From: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
Subject: Re: TCP/IP information-  Thanks!  And some more questions.
Reply-To: gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
Organization: Gannett Technologies Group
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 16:53:18 GMT

In article <9212102244.AA07716@westport.trirex.com> bmehlman@trirex.COM (Ben Mehlman) writes:
>Thanks to all who responded to my plea for information on high speed  
>tcp/ip.  You have all been very helpful.
>
>I would like to hear any comments on the following.
>
>I have decided that the first step is for me to purchase the MFJ1270B  
>TNC, as this seems to be popular and inexpensive.  More importantly,  
>it seems to be compatible with the TAPR and GRAPES modems.

Good choice.

>I am tempted to directly take the plunge to the 9600 baud option, but  
>I am not sure whether this will ever be useful to me, because few  
>people are using it.  If I can use it, I'll buy it.  Otherwise I am  
>tempted to run some tests at 1200, then make the jump directly to  
>56K.

Remember that at the higher speeds you *must* have a partner within
range or you'll have spent money for nothing. We advise that people
buy our modems in pairs so they'll have at least one other station
to communicate with.

>If anyone can tell me MFJs address and/or phone I would greatly  
>appreciate it.

On casually flipping through QST I see that nearly every amateur
dealer carries MFJ products, and usually at a discount over factory
list prices. I suggest that you contact your favorite local ham
dealer instead of being referred to him by the factory. Buying
factory direct isn't going to save you any money.

>I'd also like the address and phone for the GRAPES people so I can  
>ask them some questions about the 56K modem.  

We don't have a phone, we're a radio club. We do have a post office
box. The address is:

GRAPES Inc.
P O Box 871
Alpharetta, Ga 30239-0871

One of the volunteers will check the mailbox at least once a week.

>Can anyone who is using the GRAPES modem let me know what their  
>equipment is and their experiences with it??

Naturally I'm biased. :-) I've assembled 5 of the kits. They are
easy to assemble, easy to tune up, and easy to use. The hardest
problems are in packaging the modem, no box or wiring harness is
provided in the kit. I've seen several different boxes, I use a
Bud chassis box with bottom cover. Your toughest decision is which
digital interface to use. Many people are using the Ottawa PI card
plugged into the PC bus. Some people, including me, are using the
Gracillis PacketTwin card plugged into a PC. Some others are using
modified and soupped up TNC2s, the kit includes documentation on
how to do this. And a few are using the Kantronics DataEngine or
the direct output of a Macintosh serial port. Anything that can
deal with 56 kb digital bits can be made to work.

>For starters, I would like to use my Tempo 2M radio for the RF  
>portion of the system.  This radio has 10 watts output.  Will this be  
>enough???

This should be adequate for local 1200 baud packet.

>I live in Norwalk, CT (SW corner of the state).  Can anyone tell me  
>who I would have to contact to find out about the local net here???

I can't help with this.

>Next, I will need some software.  I assume I can immediately use an  
>ordinary terminal package to do ax.25 to other stations with the  
>1270.  For tcp/ip I need a router, which I believe is provided by the  
>KA9Q software, ie, the software supports a serial interface to the  
>TNC in KISS mode, with my lan interfacing through an ethernet or SLIP  
>port.  Is this correct??

Yes this is true. The KA9Q package offers full support for ordinary
AX25, NET/ROM, and TCP/IP *simultaneously* so it's the only software
you really need. But you can start with an ordinary terminal emulator
package and the default firmware in the TNC.

>In order to do this I would have to run a PC dedicated to just being  
>a router???  I can do this, but I am interested in running the TNC  
>directly off my unix box, a NeXTStation.  Has anyone ported the KA9Q  
>software to BSD unix or even to the NeXT specifically??  If source is  
>available, but not the port I need, I would be willing to tackle this  
>project and make my results available to all.

There are SysV and Linux ports, so BSD shouldn't be that hard. However,
it's much better to use a cheap PC as your interface to the radio world
from your ethernet. There's no point in attaching an expensive Unix box
that already has native TCP/IP to a radio and lightning attracting antenna.
I speak from experience, I lost a Unix box to this.

>Are there any other options besides the KA9Q software, and what are  
>the advantages/disadvantages of those options???

If you want to run IP over radio, there aren't any software alternatives
to KA9Q in one of it's many varients.

>Last but not least:  I get the frequency of my local net, get an ip  
>address from the coordinator, get the TNC, raido, and router all set  
>up.  Now what???  How do I find out who else is out there???

One of the things you'll get from your coordinator is a complete host
table for your area so you can connect to other hosts by name rather
than by IP number. So you'll automatically know who else is active.

Gary KE4ZV

Newsgroups: rec.radio.amateur.packet