[nos-bbs] INP3 Protocol review (and more)

[Barry Siegfried]

[<pa3gjx at home.nl> wrote]:

[snip]

> Downside?  The Flexnet protocol was not a opensource if this is still
> the problem then TCP/IP over AX25 over radio links will never grow up.

It has been a challenge to move TCP/IP over plain AX.25 through
FlexNet-based networks since FlexNet first appeared in the north-
eastern U.S. in the late 1990s.  This was the cause of much pain
and frustration for several of us then, because what the developers
of FlexNet were saying and what our actual observations were seemed
to be entirely different from each other.  Some of the more zealous
individuals around these parts then blamed NOS for it not working
well (or at all), when in fact, the switch here from Net/Rom to
FlexNet on a working network took place literally overnight and
without any prior TCP/IP testing or warning whatsoever.  Unfortunately,
at the time, some kinds of traffic were deemed to be "more important"
than others.

After MUCH study in the ensuing years thereafter by at least one very
dedicated individual in the northeastern U.S. (not me I might say),
the internal workings of FlexNet were reverse engineered to the degree
that NOS could be modified to work "better" with it.  In other words,
after the "problem" of transporting TCP/IP frames over AX.25 through
FlexNet was actually identified (with absolutely no help whatsoever
from either the FlexNet developers or its implementors here in the
northeast) some NOSes could be "fixed" to better handle AX.25 when
it is neighbored to a FlexNet installation.  And even so, there are
very few individuals alive who actually understand how to mate the
two systems together well enough to make sending and receiving TCP/IP
traffic over AX.25 through FlexNet reasonably efficient and enjoyable
again.  Again, I am not one of those individuals.

So yes, I agree with Jan completely that as long as hams continue to
develop and build layer 2 systems which do not respect the 7- (or even
5-) layer networking model then TCP/IP over AX.25 over radio links will
indeed, "never grow up".

73, de Barry, K2MF >>
           o
          <|>      Barry Siegfried
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