[aprssig] So long.... APRS-IS officially has lost 1/2 it's servers.

Sun Mar 2 11:35:27 EST 2008

A new THIRD is on the air and in rotate.aprs.net.  We're evaluating to 
determine if a new FOURTH will be needed or merely "nice to have".  It 
certainly was nice to have when Dave was helping with the servers!

I, for one, will miss Dave's expertise in evaluating network and flow 
anomalies.

I anticipate that, at some point, refusing connections to 
non-verified/non-ham users will become necessary as Ham use of APRS-IS 
grows.  I am hopeful that the CWOP-dedicated servers will not make this 
mandatory immediately.

73, Gerry N5JXS
first.aprs.net

Dave Anderson KG4YZY wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
>  
> 
> Some of you may have noticed that last night the core of the APRS-IS 
> network lost ½ of its servers.    I can only apologize to those of who 
> this impacted.  
> 
>  
> 
> My goal was not to create service interruption.    A month ago I advised 
> everyone publically and privately that I was exiting the APRS-IS network 
> as a core system operator on the last day of February.    Unfortunately 
> it appears no one else is willing to put up with the nonsense, as no 
> other servers have come online to fill the void my servers Ieave.  I 
> can’t say I blame anyone either, it’s a thankless job that takes a lot 
> of abuse.    Let me highlight a few of the reasons I left for those of 
> you who may not have read my first message.  I’ll make this one much 
> shorter and to the point.
> 
>  
> 
> Last year, the tier2 group of sysops sent a letter to the citizen 
> weather observer program managers that they were withdrawing support 
> from the program.  That part is of no question, many of us have copies 
> of this letter.   The core sysop’s jumped up and decided to help this 
> program out.  The fact that the tier2 guys apparently retracted their 
> withdrawal, unfortunately, was never passed on to us from the CWOP 
> management.
> 
>  
> 
> So when we realized that three core servers could not do the job, I went 
> out and bought a brand new Dell dual CPU eight core server to take over 
> the role of fourth.  I then sent what was the old fourth box to my co-lo 
> in Dallas to become third.  That was supposed to be a temporary band aid 
> until another system operator could be found to take it over.  I didn’t 
> –want- to be responsible for ½ of the APRS-IS core traffic.  No one was 
> ever found with the means or capacity to run a core the size of third, 
> so I was stuck footing the bill for running ½ the core of the APRS-IS 
> network.  My goal in participating in APRS-IS was the betterment of the 
> hobby.  Any of you who know me should know I’m not afraid to spend some 
> money to do that.  So life went on.
> 
>  
> 
> At the end of this past year we started having stability problems with 
> the server software we run.  Memory problems, lock ups, etc.  After 
> months of diagnosis and countless software builds in an attempt to find 
> the cause, it was finally determined it was the NON ham CWOP weather 
> stations causing the problem.  Over 2500 of them, using their computers 
> clock, were sending in weather reports in a swarm on the 5’s of the 
> clock.   Anyone who works on software can tell you that this was a poor 
> design.   The CWOP management refused to press hard on the developer of 
> this flawed and damaging piece of software to fix the problem.  They 
> were more afraid the developer would quit supporting the CWOP program.  
> They clearly didn’t care how much damage it was doing to the APRS-IS 
> network.  For that matter, the one CWOP manager made it clear that if 
> non hams had to reduce polling rates that hams had to as well.  Excuse 
> me?  Non hams are a guest on our network, not the other way around.
> 
>  
> 
> Well any of you can read the forums archives from January to see what 
> happened there.  After it was all said and done, the decision to move 
> CWOP of the APRS-IS network was made, and several servers were setup 
> just for this purpose. 
> 
>  
> 
> I posted my disgust with things and the fact I was tired of being the 
> punching bag for every time something went wrong, so I announced here 
> and in many other forums that I was exiting the APRS-IS network as a 
> core system operator.   My month long advanced notice expired last 
> night, so third and fourth are no longer online.
> 
>  
> 
> It needs to be understood that CWOP non-hams are still causing problems 
> with the APRS-IS network.  I have observed on the 5’s as much as 4-7% 
> packet loss still.  These guys are willingly causing damage to our 
> network and clearly do not care one way or the other what damage this 
> affects.       A new set of non-ham servers has been setup, but until 
> the draconian measure of filtering non authenticated logins from passing 
> data (what CWOP users are), this damage will continue to be an issue as 
> the non hams will never be forced to make the move off of our network.   
> 
>  
> 
> /Had this step been taken, I probably would have left fourth online, but 
> since it has not been taken, I have no option but to walk away 100%./
> 
>  
> 
> I would advise all of you to continue to put pressure to bear to get 
> CWOP off of the APRS-IS network.   
> 
>  
> 
> CWOP stations represent only 1/8 of the stations heard on APRS-IS, but 
> take ¼ of the bandwidth!     
> 
>  
> 
> The CWOP management clearly does not care what damage is done to the 
> APRS-IS network, and has made it clear they view hams as more of the 
> problem here. 
> 
>  
> 
> At any rate, as noted, my apologies for any difficulties that my exiting 
> the core servers has caused, but one can only be backstabbed and kicked 
> so many times before one backs away.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 73,
> 
>  
> 
> Dave
> 
> KG4YZY
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
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-- 
Gerry Creager -- gerry.creager at tamu.edu
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University	
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.458.4020 FAX: 979.862.3983
Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843