[Xastir] KISS over TCP

[Lee D Bengston]

On Thu, Jul 4, 2019 at 4:07 PM Magnús Ragnarsson <maggir at skyttur.is> wrote:

> Hello
>
> I'm new here on this mailing list. I have been testing xastir and I like
> it, as it is real linux program for APRS that works. I have been trying
> other software also.
>
> I have microsat networked tnc, and they support KISS over TCP that is
> the KISS standard over network. It opens a new possibilities with new
> devices, like the microsat devices, argent data Tracker 4 and direwolf
> software tnc that all support KISS over TCP. You can then access the tnc
> remotely with xastir, from your home computer, or with aprsdroid that
> also supports KISS over TCP.
>

IMO this would be a good feature to add to Xastir.  Remembering this
thread,
http://lists.tapr.org/pipermail/aprssig_lists.tapr.org/2012-October/040560.html,
the author of AGWPE, etc doesn't like it when other platforms implement the
server side of the "AGW" protocol.  KISS over TCP is a relatively common
interface now and is supported in software such as Direwolf and UZ7HO
("Soundmodem") and in hardware such as the Tracker 4.  It's also found in
APRS clients such as APRSIS32 and YAAC as well as in connected mode packet
apps such as BPQ32.  That said, I'm a fan of the soft-TNC approach, and
since Direwolf already supports both AGW and KISS over TCP interfaces,
Xastir is covered in terms of a soft-TNC running in Linux.


> Is this something that would be possible to get on todo list in seeable
> feature as interface. I have some basic knowledge in programming with C,
> but no real experience and think I would not be able to do much though.
> I just took a quick look at the code in interfaces.c and there would be
> some coding for it, but also it seems to be some reusable code, as KISS
> parsing is the same, and the networking part is also just opening socket
> on a port and ip address. But maybe this is more complicated. Hopefully
> this is something that would be possible in the future.
>

I can't comment on the degree of difficulty to implement a KISS over TCP
interface in Xastir.  Given there could be more TNC-centric platforms
available down the road that support KISS over TCP but not AGW, I think it
would be a good feature to have on the to do list.

Lee - K5DAT


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