The connections tab is
used to display, delete and establish connections to other nodes or users. A tree control shows the connected nodes and
users in a hierarchical view. Clicking
on a node folder in the tree view will open that folder showing other nodes and
users connected to that node. As nodes
and users connect and disconnect from the cluster network, the current network
status is shown in the tree-view. User
telnet connections are displayed in one icon and RF connections are displayed
with multiple icons indicating if the RF port is AGW or BPQ and also indicating
the number of the connected port.
Stations who are away are
shown with their call in parentheses.
A station in conference is shown with a “*” after his call. The total number of users connected to each
node is shown in brackets “[]”.
If a node is operating in
external protocol (-EXT) that node will not be reporting users (PC16) as they
connect but instead will report users every 10 minutes via a PC50 user count
message. AR-Cluster will flag nodes
operating in external protocol with a “~” character preceding the total user
count. This character means approximate
as the PC50 user count is updated every 10 minutes.
AR-Cluster nodes operating
in –EXT protocol will also be sending their node count using some of the
AR-Cluster advanced protocol. Their
user and nodes will be shown in the tree view as [~Users/Nodes]. Example: W9JA[~533/44]
Double clicking on a call
in the tree control will display the Station Info Dialog showing registered
data about the selected station. The
station’s call, name, location lat/lon, email address and home node will be
shown. The data is registered when a
new user enters the system or when a user updates his name, location or
Latitude/Longitude using the SET/NAME, SET/QTH, or SET/LOCATION commands. Information about the connection with the
station is also shown. Shortcut buttons
are presented allowing a quick execution of frequently used commands of: Init
(nodes only), Station filters, callsign database searches, Talk or Mail. The
selected stations call is automatically filled in the talk or mail dialog. TCPIP addresses or host names are shown for
TCPIP and Telnet user and node connections.
If you click on the treeview and display a node or
user and desire to update his Name, Location, Lat/Lot or Home Node from his
current connected node, click the Forward/Opername button. The function does a RCMD on the node
requesting any PC41 information. This feature requires remote sysop
privileges on the remote node.
The DNS Lookup button on
the Station Info dialog does a reverse lookup on the IP address and shows the
registered domain name. The Ping button
does a network TIPIP ping (not a DX Cluster Ping) and displays the ping time in
a popup dialog. Both DNS Lookup and
Ping commands can be performed on Telnet, inbound TCPIP or outbound TCPIP
connections.
RT-Clicking on a call in the
Tree-View will launch a pop-up dialog allowing you to copy the selected call of
send the call to be processed by one of the supported callsign database search
engines: AR-Technology, Buckmaster, Callbook and QRZ.
A station can be
disconnected from the node by selecting it in the connections tree view and
pressing the Disconnect button. Only
directly connected users and nodes can be disconnected.