[Xastir] Question: Should I be an igate or not?

[Brian D Heaton]

James,

Notes below:

On Fri, 2003-11-21 at 13:44, James Washer wrote:
> I'm fairly new to APRS. I've done a fair amount of googling, etc.. and still have a few questions about igates.
> 
> Q1)Should I be an igate? With what crireria should I make this decision. Here's what I'd did to make my decision. I used xastir to put out an ?igate? query and received no responses. Further, looked at those few packets from my mobile tracker that made it to findu, and went searching for the igate. ~200 miles away from here.. So, I decided this was sufficient evidence to support my decision to run as an igate. Do you agree, or is there some better method? Or does it matter how many igates there are?
> 
It seems like you've definitely done the right thing by doing some
testing and investigation before deciding to setup an Igate.  If the
only Igate that seems to be handling your packets is over 200mi away it
sure won't hurt.  

> Q2)How do I choose the right internet site ( whatever they are called ) for the 'net' connection. Again, with much hunting around, I located a site.. but is it the 'right' site?
> 
This is a somewhat more difficult question.  To a point it depends on
what area you are trying to serve and whether you're looking at Igating
via Xastir or via APRSd (or another APRS Igate package).  Take a look at
the TAPR aprssig archives and search for "tier-2" or something along
those lines.

When I ran an Igate a few years ago I'd maintain a connection to
first/second/third.aprs.net and pump my local TNC data in that way.
> 
> Q3)Is there any documentation that explains what occurs on the net(tcpip) side of this whole system. i.e. Is there some master site? Many peer site? etc etc.
I've heard of a couple efforts to produce one.  I don't know how far
they got.

			THX/BDH


> _______________________________________________
> Xastir mailing list
> Xastir at xastir.org
> https://krypton.hscs.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/xastir
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian D Heaton
Senior Network Engineer
Janus Research Group
(706) 364-9100
PGP Key Available