AR-Cluster interfaces to
the SV2AGW AGW Packet Engine, which using the KISS protocol, interfaces into
most popular TNCs. AR-Cluster can support
connections into multiple AGW engines running a various local or remote
locations with each AGW engine supporting one or more TNC/Radio combinations.
Two types of interfaces
are supported between AR-Cluster and the AGW Packet Engine, the DLL interface
and the TCPIP interface. Use the DLL if
you are running your AGW Packet Engine on the same machine as your AR-Cluster
node. Its the simplest and needs very
little configuration.
Use the TCPIP interface if
your AGW Packet Engine will run on a second computer. We have reports from both Eric G0CGL / GB7CGL and Ernie KS4Q that
the AGW TCPIP interface operates much better than did the DLL interface.
The AGW DLL interface is
selected using the Cfg>IoDevices dialog.
Check AGW Packet Engine option and click the
button for further
configuration. Select the "AGW via
DLL" option, dismiss the dialog and save your settings. Restart ARC for your changes to take effect.
The AGW TCPIP interface is
the preferred means for interfacing to the AGW Packet Engine. In the I/O configure section of AR-Cluster,
make sure that the box to the Left of 'AGW Packet Engine' is checked. Next, click the box to the right of AGW
Packet Engine which will allow you to configure AGW. Click the circle that says AGW via TCPIP. You will need to configure your log in
message for each of the AGW ports (TNCs as it turns out) that you are
running. Click the apply box at the
bottom of the box after you configure each Port 's log in message.
Specify an unused TCPIP
Port, the default is 8000. Click the
box next to the Words 'Enabled'. If you
are running AGW and AR-Cluster on the same computer (more than likely you are),
enter the IP address of your computer.
You can also use the local 'loop back' address of 127.0.0.1
Now, it is time to
configure AGW. Go ahead and launch AGW
if it is not already running. 'Right -Click' on the AGW icon and select
"Setup Interfaces". You will
want to be on the "Winsock Interface" tab. Check the box next to "Enable Winsock TCP/IP Application
Interface" Then, enter the port
number 8000 (or whatever number you entered in place of 8000 in the prior step)
into the box at the bottom next to the letters "TCP"
Finally, you will need to
restart each program. You will find
that on the Sysop tab, you now get on screen confirmation that AGW and
AR-Cluster are communicating...something you did not really get with the dll
based interface.
If you want to speak TCPIP
over the air, then that is a separate deal, which does require you to register
software, written by SV2AGW. But this
is not something that we typically do with a DX cluster.
To set up AGW to use the
TCPIP interface, launch the AGW application and click on the AGW icon on the
right hand side of the task bar. Select
the Setup Interfaces option. A
dialog will launch allowing you to configure the various settings needed to
connect to AGW over TCPIP. Do the
following:
Winsock Interface Security > Enable
Winsock TCPIP - Check this option
Winsock Interface Security > TCP - Set this to match the TCPIP port in ARC, defaults to 8000
Winsock Interface Security - Set the login security as needed
Run the AGW Packet
Engine.exe file, the AGW Packet Engine should load and show up in the task bar
at the bottom of the screen. To
configure the AGW Packet Engine, right-click on the AGW Packet Engine on the
lower part of the screen and select the properties option. Select new port, select OK, and enter the
desired com port, baud rate and TNC type.
Other options can be modified as desired. Select OK and OK. Then close
the program by right clicking on the AGW Packet Engine, on the lower part of
the screen and select close. Make sure
the TNC is connected and powered up and then restart the AGW engine. Several sysops have reported issues using
the AGW auto adjust feature.
Recommend settings from
WU3V are:
Recommend settings from
K5AB optimized during a major contest for 4 connections:
To connect to a node or user,
using the AGW Packet Engine, in AGW frame on the connect tab, enter the call,
select the AGW port number and press the connect button. Digipeat connections via the AGW driver are
accomplished by separating the callsigns with a space. In you are running a TCPIP connection to
AGW, there will be an extra Interface box displayed on the connect tab. This option selects which of the AGW TCPIP
port interfaces (up to nine) gets the connection.
The command line and
scheduler connection for TCPIP/AGW has an extra parameter indicating the AGW
port. For a TCPIP connection the
connect command looks like:
Examples:
Connect/agw12 k5na
(connect using AGW TCPIP
interface 1 port 2)
Connect/agw12 k5na
n3bb (connect using AGW TCPIP interface 1 port 2 digi
thru N3BB)
The following commands can
be used to disconnect AGW users and reset the AGW interface.
Examples:
restart/agw1 (Restart AGW 1 Interface)
restart/agw (restart all AGW connection interfaces)
1) The AGW EXE should be
ran and loaded prior to the loading of AR-Cluster.
2) Initiating a connection
to an AGW port, which has not been configured in the AGW setup, will result in
a crash in the AGW driver. We have
alerted SV2AGW and hope to have a fix soon.
3) Support for the AGW
user name / password option will released in a future ARC version.
4) Allowing Windows to
auto-start both AGW and AR-Cluster will result in errors as Windows will
attempt to start AR-Cluster before AGW is fully loaded. Instead, configure Windows to launch AGW and
AGW to launch AR-Cluster (right-click the AGW icon, select Startup Programs and
configure AR-Cluster to auto-start).
5) If you are running
Windows 95, you will also need to install the Winsock control. You can download it from the AGW web site as
an executable called ws2setup.exe.
Running the ws2setup.exe will install the necessary components to your
PC. Reboot the PC after installing.
6) Several sites on the
Internet offer hints as to configuration of various TNCs with the AGW Packet
Engine.
7) The AGW engine can be
downloaded from the Internet from: http://www.elcom.gr/sv2agw/. Click on downloads and download the
AGWPE.zip file. UnZip the AGW files to
a folder. There is no installation with
the AGW files, just unzip them into the AGW folder.
8) If you experience
problems with AGW crashing or failing to load, the common fix is to place a
jumper between pins as shown in the following chart. This modification may also be necessary for JNOS connections
through BPQ32.
|
Connector
Type |
Pins
to Connect |
|
DB-9 |
Pins 7 and 8 |
|
DB-25 |
Pins 4 and 5 |
9) The AGW Activity Timer serves as a keep-alive
during extended periods of no activity on AGW ports. The AGW Activity Timer works as follows. Every 10 minutes we make a sweep of the AGW
node and user connect objects and if there was no activity for the last 10
minutes, we send out two Null characters.
Most of the time there is traffic every 10 minutes and the AGW Activity
Timer never activates.