Roger Wilco Base Station 0.27 Aug 26th 1999 Thank you for using Roger Wilco. This Roger Wilco Base Station offers a preliminary degree of support for allowing users to run "Roger Wilco Base Stations" which can create and host channels for users of the fully-featured Roger Wilco client to join and converse. It does NOT allow a local user at the Base Station machine it runs on to hear or talk on the channel being hosted. There are currently three versions: Linux 0.27 FreeBSD2x 0.27 FreeBSD3x 0.27 NT/Win9x 0.27 =====> COMPATIBILITY Base Station 0.27 is compatible with Roger Wilco Mark I and Mark Ia. Its different name reflects its "provisional" character -- its stability and support levels will be lower than the Roger Wilco clients it supports. It is *not* compatible with versions of Roger Wilco released before Mark I. You may download the Roger Wilco client from www.rogerwilco.com =====> LICENSE INFORMATION It is important that you read the file named LICENSE.TXT. It describes the terms of use permitted. In particular, it contains strong terms barring reverse engineering of the program and its protocols as well as modification of the program. We hope that you will read it and abide by its terms. =====> INSTALLATION (Linux, FreeBSD) un-tarring the installation file that contained this file is sufficient to install the Linux Roger Wilco Base Station. It consists of just the single executable file named rwbs, some information files like this one, and a few small encoded audio files to support the test mode of the Base Station. CGI setup (optional, for any webservers you have access to) There are two Perl scripts (with .rwc extensions -- leave them named that way, as it enhances browser compatibility) that you should copy into the CGI-BIN directory of your web server. These scripts allow webpages on the server to have easy-to-write HTML links to channels hosted on your (or any other) Base Station. =====> INSTALLATION (NT and Win9x) Allow the self-extracting archive to unpack its contents to a single directory on your system. The executable components and text files and a few proprietary soundfiles will be installed there, and take up well less than a megabyte of disk space. CGI setup (optional, for any webservers you have access to) There are two Perl scripts (with .rwc extensions -- leave them named that way, as it enhances browser compatibility) that you should copy into the CGI-BIN directory of your web server. These scripts allow webpages on the server to have easy-to-write HTML links to channels hosted on your (or any other) Base Station. =====> BUGS Most of the bugs we saw in 0.26 (muting of channels, inability to connect) seem to be fixed in this release, though testing is not complete. Please check under Product Information on our website for the latest details. =====> OPERATION -- Options Common To All Platforms In general, rwbs can be invoked with or without command-line options. On all platforms, these options are supplied with a leading "-" character. Without parameters, rwbs will start up and create a channel and lend minimal bandwidth to its support. It is a configuration suitable for any installation. Exception: NT requires at least one parameter. Additionally, the Base Station will dynamically create named channels for clients who join and specify a channel name (either by a URL or using the Mark Ia client which allows users to join named channels). The -s flag tells RWBS to deny joining clients who ask for non-existent named channels. By default, a channel would be dynamically created to accomodate them. The -b flag tells RWBS to run in the 0.25 (and earlier) manner in which the Base Station appears to be a party on the channel. By default now, the Base Station will be invisible (since it is not, in fact, a person on the channel). This new method works better with Mark Ia clients, who display the channel in a more intuitive manner. The -h flag allows you to see a complete list of supported command-line options. The -n flag allows you to supply an optional name for your Base Station. By default, your Base Station will be named "Base Station". -n "Killer Bunny" would cause it to be named "Killer Bunny Base". If you are not using the -b flag, this name will only be accessible to people who have created wrapper scripts for web integration (read below) The -x flag allows you to specify an amount of bandwidth that the Base Station should lend to supporting the channel. By default, a value of 1 is used, which is equivalent to less than the "Slow Modem" setting in the Roger Wilco Configuration Wizard. If you have a good cable modem or a T1 piped into your Base Station-- particularly if your typical Roger Wilco user has a poor modem, you may try higher values for this number. This will cause the Base Station to act more like a "server", and play a larger role in relaying audio traffic between users. Type rwbs -h for more hints on setting this parameter. The -p flag allows you to supply an optional password to protect access to the Base Station's channels. The -t flag causes rwbs to run in "test mode". This is primarily useful only to Resounding Technology's instance: it causes the Base Station to robotically speak to any single user who tunes to it, and to echo back any transmissions he sends -- valuable for being a RW test partner. The -u flag allows you to specify a different UDP port than the 3783 default. It is unlikely that you will find use of another UDP port helpful -- our networking code allows it to work on any Quake II-friendly system (exceptions may be found on LANs running MS Proxy Server .. we are working to resolve bugs in this area). Read our web page on firewalls that we have posted for the Roger Wilco client... its principles also cover the Base Station. =====> Linux & FreeBSD specific notes You may run rwbs directly (cd into its directory before starting it), but for better results, invoke rwbs indirectly, using the run_rwbs script provided. Edit run_rwbs and modify the line where rwbs is invoked. Change the parameters that are passed to rwbs to suit your preference. Then, cd into your rwbs installation directory and run "nohup ./run_rwbs &". This method is preferable as it causes the RWBS to be restarted should it fail for some reason, and also allows it to keep running after you logout of the shell from which you invoked it. Fault tolerance is often desireable when running server-like processes such as rwbs. For example, you may edit the line in run_rwbs so that it gives your base station a name and password: ./rwbs -n Happy -p sesame >>rwbs.log =====> Windows NT Specific Notes Under NT, rwbs is primarily intended to function as an NT Service. Therefore, rather than "running it" and "stopping it", operation is really more of a "run it and ask it to install itself as a service" and "run it and ask it to remove itself as a service" model of use. To start up rwbs as an NT service, invoke rwbs and provide the -I flag to command it to install the NT service. You should also provide any other parameters you wish to give the base station (rwbs -h will list all the options). If all is well, rwbs should run and print a few diagnostics as it goes to report its success or failure. The most common issue people see when trying to install an NT service is that they lack the administrative privileges required to perform such actions. If you see that you are failing due to a lack of suitable privileges, find an NT adminstrative guide for more help -- this topic is beyond the scope of this document. Conversely, the -R flag stops and removes the rwbs service from the system. You will probably require a similar set of privileges to perform this action as for installing the service. If you do *not* wish to run rwbs as an NT service, you can instead specify the -A flag to run it in "Angel" (as opposed to daemon) mode. In this case, it will run as a console application. If you intend to use the -t test mode, it is important to not that you must invoke rwbs.exe *from the directory in which it resides* (i.e.: cd to that directory before running rwbs.exe, don't do anything like ..\rwbs.exe) and give it the -I flag to install the NT service, combining this flag with any other parameters you wish to give the base station (rwbs -h will list all the options). =====> Windows 95/98 Specific Notes You cannot run Roger Wilco on the same machine you are running a Base Station on. You can run them in alternation, but this is probably not too appealing as the "always there" model of the Base Station is the one that makes its use most compelling, and it loses this charm if you are bringing it up and down all the time. Under Win9x, the -I and -R flags supported by NT are not available, and the -A mode is assumed (you need not invoke it). rwbs will run as a console application. Once again, invoke it from the directory in which it resides or the test mode will not find its soundfiles. The most common form of use on a Win 9x system is to run rwbs without parameters and minimize the console window in which it runs. =====> Browsing your RWBS using a Web Browser You can use an ordinary web browser to access your RWBS host (using port 18009), you can see who is on it. It does not yet offer any administrative capabilities. The basic form of access is http://
:18009/[][?[&]] Where
is the IP address or hostname of the RWBS is an optional channel name to be viewed (default, or "root" channel assumed) is either an opts= or action= expression e.g.: opts=-R, opts=-L-R, or action=join1 Example: If you are running a RWBS on myhost.mydomain.com, accessing http://myhost.mydomain.com:18009 using any browser will show you who is on the station's default channel, and provide a clickable link to tune to that channel (using Mark Ia or later clients). If you want to specify a subchannel to be browsed, you can supply a channel name following a / character, e.g.: http://24.128.4.4:18009/attack The "opts=-R" argument (for seeing more than one channel) The simple form of access shown above allows you to see any single channel on your server. But the nicest thing about the Base Station is that it can host any number of channels. To help you use this to your advantage, there is a "recursive view" option that can be tacked onto the end: ?opts=-R For instance: http://www.rogerwilco.com:18009/?opts=-R shows the following activity on Resounding Base Station: channel "/" (in the browser, the "/" is a clickable tuning link) channel "/82mhz" "BiGPiMp" channel "/atani" "Dobbin" "Rosicrux" "Favriol" channel "/403mhz" "FoX" channel "/420mhz" "Shinobo" "Jusburnit" channel "/474mhz" "NO_MIGHTY_WD" You can use the opts=-R option in combination with any channelname and it (as well as any subchannels arrayed below it using / as a separator) will be viewed. If you do no specify a channel, you see every channel (since you are recursively showing the RWBS from the root channel). The "opts=-L" argument (for advanced server-side scripting gurus) The views that are provided using the RWBS's built-in method are pretty spartan and do not easily lend themselves to customization. Advanced web authors can write CGI scripts which access the RWBS using the opts=-L flag to obtain a machine-parseable output format (instead of the browser-friendly HTML that is the default). The CGI script can then mash the information in whatever manner the author cares to, and generate HTML that presents it in a style most meaningful to his site (for instance, using a different formatting or background). For instance, opts=-L-R on the same connection to the above server would have generated the following output (in unadulterated text output): rwbsname "Resounding Base" rwbsaddress www.rogerwilco.com channelcount 6 channel "/" membercount 0 channel "/82mhz" membercount 1 member "BiGPiMP" channel "/atani" membercount 3 member "Dobbin" member "Rosicrux" member "Favriol" ...etc, where "rwbsname" heads the list and indicates the assigned name of the Base Station "rwbsaddress" specifies the IP address or hostname of the Base Station Note: on multi-homed systems, this address will always work, as it is always identical to the one used to obtain the report containing it. "channelcount" denotes the total number of active channels on the server. Note: There may be fewer listed as you may not have recursively viewed the rwbs from the root channel. "channel" declares the name of a channel (which will be in quotes) "membercount" declares the number of members on the channel that was most recently declared. "member" declares the callsign of a pilot under the most recently declared channel. Any users who create CGI scripts of this type are encouraged to share them with other Roger Wilco Base Station users, so that the creativity and talent of the user community can amplify our efforts. The "action=" directive Similar to the "opts=" parameter, the "action=" directive can be used to change the very function being achieved by accessing the RWBS through this browser interface. It can be used to change the action being performed from the default one of viewing the channel(s). At this time, the only alternative action that can be specified is "action=join1", which commands the user's local RW instance (Mark Ia or later required) to tune to the specifed channel. e.g.: http://www.rogerwilco.com:18009/?action=join1 would tune you to the default channel on Resounding Base, and http://www.rogerwilco.com:18009/82mhz?action=join1 would tune you to "82mhz" on Resounding Base. This is the mechanism the RWBS uses to create the clickable links in the views it generates by default (when no action is specified). It is preferable to using .RWC scripts on a webserver, as no MIME type configuration is ever required, and it provides a more compact installation. Time permitting, we will add additional action types such as "admin" to the protocol, to give you access to administrative controls on a privileged basis. =====> SUPPORT Support for the Roger Wilco Base Station is a background activity for us. It receives second-echelon treatment at the moment. But we do maintain a BBS and a small support web page. Resounding Technology's RWBS BBS forum allows users to discuss issues, and we try to monitor it and answer questions when we can. Often, other users have the best answers. When possible, we identify problem trends and see if we can produce a fix in the next release or add to the RWBS Support Page. The Roger Wilco Base Station Support Page is modest, but resides at http://www.resounding.com/products/rwbs/support Thanks -- tone