[arm-allstar] ilink commands not working

[Doug Crompton]

Let me explain a little bit about how Allstar works in general and how you
can troubleshoot your problem.

1. You must register to use Allstar publicly (not privately)

2. Once registered you have access to the list of nodes and node routing
information which allow you to connect.

3. Connecting to another node requires either DTMF or manual commands. DTMF
requires that your system is being controlled by a device that sends DMTF
signals. This also requires in the case of a radio that the levels and
equalization is set properly. Manual control is either using the Asterisk
client or some means to get commands to Asterisk like Supermon via the
Asterisk Management Interface.

3. Neither method of control will connect you to anything unless (1. you
are registered and (2. you have the node information to connect.

There are very simple troubleshooting methods to determine each step of
this.

1. Are you registered -  using  the chk_reg.sh  script at the Linux prompt
can determine this.

2. Have your server downloaded the node list. Assuming you are not using
beta DNS in which case you would not have a static node list file you can
check this by looking to see if you have an existing /tmp/rpt_extnodes
file. Remember you will NOT have this file unless in step 1. you are
registered.

3. If you are using beta DNS you can check to see if the node you are
trying to connect to is there by running the Linux script dsn-query
<node-number>

4. If you are using the static /tmp/rpt_extnodes file and it is there you
can at the Linux prompt do - grep <nope-number> /tmp/rpt_extnodes  In BOTH
cases without the < or >.

5. If no node returns then that node is not available to you and performing
a  *3 or *73 will result in NOTHING coming back! If on the other hand you
get a connection failed message then it is probable that you know the
correct address but the other end may not have your return address or there
is some other network fault.

6. You can test many things in the Asterisk client. If you view the screen
while transmitting to your node your will see your DTMF decoded. Keying the
PTT of your radio (talking to your node radio) and pressing 0-9#*  they
should all show on the screen. If not you have a audio problem typically
level or equalization - meaning de-emphasis may not be set correctly. These
are adjustable in simpleusb-tune-menu.

7. Also in the Asterisk client you can send commands directly and see the
result whether it be a good connection or error messages that will tell
more about what is wrong.  If you want to connect from your node 40000 to
node 40001 the command at the CLI> prompt would be:

rpt fun 40000 *340001

Node 40000 being a node on that server (your node) and 40001 either local
or remote. If node 40001's routing information was not available nothing
would be displayed.

In the client you can do  rpt lookup <node-number> to see if the node
information is available. if it is not your would see something like this -

CLI> rpt lookup 40000
Node: 42291, Method:   DNS, Actual: LOCAL, Data: NOT FOUND
Node:  1999, Method:   DNS, Actual: LOCAL, Data: NOT FOUND

Other typical problems are - allstarlink.org server port not matching bin
address in your local server. Each physical server has a iaxport assigned.
The default at BOTH ends is 4569. If you only have one node and have not
changed this then it should be OK. In the case where you change it locally
you also have to change it at allstarlink.org.

It is the users responsibility to know these things and do some amount of
troubleshooting. We cannot determine what is wrong by just "it won't
connect" as it could be any number of things.


*73 Doug*

*WA3DSP*

*http://www.crompton.com/hamradio <http://www.crompton.com/hamradio>*





On Thu, May 3, 2018 at 10:03 PM, "Greg via arm-allstar" <
arm-allstar at hamvoip.org> wrote:

> This is not an intermittent issue. It is persistent. Would that still be
> server related? I can connect out etc, just *71, *73 etc don't work.
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