29 Dec
2020
29 Dec
'20
2:21 p.m.
Le 29/12/2020 à 20:48, Rob Janssen via 44Net a écrit :
Such images can be made as a by-product of a new
network design, but please
understand that the main objective of the network changes should be that
such special images should become unnecessary to get a working network connection.
I agree with you. But when I talk with some friends that are "basic"
hams (ie, they are interested in radio topics, but they are not IT or
network experts), I often hear the same thing :
"Why on earth should I bother with AMPR addressing ? It just works fine
over Internet".
In a previous discussion, I looked at the XLX hosts database, and
extracted the 44.x addresses among all Internet addresses. I don't
remember the exact percentage, but it was very low. Nobody is using AMPR
addressing for VoIP / digital modes. And those are not users, those are
sysops of repeaters and gateways (ie, people with skills above average).
Percentage for users would be even lower.
--
Providing RPi images is a convenient way to make complex tools available
for the masses. And it works ! There are dozens of distributions
available, for various RPi clones, and for various applications. None of
them do need an AMPR address to work. You just plug it on your Internet box.
Of course, the best way of doing things would be to add a router with
AMPR logic inside (such as your Mikrotik, or our OpenWRT "TKBox")
between the "application" and the "network". That's what a network
engineer would do. But why would a basic user do that ? What additional
feature will it bring ?
If we have a world-wide standardized description of an AMPRNet tunneling
protocol, developers such as MW0MWZ (dev of Pi-Star) could add the
tunnel into the distro, and provide a field in the GUI where the user
would enter the FDQN of its preferred AMPR POP (in the same way he
enters the IP of his BM Master). Of course, this would not be the best
way of doing things (= a tiny router). But this would allow real
plug-and play, and this would allow a lot of people to discover AMPR
addressing. Doing so, I think we would gain a lot of users. And they
could later move to a router-based configuration once they understand
the advantages of doing it.
If we keep only the "network engineer" approach, with a dedicated
router, my fear is we won't be attractive enough for the masses...
73 de TK1BI