[CQ-Contest] Online Scoring / VPN / Writelog / Data Pool

[Bernd Och]

Hi all,

before WAE contest I was helping the friends at DF0CG, while
some other guys were operating from my home station as DA0FF.
Both stations were using Writelog networks. Both places have
asynchronous DSL Internet connections, and I took the chance
to play around with some VPN hardware. I set up a VPN tunnel
between the two locations (128 kbit/s bandwidth), took care
about correct IP routing and name resolution, and in the end
I was able to integrate my notebook computer (at DF0CG)
into the Writelog network at DA0FF. I could not see any latency
between keystrokes on the remote side and their appearance
on the other side.

I was 400 km away, and fully integrated in my "home network".

When the contest started I watched the game for about three
hours before I fell to bed. It worked flawlessly during these
three hours - no problems at all. I had fun teasing the DF0CG
operators that my DA0FF operators at home have higher rates ;-)
I think this technology is also used at some IARU HQ stations,
which are spread over the respective country, but I don't know
for sure.

So indeed it is POSSIBLE with simple means to feed remote PCs
or servers with online data. No enormous bandwidth is needed,
any Internet connection which is already used for telnet packet,
could also be used for online data upload. It just depends on
intelligent synchronisation routines.

If someone opens up such a server, and needs a beta tester,
please come back to me. I would not mind sharing my current
log with fellow competitors. I feel it would increase the fun.
An ideal playground would be WRTC 2006 in Brasil. If every team
could see the competitive scores online, wow, what a thrill.

Bottom line: I'm positive with the idea.

P.S.: I had also once played with Writelog on a Terminal Server,
but couldn't interface the different Writelog sessions, because
they all share the same computer name / IP address.
In theory this could work on a VMware machine since the
different virtual machines have different computer names and
different IP addresses. But that's not practicable...

See you next weekend from 9Y4ZC.

73 Ben
DL6FBL

Bernd Och

 BOC Computersysteme GmbH * Christian-Wirth-Str. 18 * 36043 Fulda
 [T] 0661/9440-201 * [F] 0661/9440-100 * [E] bernd.och at boc.de
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