[aprssig] iGate software

[VE7GDH]

Jim (callsign?) wrote...

> As far as I can tell (and from my experiences last week), UI-View gives
> up if the connection to the server is lost for any period of time
> (minutes). It tries to reconnect once, then gives up if it can't.

If you have it set to connect automatically and use rotate.aprs2.net or even
a selection of several servers and have UI-View set to reconnect
automatically, and to reconnect after "max silence" has gone by, it should
just take care of itself. It still sounds like you have a connection
problem. When UI-View can't connect to the APRS server, have you tried
browsing to any site at all to verify that your connection is working?

> The system was UPS protected and no known outages during the period.
> Everything is set to auto-start anyway! The internet connection is known
> to be occasionally flaky with resets happening, but I would have expected
> the software to deal with it by trying more than once.

The UPS will definitely help you get by bumps in the power or brief outages.
I would be very suspicious of the flaky connection though. I still think you
have other problems. It just doesn't sound like a UI-View problem. It has
everything built right into the program to deal with automatically
connecting when UI-View starts or to reconnect if the APRS server you were
connected to disappears on you. It will even reconnect if "max silence" goes
by and it hasn't received any data from the server. In my experience, it
will just connect and work. If it can't connect, there is a reason. The "max
silence" must be set to a non-zero value for this to work. Five minutes
seems like a good setting.

> My reason for looking at other solutions was wanting something that was
> more aggressive and persistent at reconnecting when then connection
> comes back up.

I still say that if you don't have an Internet connection, a different APRS
client isn't going to fare any better. I don't want to discourage you from
trying other programs, but if you have everything set up as described
(UI-View in your startup group, set to connect automatically, set to
reconnect automatically, max silence set to a non-zero value - e.g. to 5
mins - and to use rotate.aprs2.net plus one or two other severs) it should
be trouble-free... as long as you have an Internet connection. If you lose
your connection, UI-View should try connecting every 30 seconds until it
connects.

Re servers... if you use one only, use rotate.aprs2.net:14580. If you use
e.g. aprswest.aprs2.net:14580 ONLY and that server has  a problem, you
won't have anything to connect to. If you have two servers in your list, and
the first one fails, UI-View will try and connect to the second one. If you
have more than two servers selected, it will pick one at random. It won't
attempt to reconnect if you told it to disconnect.

I presume that you aren't using a proxy server? I would start by proving
that you can connect to anywhere with your browser. If you don't have a
working connection, UI-View (or any other APRS client) won't be able to
connect.

73 es cul - Keith VE7GDH
--
"I may be lost, but I know exactly where I am!"