Creating a packet Script for Winlink Express
A Script is a set of
commands (in groups of
two) which enable you to Connect to a starting packet Node, then to
successive Nodes, and finally to the ending destination RMS (or User
station, if doing peer-to-peer).
Remember that a Winlink Gateway (RMS) is a different animal than a
packet Node. A Winlink Gateway is a bridge between your radio/tnc
and the WL2K email server. A Node is a bridge between packet
users an/or other packet Nodes. A rare occurence is a Node which
is also a RMS; via the magic of Linux and BPQ.
Scripts do not need to include all of the Nodes between you and your
intended destination. "Node Table" info (updated and stored at the Node site) can be used to
help your navigation process.
The first
connection/response
pair specifies the initial, entry-point packet Node into the
network. The last connection/response pair specifies the node
that has the RMS server (Winlink session) or the destination packet
station running a client program (for peer-to-peer
connections). Scripts have a minimum of 3 pairs of
information; initial Node, final Node, destination station.
First try a script with the minumum (3) pairs. That script
may fail because Node Table info is incorrect or
missing. If that happends edit your script to
include a Node "halfway" through your intended path. If
that script also fails, break the path into thirds, etc.
The first line of each pair is the command to be sent to the network to
establish the connection to the next node. If you are "leaving"
a multi-port node, include the leaving port number (see Example 3).
The second line of the
pair is the response that the script will wait for. Note, the
response may be long, and the script will proceed once the specified
response is found anywhere in the response from the packet node.
When building
packet network scripts, keep the script as simple as possible.
Use "C" for "CONNECT", and "CONN" for "CONNECTED". If
"Node Table" information is available, use it to reduce the number of
pairs in your script.
In building your script, if you are connected to a multi-port Node and
you want to go out of the Node on a different port than you used to
come "in", you need to specify the "out" port number in your next
script
pair. See Example 3 below.
If you are
located near "eastern Washington" use this Packet
Network Diagram to
create your Scripts. Additional info about writing
and using Scripts is in the Help file for Winlink Express.
Sample packet network Netrom (X1J4, TheNet, K-Net, BPQ, etc.)
connect scripts are shown below.
Example 1:
In this example,
Winlink Express K7AA connects through network Node N7HHU-8 to
RMS N7MO-10.
Script
name of something like "145.53 N7HHU-8 N7MO-10"
C
N7HHU-8 (Callsign
with SSID, or Node
Alias name may be used)
CONN
C N7MO-10
CONN
Example 2:
In this example WB7XD connects through
network Node K7LL-7 to
Peer-to-Peer station K7UH in Walla Walla.
Script name of something like "145.05 K7LL-7
K7UH"
C K7LL-7
CONN
C
ELN
(Callsign with SSID, or Node Alias
name may be used)
CONN
C AL1Q-7
CONN
C K7UH
CONN
Example 3:
In this example
K7CPO connects on VHF to network Node K7TJ-9 (multi-port), then to UHF
Node K7LL-8, then to RMS AL1Q-10 in Walla Walla.
Script name of something like "144.93 K7TJ-9
AL1Q-10"
C K7TJ-9
CONN
C 4 K7LL-8
(K7TJ-9 is a Multi-port Node; In on
VHF, Out on
port 4, UHF)
CONN
C ELN
CONN
C AL1Q-7
CONN
C AL1Q-10
CONN
by
K7BFL January 19, 2019