CASES97: Logbook Entries

CASES97: NETWORK Messages: 6 Entries..

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Entry Date Title Site Author #Graphics
106 Sat 26-Apr-1997marigold freewave power upped8Oncley, Steve
100 Fri 25-Apr-1997Reboot by cocklebur this morningbaseSemmer, Steve
12 Mon 07-Apr-1997kansas-net disconnectsbaseMaclean, Gordon
4 Wed 02-Apr-1997Monitoring PPPbaseMaclean, Gordon
3 Wed 02-Apr-1997Network configurationbaseMaclean, Gordon
2 Fri 28-Mar-1997Internet Provider InfobaseMaclean, Gordon


106: NETWORK, Site 8, Sat 26-Apr-1997 18:11:06 GMT, marigold freewave power upped
I've just upped the power on the freewave to marigold from 6 to 8, since
we have been having trouble communicating with it today (40,000 lost samples
reported by marigold, only 20% packet reception logged by the freewave).

I wonder if some of the trees along the "line-of-sight" are degrading
the signal more now that they are beginning to leaf out?

100: NETWORK, Site base, Fri 25-Apr-1997 14:13:25 GMT, Reboot by cocklebur this morning
  Cocklebur rebooted at around 12:20 GMT this morning.
Marigold came back to life successfully; but, cosmos did
not. 
  Cocklebur went down around 10:25 GMT. It was down for
approximately 2 hours.




12: NETWORK, Site base, Mon 07-Apr-1997 18:34:32 GMT, kansas-net disconnects
kansas.net seems to be shutting down our connection, often every
30 minutes.  I Emailed Brian Zimmerman and asked him to look into it.

The connection time is often exactly 30 minutes, so that it does not
appear to be due to a noisy phone line or loss of carrier.

I've put a ping of kansas-net into my crontab to run every 10 minutes.
That should bring the connection back up so that Boulderites
can log in.


4: NETWORK, Site base, Wed 02-Apr-1997 08:40:52 GMT, Monitoring PPP
			Files of Interest

These files are all on cocklebur, don't look for them on aster!

	/etc/asppp.cf		main configuration file
	/etc/uucp
		Systems		dial-out config: phone #s, accounts,
					login "chat" script
		Devices		dial-out devices
		Dialers		modem AT command sequences

	/etc/log/asppp.log	log file, quite useful

	/usr/local/adm/serialports/ppp_direct.pmadm
				script to configure dial-in terminal
				ports for adam connections

/etc/asppp.cf describes the point-to-point interfaces

	ipdptp0	-> marigold
	ipdptp1	-> cosmos
	ipdptp2 -> kansas-net

The file /etc/uucp/Systems contains further information on dial-out
connections. The phone number and account name for the kansas-net
internet service are listed in this file.  In addition, the entry
for kansas-net contains the expect/send strings that are used 
during the login "chat" session.  The kansas-net entry specifies
ACU as the call device.  The description of the ACU is found in
/etc/uucp/Devices. The last field in the entry for ACU is "usrv32-ec"
which is an entry for a US Robotics modem in /etc/uucp/Dialers.
The "usrv32-ec" entry in Dialers is where the modem AT command
sequence is specified.


	Diagnosing the PPP connection to kansas.net.  

  The results of the dial sequence and the login chat are logged in asppp.log.
A good login should look like the following:

00:08:00 process_ipd_msg: ipdptp2 needs connection
conn(kansas-net)
Trying entry from '/etc/uucp/Systems' - device type ACU.
Device Type ACU wanted
Trying device entry 'cua/2' from '/etc/uucp/Devices'.
processdev: calling setdevcfg(ppp, ACU)
gdial(usrv32-ec) called
Trying caller script 'usrv32-ec' from '/etc/uucp/Dialers'.
expect: ("")
got it
sendthem (DELAY
APAUSE
TE1V1X1Q0S2=255S12=255&A3&K1&H1&R2&I0&M4&B1&N0&W^M)
expect: (OK^M)
ATE1V1X1Q0S2=255S12=255&A3&K1&H1&R2&I0&M4&B1&N0&W^M^M^JOK^Mgot it
sendthem (ECHO CHECK ON
A^JATTDDTT1133116677882233880022^M^M)
expect: (CONNECT)
^M^JCONNECTgot it
STTY crtscts,crtsxoff
getto ret 15
expect: ("")
got it
expect: ("")
got it
sendthem (^M^M)
expect: (ogin:)
lcome to Wheat State Internet Se.Wk+^K^I^IuIQ^AE%5)5)5)5)1=^]%9i^A^?^M^Jlogin:go
t it
sendthem (sssf^M)
expect: (ssword:)
 sssf^M^JPassword:got it
sendthem XXXX--DELETED FROM LOG
expect: ("")
got it
STTY crtscts,crtsxoff
call cleanup(0)^M
00:08:48 start_ip: IP up on interface ipdptp2, timeout set for 3600 seconds 



		Diagnosing PPP RF connections

Log file:  cocklebur:/etc/log/asppp.log

The asppp.log file is useful to watch. You may want to leave a term window
on cocklebur doing a "tail -f asppp.log".  

Every time the carrier line drops on a Freewave modem, even for a second,
you will see entries like so:

01:53:06 process_ipd_msg: interface ipdptp1 has disconnected
01:53:06 disconnect: disconnected connection from  ipdptp1
01:53:12 start_ip: IP up on interface ipdptp1, timeout set for 600 seconds

This indicates that carrier was lost momentarily on the Freewave
connection to cosmos.  It was back up in 6 seconds.  The socket
connections to the ADAM stay up, the adam keeps running and no data
is lost during these short interruptions.  I saw these carrier drops
every few minutes when testing the freewaves in the lab, with the
antennas 2 feet apart, on a low power setting.


If the RF modems are powered up with carrier, then the aspppls process
should be active on the serial ports.  
To check for aspppls enter:

	ps -t term/0
	ps -t term/1

These commands should show the aspppls process on the port.
   PID TTY      TIME CMD
  7877 term/0   0:00 aspppls

If the carrier detect on a serial port is too active, going up and
down repeatedly, then after a while the Sun will start to ignore it,
namely the port monitor will not spawn aspppls when the carrier detect line
is raised..  If aspppls is not active on the port, then the adam will
not be able to establish a ppp connection.

There is a crontab entry on the root account on cocklebur, which
checks every 10 minutes that aspppls is active on the two ports,
and if not, runs /usr/local/adm/serialports/ppp_direct.pmadm which
restarts the port monitor.  You must be root to restart the port monitor.

	Status of Adam connection

To view statistics of the Adam data connection, enter:

	sshow cosmos 0
or 	sshow marigold 0

This will display the data from the status channel 0 from the adam
as follows:

c:000 cosmos mem:50560 nent:100 nlost:0 nlate:0 pS:0 pD:0 dT:5100 msec, blocked:
863, lost:0, writerr:0 buf:80624

"lost:" shows the number of data samples that have been lost due
to network stoppages.  The number of severe write errors on the 
data socket are also shown under writerr.   "buf:" shows the available
network buffer size in bytes.  As the network becomes clogged the
available buffer size will shrink to 0.


        Viewing Setup and RF Statistics of a Freewave Modem


Disconnect the serial cable between cocklebur and the freewave.
This will cause a carrier detect drop on the line and processes
that are using the serial port will exit.  Then do:

        kermit -l /dev/cua/N -b 19200 -c

        N is 0 for the marigold freewave, 1 for cosmos

If you get a "? can't open device" wait a few moments and try again.

Once kermit says it is connected, reconnect the cable.  Press the reset
button on the front of the modem, and use the menus to configure
the modem and display the RF statistics.












3: NETWORK, Site base, Wed 02-Apr-1997 07:29:44 GMT, Network configuration

	INTERNET 
	  |
	potwinpm.kansas.net
	206.103.127.129
	  |
	  |
	  | ppp over phone modem
	  |
	  |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|	term/2			COCKLEBUR				    |
|     206.103.127.130							    |
|     sssf.kansas.net							    |
|									    |
|									    |
|     cocklebur			adam-ppp			adam-ppp    |
|  128.117.87.28		128.117.87.29			128.117.87.29
|  le0				term/0				term/1      |
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  |				|				|
  |				|     PPP over RF modem		|
  | coax ethernet		|				|
  |				|				|
  |				|				|
  |   aster			marigold			cosmos
  |-- 128.117.87.40		128.117.87.32			128.117.87.30
  |				|				|
  |				| vxworks			| vxworks
  |				|				|
  |   platypus			arnica				goldenrod
  |-- 128.117.87.41		128.117.87.9			128.117.87.2
  |
  |
  |   dj
  |-- 128.117.87.42



Note that cocklebur is our big-time network gateway, and has
3 different net names (cocklebur, sssf.kansas.net and adam-ppp)
and 3 IP addresses.  When you're accessing it from outside, address
it as sssf.kansas.net.  When accessing it from the other PAM base
systems, call it cocklebur.


For ftp, telnet, rlogin and Web access, sssf.kansas.net is
the only system that is visible to the outside world.  Therefore, if
you want to ftp to the PAM base from Boulder, you must ftp
to sssf.kansas.net.  Likewise, if you want to ftp from the base to
anywhere on the internet, you must do it from sssf.kansas.net (cocklebur).

Email has been configured so that you can send email from any system
at the base (aster, platypus, cocklebur) to the Internet.
Your Email will have a return address of user@sssf.kansas.net.
It is should be much easier to send email directly from the base,
rather than logging into stout.

Once you're in the field (and the base system is setup) you can have
your email forwarded to Kansas. To do this, log into stout and create
a .forward  file on your home directory containing one line:
	youruserid@sssf.kansas.net


ADAM network:

You can rlogin or rserial the adams from cocklebur, aster or platypus.




2: NETWORK, Site base, Fri 28-Mar-1997 01:12:35 GMT, Internet Provider Info

Configuration of the PPP service with Wheatstate Telephone

Our nodename: 	sssf.kansas.net
IP address:	206.103.127.130  aka pm1-potwin-130.kansas.net
DNS servers:	primary 206.103.126.60  = tuttle.kansas.net
		secondary: 199.79.146.61 = bbs.tfs.net

Access phone #:	316 782 3802
Account:	sssf


IP address of PPP server at wheatstate:
		206.103.127.129 potwinpm.kansas.net

Contact:	Brian Zimmerman
		Internet Tech Support
		Wheat State Telephone Inc

		http://www.wheatstate.com

		800 442-6835 ext 116
		800 227-4547 - most often at this number