Attaching Interfaces
There are two types of attach commands. The first type attaches physical interfaces or ports. These commands identify the serial port and the two internal radio ports to the system. The serial port is described here. The internal radio ports are described here.
The second type attaches 'pseudo' interfaces, that is, interfaces which do not directly relate to physical hardware ports. These commands are 'attach axip', 'attach kiss', and 'attach netrom'. These are described here.
Data Engine Ports
In the JNOS40 attach command, the serial port in the Data Engine is named (numbered) 1.
You may still give a mnemonic name to a port.
Attaching the serial port
To attach the serial port, the syntax is:
'attach 1 <mode> <name> <buffer> <mtu> <speed> [c]'
where:
mode - is one of 'ax25','slip' or 'nrs', or 'pkiss'
name - is the interface name, e.g., 'port1'or '2m'
buffer - is the receive buffer size
(see INTERFACE BUFFERS for more)
mtu - is the maximum transmission unit (which for an
AX.25 V2 interface should be 256.)
speed - any common speed from 300 - 9600 Bd.
(19200 and higher should not be used. See text)
[c] - enables RTS/CTS handshaking except in g8bpq-polled-
kiss mode (see HARDWARE HANDSHAKING...)
There are four different modes currently supported and some of the modes support multiple configurations. As a result, you have several options when using the serial port. You can configure JNOS40 to attach one of the following:
- a single-port tnc in kiss mode
- a multi-port tnc in kiss mode
- multiple single-port TNCs in wg7j-kiss mode
- multiple single-port TNCs in g8bpq-polled-kiss mode
- one or more TNCs with Net/Rom or TheNet software using NRS protocol
- a slip connection to a tcp/ip host
All configurations for the serial port are listed below.
Attaching a single-port TNC in KISS mode.
To attach a TNC to the serial port use the 'ax25' mode. This is also called KISS and means you have a TNC in kiss mode or with a kiss eprom in it connected to the serial port. To attach a tnc to the serial port in KISS mode use:
attach 1 <mode> <name> <buffer> <mtu> <speed> <c> Example: attach 1 ax25 port1 512 256 9600
See the section on 'Physical Connections / Single and Multiport TNCs' for information on how to connect the tnc to the Data Engine.
Attaching a multi-port TNC in KISS mode.
Attaching the second port of a single tnc with multiple ports, i.e., a multi-port KISS tnc, like a KPC-4, is done with the command:
attach kiss <asy_iface_label> <port#> <label> [mtu]
You first need to have attached the Data Engine serial port in ax25 mode. The attached serial port will always default to the first port (tnc port 0) in the multiport tnc. Next you can attach the second port (tnc port 1)in the dual port tnc with the 'attach kiss' command.
To attach both ports of a dualport tnc in kiss mode at 9600 baud: attach 1 ax25 port1 512 256 9600 attach kiss port1 1 kiss2
In this example, the first port is addressed with the name 'port1', and the second port with the name 'kiss2'
Attaching multiple single-port TNCs in wg7j-kiss mode
WG7J's Kiss eproms allow multiple separate TNCs to be connected on one serial port. These TNCs signal each other when they need to send a frame to the host (the Data Engine) by raising the CTS line active. If the DTR line is active when a serial transmission needs to occur, the TNC will wait until the DTR line becomes inactive. This approach can be more efficient than polled TNCs, where time is spent polling TNCs that might not have any data.
To use the WG7JKISS eprom to have multiple TNCs in kiss mode on the serial port, configure the address for each eprom according to information in the KISSROMS.TXT file. Also, connect the TNCs together as described in the 'Physical Connections / Multiple TNCs with WG7JKISS roms' section of this document. Then 'attach' the first TNC on the serial port as an ax25 type, and for each additional TNC attach a kiss interface.
EXAMPLE: If you have 3 TNCs, with addresses 0 (mandatory !), 10 , and 14, running at 9600 bd, with interface names 'port0', 'lan10',and ' users14', the attach statements would be:
attach 1 ax25 port0 512 256 9600
attach kiss port0 10 lan10
attach kiss port0 14 users14
Attaching multiple single-port TNCs in g8bpq-polled-kiss mode
This method allows multiple TNCs to be hooked up to the serial port. Each tnc will be polled for data at a regular interval. The 'c' option for handshaking is ignored in this mode.
To attach multiple TNCs on the serial port using the G8BPQ polled kiss scheme, configure each tnc according to the G8BPQ documentation. To connect the TNCs to the Data Engine, refer to G8BPQ's KISSROMS.DOC documentation, or to the 'Physical Connections / Attaching TNCs with G8BPQ Polled Kiss roms' section in this document. Then attach the first tnc on the serial port as a PKISS type, and for each additional tnc attach a kiss interface.
EXAMPLE: If you have 3 TNCs, with addresses 0 (mandatory!), 10 , and 14, running at 9600 bd, with interface names port0, lan10, users14, the attach statements would be
attach 1 pkiss port0 512 256 9600
attach kiss port0 10 lan10
attach kiss port0 14 users14
Note that only the first interface attached (which is the one that actually configures the serial port!) needs to be specified as a 'polled kiss' interface. The additional interfaces will be automatically attached in polled kiss mode.
Attaching a SLIP connection.
slip - is serial line ip. It means you want to connect another Data Engine, or a PC or Unix(tm) system also running slip to the serial port.
attach 1 slip sl0 1025 768 9600
Consult the manual of your host PC or Unix(tm) system for proper physical connection information.
Attaching one or more TNCs with Net/Rom or TheNet software
nrs - is Net/Rom Serial protocol. TNCs with Net/Rom or Thenet eproms use this protocol for serial port communication.
EXAMPLE: Attach the Data Engine serial port at 2400 baud as follows: attach 1 nrs nrs1 512 236 2400
If you want to connect only one TNC with Net/Rom or TheNet software to the DE, see the section on 'Connecting Single and Multiport TNCs'
If you want to connect the DE to two or more TNCs with Net/Rom or TheNet code, see the section on 'Connecting to Multiple TNCs in NRS mode'