GNET

Command

GNET -- Display / Set GNET parameters.

Synopsis

G[net] A[ddress] [addr]
G[net] R[oute] A[dd] <gnetaddr>[/bits] <nodecall>
G[net] R[oute] D[rop] <gnetaddr> <bits>
G[net] R[oute] L[ist]
G[net] T[tl] [1-255]

Description

The GNET commands allow sysops to display and set the GNET parameters such as address and routing.

GNET is an experimental global network, which uses ip-like addressing and routing to tunnel traffic across the NetRom network, unrestricted by NetRom horizons. Not only does GNET offer global routing between all users, but it also offers up to 65536 possible session types between those users.

Options

"GNET ADDRESS" is used to display or set the XRPi's GNET address. See NOTES below for details of address format. The GNET address defaults to 0.0.0.0 which disables all GNET activity.

"GNET ROUTE ADD" is used to add a route to the GNET routing table. The first argument is the address to be routed, with optional mask. e.g. 131.90.1.2/32 means "match all 32 bits", whereas 131.90.1.0/24 means "match the most significant 24 bits", and would route all 256 addresses from 131.90.1.0 to 131.90.1.255. The second argument <nodecall>, is the NetRom callsign of the GNET gateway to which the addresses should be routed.

"GNET ROUTE DROP" removes a routing entry from the GNET routes table. The arguments are the GNET address and mask.

"GNET ROUTE LIST" lists all the GNET routes in the table.

"GNET TTL" sets the "Time To Live", i.e. the maximum number of hops a packet is allowed to make. A low TTL helps to suppress bouncing packets in the event of a routing loop. The default is 25

Examples

GNET ADDR 147.22.14.2
GNET ROUTE ADD 131.91.2.0/24 G8PZT
GNET ROUTE DROP 131.91.2.0 24
GNET TTL 15

Files

There is no provision in XROUTER.CFG for spcifying the GNET address and routing, but this can be achieved by using the GNET commands in BOOTCMDS.SYS.

Notes

GNET addressing is based on numeric country and region codes and the addresses look like IP addresses, although this protocol does not involve IP at all.

Addresses are of the form <country>.<region>.<router>.<user> allowing up to 255 countries, 255 regions per country, 255 routers per region and 255 users per router. But this is not rigid; Each country may assign the regions as it sees fit.

Country codes are the same as the ones used for amprnet, e.g. 131 is the UK, 147 is New Zealand etc. Region codes can be the same as the amprnet regions. Router codes can be assigned by local agreement, and user codes are assigned by the router sysops.

History

GNET was invented in 2002 by G8PZT, and was implemented in XRouter. The development name adopted for the system was "GlobalNet", because it was a global networking system! However, it later transpired that the name was being used by an ISP, so the shorter name "GNET" (pronounced "jee-net") was adopted to avoid confusion.

The system showed great promise, but never took off because there was no sysop documentation, and interest in DOS XRouter was waning as more people wanted to run their systems on Windows. The author's attention turned to more urgent matters, and no more development was done. There was so much more that could have been done.

The GNET protocol and commands were retained when XRouter was ported from DOS to Windows to create XR32, and again when ported to XRPi. Development may resume in future. In the meantime, sysops are encouraged to experiment with this mode.

Limitations

There is currently no mechanism for resolving user callsigns to GNET addresses. This is a vital part of the system, which will be the next component to be added.

Caveats

GNET relies on the NetRom network to provide links between its gateways. In order to route GNET traffic to a gateway, it must be present in your node table

Availability

Sysops-only.

See also

GPING(1) -- Send GNET Echo Requests
IP-CODES(9) -- IP Country Codes