all types of filter.
<P>
-<P>Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and netrom_call
-programs. Check where they are with the <EM>locate</EM> command and alter
-the permissions with the <EM>chmod</EM> command like this ..
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.6">1.6 Types of filter</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>There are two main types of filter, <EM>accept</EM> or <EM>reject</EM>. You
+can use either to achieve the result you want dependent on your own preference
+and which is more simple to do. It is pointless writing 8 lines of reject
+filters when 1 accept filter would do the same thing! Each filter has 10
+lines (of any length) which are tried in order. If a line matches then the
+action you have specified is taken (ie reject means ignore it and accept
+means take it)
+<P>
+<P>If you specify reject filters, then any lines that arrive that match the filter
+will be dumped but all else will be accepted. If you use an accept filter,
+then ONLY the lines in the filter will be accepted and all else will be dumped.
+For example if you have a single line <EM>accept</EM> filter ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-# chown root ax25_call netrom_call
-# chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call
+accept/spots on vhf and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>then you will <EM>ONLY</EM> get VHF spots <EM>from</EM> or <EM>to</EM> CQ zones
+14, 15 and 16.
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss1.4">1.4 Setting callsigns etc</A>
-</H2>
-
-<P>Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier. In my case that
-user is called <EM>sysop</EM>. Once logged in, issue the following commands ....
+<P>If you set a reject filter like this ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-$ cd /spider
-$ mkdir local
-$ mkdir local_cmd
-$ cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm
-$ cd local
-$ vi DXVars.pm (or your favourite editor)
+reject/spots on hf/cw
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>Then you will get everything <EM>EXCEPT</EM> HF CW spots. You could make this
+single filter even more flexible. For example, if you are interested in IOTA
+and will work it even on CW even though normally you are not interested in
+CW, then you could say ...
<P>
-<P>Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster callsign,
-sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own environment. Note that
-this a perl file which will be parsed and executed as part of the cluster. If
-you get it wrong then perl will complain when you start the cluster process.
-It is important only to alter the text of any section. Some of the lines look
-a little odd. Take this line for example ....
-<P><CODE>$myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";</CODE>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+reject/spots on hf/cw and not info iota
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>But in that case you might only be interested in iota and say:-
<P>
-<P>There appears to be an extra slash in there. However this has to be there
-for the file to work so leave it in.
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+accept/spots not on hf/cw or info iota
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>which achieves exactly the same thing. You should choose one or the other
+until you are comfortable with the way it works. You can mix them if you
+wish (actually you can have an accept AND a reject on the same line) but
+don't attempt this until you are sure you know what you are doing!
+<P>
+<P>You can arrange your filter lines into logical units, either for your own
+understanding or simply convenience. Here is an example ...
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+reject/spots 1 on hf/cw
+reject/spots 2 on 50000/1400000 not (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>What this does is to ignore all HF CW spots and also rejects any spots on VHF
+which don't either originate or spot someone in Europe.
<P>
-<P><B>PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS</B>
+<P>This is an example where you would use a line number (1 and 2 in this case), if
+you leave the digit out, the system assumes '1'. Digits '0'-'9' are available.
+This make it easier to see just what filters you have set. It also makes it
+more simple to remove individual filters, during a contest for example.
<P>
-<P>DON'T alter any file in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every
-release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or /spider/local_cmd
-will automagically be used in preference to the ones in /spider/perl EVEN
-while the cluster is running!
+<P>You will notice in the above example that the second line has brackets. Look
+at the line logically. You can see there are 2 separate sections to it. We
+are saying reject spots that are VHF or above <EM>APART</EM> from those in
+zones 14, 15 and 16 (either spotted there or originated there). If you did
+not have the brackets to separate the 2 sections, then Spider would read it
+logically from the front and see a different expression entirely ...
<P>
-<P>Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+(on 50000/1400000 and by_zone 14,15,16) or call_zone 14,15,16
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>The simple way to remember this is, if you use OR - use brackets. Whilst we are
+here CASE is not important. 'And BY_Zone' is just the same as 'and by_zone'.
+<P>As mentioned earlier, setting several filters can be more flexible than
+simply setting one complex one. Doing it in this way means that if you want
+to alter your filter you can just redefine or remove one or more lines of it or
+one line. For example ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-$ cd ../perl
+reject/spots 1 on hf/ssb
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>would redefine our earlier example, or
<P>
-<P>Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with you as
-the sysop.
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+clear/spots 1
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>To remove all the filter lines in the spot filter ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-$ ./create_sysop.pl
+clear/spots all
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<H2><A NAME="ss1.5">1.5 Starting up for the first time</A>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.7">1.7 Filter options</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>You can filter in several different ways. The options are listed in the
+various helpfiles for accept, reject and filter.
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.8">1.8 Default filters</A>
</H2>
-<P>We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well or not!
-It should look something like this ...
+<P>Sometimes all that is needed is a general rule for node connects. This can
+be done with a node_default filter. This rule will always be followed, even
+if the link is isolated, unless another filter is set specifically. Default
+rules can be set for nodes and users. They can be set for spots, announces,
+WWV and WCY. They can also be used for hops. An example might look like
+this ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-$ ./cluster.pl
-DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.46
-Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
-loading prefixes ...
-loading band data ...
-loading user file system ...
-starting listener ...
-reading existing message headers
-reading cron jobs
-orft we jolly well go ...
+accept/spot node_default by_zone 14,15,16,20,33
+set/hops node_default spot 50
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>This filter is for spots only, you could set others for announce, WWV and WCY.
+This filter would work for ALL nodes unless a specific filter is written to
+override it for a particular node. You can also set a user_default should
+you require. It is important to note that default filters should be
+considered to be "connected". By this I mean that should you override the
+default filter for spots, you need to add a rule for the hops for spots also.
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.9">1.9 Advanced filtering</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>Once you are happy with the results you get, you may like to experiment.
<P>
-<P>If all is well then login on another term or console as <EM>sysop</EM> and
-cd to /spider/perl. Now issue the following command ...
+<P>The previous example that filters hf/cw spots and accepts vhf/uhf spots from EU
+can be written with a mixed filter, for example ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-$ ./client.pl
+rej/spot on hf/cw
+acc/spot on 0/30000
+acc/spot 2 on 50000/1400000 and (by_zone 14,15,16 or call_zone 14,15,16)
+</PRE>
+</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>Note that the first filter has not been specified with a number. This will
+automatically be assumed to be number 1. In this case, we have said <EM>reject all
+HF spots in the CW section of the bands but accept all others at HF. Also
+accept anything in VHF and above spotted in or by operators in the zones
+14, 15 and 16</EM>. Each filter slot actually has a 'reject' slot and
+an 'accept' slot. The reject slot is executed BEFORE the accept slot.
+<P>
+<P>It was mentioned earlier that after a reject test that doesn't match, the default
+for following tests is 'accept', the reverse is true for 'accept'. In the example
+what happens is that the reject is executed first, any non hf/cw spot is passed
+to the accept line, which lets through everything else on HF. The next filter line
+lets through just VHF/UHF spots from EU.
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.10">1.10 Basic hop control</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>In /spider/data you will find a file called hop_table.pl. This is the file
+that controls your hop count settings. It has a set of default hops on the
+various PC frames and also a set for each node you want to alter the hops for.
+You may be happy with the default settings of course, but this powerful tool
+can help to protect and improve the network. The file will look something
+like this ...
+<P>
+<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
+<PRE>
+#
+# hop table construction
+#
+
+package DXProt;
+
+# default hopcount to use
+$def_hopcount = 5;
+
+# some variable hop counts based on message type
+%hopcount =
+(
+ 11 => 10,
+ 16 => 10,
+ 17 => 10,
+ 19 => 10,
+ 21 => 10,
+);
+
+
+# the per node hop control thingy
+
+
+%nodehops =
+
+ GB7ADX => { 11 => 8,
+ 12 => 8,
+ 16 => 8,
+ 17 => 8,
+ 19 => 8,
+ 21 => 8,
+ },
+
+ GB7UDX => { 11 => 8,
+ 12 => 8,
+ 16 => 8,
+ 17 => 8,
+ 19 => 8,
+ 21 => 8,
+ },
+ GB7BAA => {
+ 11 => 5,
+ 12 => 8,
+ 16 => 8,
+ 17 => 8,
+ 19 => 8,
+ 21 => 8,
+ },
+};
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
-<P>This should log you into the cluster as the sysop under the alias callsign we
-set earlier. In this case the callsign is G0VGS. The cluster callsign is set
-in the DXVars.pm file in /spider/local. In this case we will assume that this
-was set as GB7MBC. You should therefore see this when you login ....
+<P>Each set of hops is contained within a pair of curly braces and contains a
+series of PC frame types. PC11 for example is a DX spot. The figures here
+are not exhaustive but should give you a good idea of how the file works.
+<P>
+<P>SHould any of the nodecalls include an ssid, it is important to wrap the
+whole call in single quotes, like this ...
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-G0VGS de GB7MBC 19-Nov-1999 2150Z >
+ 'DB0FHF-15' => {
+ 11 => 5,
+ 12 => 8,
+ 16 => 8,
+ 17 => 8,
+ 19 => 8,
+ 21 => 8,
+ },
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<P>If you do, congratulations! If not, look over the instructions again, you
-have probably missed something out. You can shut spider down again with the
-command ....
+<P>If you do not do this, you will get errors and the file will not work as
+expected.
+<P>
+<P>You can alter this file at any time, including whilst the cluster is running.
+If you alter the file during runtime, the command <EM>load/hops</EM> will
+bring your changes into effect.
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.11">1.11 Hop Control on Specific Nodes</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>You can set a callsign specific hop count for any of the standard filter
+options so:-
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
-shutdown
+set/hops gb7djk spot 4
+set/hops node_default route 10
+set/hops gb7baa wcy 5
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
+<P>all work on their specific area of the protocol.
+<P>
+<P>The <EM>set/hops</EM> command overrides any hops that you have set otherwise.
<P>
-<P>and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.
+<P>You can set what hops have been set using the <EM>show/hops</EM> command.
+<P>
+<H2><A NAME="ss1.12">1.12 Isolating networks</A>
+</H2>
+
+<P>It is possible to isolate networks from each other on a "gateway" node using the
+<EM>set/isolate <node_call></EM> command.
+<P>
+<P>The effect of this is to partition an isolated network completely from another
+node connected to your node. Your node will appear on and otherwise behave
+normally on every network to which you are connected, but data from an isolated
+network will not cross onto any other network or vice versa. However all the
+spot, announce and WWV traffic and personal messages will still be handled
+locally (because you are a real node on all connected networks), that is locally
+connected users will appear on all networks and will be able to access and
+receive information from all networks transparently. All routed messages will
+be sent as normal, so if a user on one network knows that you are a gateway for
+another network, he can still still send a talk/announce etc message via your
+node and it will be routed across.
+<P>
+<P>If you use isolate on a node connection you will continue to receive
+all information from the isolated partner, however you will not pass
+any information back to the isolated node. There are times when you
+would like to forward only spots across a link (maybe during a contest
+for example). To do this, isolate the node in the normal way and use
+an <EM>acc/spot >call< all</EM> filter to override the isolate.
<P>
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