<P><B>IMPORTANT:</B>
<P>What you'll be left with once you've followed these instructions
-is (hopefully) a working DX Spider v1.47 system that is capable
+is (hopefully) a working DX Spider v1.50 system that is capable
of accepting or originating "internet" connections, plus inbound
-AX.25 and TCP/IP radio connections. If the absence of outbound
-radio connections is a serious limitation for you, it would be
-better for you to wait a couple more weeks until this support has
-been added.
+and outbound AX.25 and TCP/IP radio connections.
<P>On the other hand, you may have an enquiring mind, or better yet,
may be looking for a useful way of connecting your current
(perhaps) AK1A cluster "to the internet" via some networking
<P>Install your chosen Perl environment. Unless you have a very good
reason for not doing so, I strongly suggest that you use
ActivePerl v5.6. For my testing & development, I used build 623.
-You can get this from:-
-<A HREF="http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html">http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html</A><P>You will need to choose either the MSI or the AS package. My
-recommendation is that you choose the MSI package and deal with
-the consequences if your system isn't equipped with support for
-the latest MS Installer; you'll be better off in the long run.
-The build 623 download is 7,460 KB, so now is a really good time
-to have some tea if you're on a slow dial-up connection.
+(A recent installation used the newer ActivePerl v5.6.1, build
+633 without any noticable difficulty.) You can get this from:
+<A HREF="http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html">http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/Download.html</A><P>The link takes you to an initial page of System Requirements and
+Software Prerequisites. If you do not have it already installed,
+you can download and install the Windows Installer 2.0 for a Win98
+installation. Be forewarned, you will have to reboot your PC at the
+completion of the installer's installation.
+<P>If you already have the installer on your PC, simply click on the
+Next arrow at the bottom of the page. Two clicks will finally get
+you to the actual download page. The MSI version of Build 633 is
+now 8.6MB in size, so make that a big cup of tea or coffee if you're
+on a slow dial-up connection.
<P>During installation, please ensure that you do choose the options
to "Add Perl to the PATH environment variable" and "Create Perl
file extension association"; it will make your life so much
DB_File.zip
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
-<P>Make yourself a convenient directory to unpack all of these zip
-files into (I put mine in "D:\ppm>") and do the following (the
-bits you type in are blue ). Note that where these files land
-will be directly related to where you chose to install your
-ActivePerl (mine, as you can probably guess from what follows,
-went into "D:\Perl"):-
+<P>If this is a new installation, now would also be a good time to
+install a copy of WinZip on your PC. Make yourself a convenient
+directory to unpack all of these zip files into (I put mine in
+"D:\ppm>" but "C:\ppm" works just as well.) and do the following
+(the bits you type in are blue ). You can upzip all of the files into
+the same directory. When prompted, simply overwrite the Readme file
+from each zip package. Note that where these files land will be
+directly related to where you chose to install your ActivePerl
+(mine, as you can probably guess from what follows, went into "D:\Perl"):-
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
</H2>
<P>Get the current version of the DX Spider distribution. This needs
-to be v1.47 or later. You've got two ways (currently) of getting
+to be v1.50 or later. You've got two ways (currently) of getting
this; either get a CVS update from sourceforge (if you don't know
what this is, then it isn't for you) or get the latest "official"
-release from:-
+release from:
<P>
<A HREF="http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html">http://www.dxcluster.org/download/index.html</A><P>or if you want the lastest snapshot of CVS version (which is produced
every night):-
the case.
<P>
<P>The only difference between "CVSlatest.tgz" and the latest
-"official" release version is that it is more up to date. Don't confuse
-this TGZ file with "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" - they are two
-quite different things.
-<P>
-<P>If you went down the CVS route (ie installed wincvs and downloaded from
-sourceforge), then everything will be nicely
-set out on your local disk. If you got the TGZ file, unpack it to
-somewhere convenient. The following examples assume that you put
-it on drive "C:\", for convenience.
-<P>
-<P>You will need
-<A HREF="http://www.winzip.com">winzip</A> to
-manipulate the TGZ files (they are bit like ZIP files) if you are not using CVS.
+"official" release version is that it is more up to date. <B>Do not confuse
+the "CVSlatest.tgz" file with "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" - they
+are two quite different things.</B> "Downloading from Sourceforge with CVS" is
+explained in a section within the Admin manual.
+<P>
+<P>If you go down the CVS route (ie installing WinCVS as explained in the Admin
+manual and downloaded from sourceforge), then everything will be nicely
+installed on your local disk. If you got the CVSlatest.tgz file, unzip
+(
+<A HREF="http://www.winzip.com">winzip</A>) it to "C:\".
+This is an important point since paths are included within the .tgz
+file. Make sure you unzip to the root directory of whichever drive you use...
+"C:\" or "D:\" or .., not "C:\spider." If you double click on CVSlatest.tgz,
+WinZip should open with a dialogue box that says the Archive contains a single
+file (CVSlatest.tar) and asks whether WinZip should decompress it to a
+temporary fold and then open it. Say "Yes" and then you will get the typical
+Classical WinZip listing of files ready for extraction. Remember, extract
+them to your desired root directory ("C:\" or "D:\" or ...). The following
+examples assume that you put it on drive "C:\", for convenience.
<P>
<HR>
<A HREF="installation-6.html">Next</A>