Net/Rom Node Information for the Sysop - Part Five

by Andy Nemec, KB9ALN

This is part 5 of a series designed to help node Sysops learn more about the popular TheNET X-1J series of nodes. We'll skip over the more common user commands and devote our discussion to commands used by the Sysop. This month, we look at ARPTIMER and AUDIT.

ARPTIMER

This command configures part of the node's ARP system. You may remember from our last installment that ARP associates a call-sign with an IP address in the ham radio implementation of TCP/IP. This information is kept in a list on the node called an ARP Table. The ARPTIMER command allows an automatic update of the ARP table that the sysop has set up, allowing new stations that are not in the ARP table to be added to the ARP table automatically.

This command can also specify how long a station that is automatically added to the ARP table will remain in the ARP table. Here's a command usage sumarry:

ARPTIMER *

clears the current ARPTIMER settings.

ARPTIMER 0

Shuts off the ARPTIMER function. The manually-configured ARP will continue to work, but no automatic updates to the ARP table will be performed.

ARPTIMER 1

Enables automatic updating of the ARP table.

ARPTIMER (number from 15 to 1440)

This specifies how long the automatic updates in the ARP table will remain in the table, in minutes. For example:

ARPTIMER 30

Means that any ARP update will remain in the ARP table for 30 mintes. Again, this does not affect the entries made manually to the ARP table.

We'll recap ARP and it's related settings in the final installments of this series when we look at how to set up a TheNet X-1J node for TCP/IP operation.

AUDIT

This command configures the amount of information dispensed to node operators and managers when they issue the AUDIT command when not logged in as a sysop. The node keeps track of a number of statistics, and the Sysop or node manager can pull these statistics when needed. This is as close to a station log that the node can come, and is handy for checking node performance and for troubleshooting.

The information that can be dispensed includes:

- The percentage of time a Data Carrier was detected, and how long the transmitter has been keyed in the last 10 minutes.

- A mini-log of the various connections that have been made to the node, both AX.25 and Net/Rom frames.

- Node CPU load and buffer usage

- Usage of the SYSOP command

A few other types of info can also be dispensed as well.

One important note about the AUDIT command - it can slow down a node considerably and consume considerable memory when the node has a lot to do. The only time it should ever be needed is when troubleshooting.
Here's a command summarry:

AUDIT 0

This turns off the Audit function completely.  This is really the preferred normal-use setting.

AUDIT  (number from 1 to 255)

Enables auditing of one or more parameters. The number is based on a "Mask" value determined by what Audit functions you wish to enable.

There is considerable information that can be dispensed with the AUDIT command when used in this manner. Due to the infrequent usage of this command, I won't delve into all of the options. Consult the X-1J manual for details, or mail me with specific questions and I'll help you the best I can.

That's all for this part. In our next part, we'll continue our alphabetical exploration of the Sysop commands for these nodes.
 

Proceed with Part 6

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