::Ron Stordahl wrote:
:>
:> Minor point but aliases are limited to 5 characters I believe. I tried 6
in
:> an eprom burn for a TheNet/X1J4 node and as I recall surrounding TheNet
:> nodes only showed the first 5 in their routing tables. This is some time
:> ago so I might have the details a little wrong. Does Linux work
correctly
:> with 6?
:
:Hi Ron and all.
:
:Per the AX.25 spec (I believe) aliases and callsigns are limited to 6
:characters. I have burned a number of TheNet 1.0, TheNet Plus, and
:TheNet X-1J4 with 6 character aliases with no problems. All the nodes
:I've seen print 6 character aliases in their tables and nodes lists.
:Perhaps a non-printing character snuck into that field? Just a thought.
Ron says:
I checked and X1J4 accepts 6 characters, yet I know it caused me
trouble, details escape me now, perhaps it was a surounding BPQ
node which truncated it to 5. But as 6 is the spec thats what the
software must support!
:Second, Re: your earlier message Ron, I think you are correct when you
:say that if your Linux node were set to respond to N5IN + any SSID when
:you have other stations on the same frequency using your call plus some
:SSID that there would be interesting problems. What I've seen happen is
:usually an agly race between the stations sharing the callsign+SSID with
:the end result being an FRMR packet generated by one or both and a nasty
:disconnect! As a result, the following unwritten rule appears to be
:adhered to by most node-ops in these parts:
:
:Callsigns aren't used as node aliases due to the SSID confusion caused
:by Net/ROM's allowance of any SSID to be used in conjunction with its
:alias.
:
Ron says:
Callsigns absolutely should not be used as Aliases! Callsigns-SSID must
be unique within an area where such information can be propagated. Thus
N5IN-2 and N5IN-3 are distinct nodes. Aliases have no SSID, but a node
will respond to an Alias-SSID and this is a very useful feature as it can be
used to circumvent the routing table. For example if AITDX can be reached
from TRFDX using 'C AITDX' the connection will be made per the nodes
table and may use intermediate nodes. On the other hand a request of
'C AITDX-1' entered at TRFDX will do a connect request ignoring the
nodes table as AITDX will not match AITDX-1. If AITDX can hear TRFDX
directly AITDX will respond to a connect request for AITDX-1. I am pretty
sure you are well aware of this, but I initially responded in the event you
did not and were considering a change that would negate this very
important feature.
By the way X1J4 permits up to 3 extra aliases, each of which will also
respond to ALIAS-SSID. I have no idea if Linux supports this.
Seeing that you have fixed some AX.25 problems in 2.2.X I hope your
repairs get back to the keeper of the code.
Ron N5IN
