[OZAPRS] Problem with rotate.aprs.net.au address?

Tue Jan 8 11:05:07 EST 2013

Tony,

The aunz.aprs2.net is the regional rotate address for the Tier2 APRS
servers in the region, which as you see contains both AU and NZ servers.
This is the 'official' address to use these days for the round-robin
behaviour.

The aprs2.net rotate address pools are dynamic, and are made up of viable
servers based on their health and throughput. There are several metrics
that are monitored from all servers - including missing/dropped packets
counts.  If you are interested in the current health of the entire APRS
internet network, you can check   http://aprs2.net/mon.htm - this lists
which servers currently belong to each regional rotate pool as well as
their current loading and throughput.

All of the localised APRS-IS servers belong to the Tier2 network, however
in the early days before Tier2 existed we used the local
aprs.net.auaddresses, with our own rotate address - this does still
exist, however it
does not contain ALL of the available servers and should be considered as
depreciated.

All Tier2 servers globally have a common configuration, being user-defined
port 14580 - you can connect to ANY T2 server on the planet on port 14580,
define your filter and get the same feed.  There is a
rotate.aprs2.net address that will connect to ANY of the Tier2
servers.

The APRS network these days consists of the end users and iGates
(effectively Tier3) predominantly connecting to the Tier2 servers (aprs2.net).
 Tier2 itself is interlinked using 4 or 5 hub servers (T2HUBx).  These HUB
servers in turn uplink to the APRS Core servers (Tier1).  Services such as
aprs.fi are connected into Tier2, whilst findu I believe is still connected
to the core.

However, a lot of users still insist on connecting directly to the core
servers, resulting in them often being overloaded, and the result being
packets going missing (This was the reason for the Tier2 network in the
first place)

You can find more detail on the Tier2 network at  http://aprs2.net

Regards,
Geoff  VK8GG

On Mon, Jan 7, 2013 at 6:32 PM, Tony Hunt <wavetel at internode.on.net> wrote:

> Sorry folks I messed up the subject thread of this one before so Ive
> attempted to get it right again.
>
> Ive just tried using aunz.aprs2.net and I found that it actually logged
> me into third.aprs.net.au at this time. You can see the status page as
> quoted previously http://third.aprs.net.au:**14501/<http://third.aprs.net.au:14501/>.Third is actually vk7hse
> t2tas at aprs2.net
>
> I just saw you before Grant logged in with vk5gr-1 with cumulus 1.9.2 on
> second.aprs.net.au
>
> I dont know exactly what uanz.aprs2.net is but it appears to be similar
> to rotate.aprs.net.au in that if you do a nameserver lookup you get 5
> separate possible IPs that resolve
>
> Name:    aunz.aprs2.net
> Addresses:  203.31.7.24, 125.236.199.246, 150.101.108.109,
> 202.49.254.23,202.62.137.85
> which is
> T2QLD VK4FQ , T2APRSNZ ZL2TZE , third.aprs.net.au, first.aprs.net.nz,
> second.aprs.net.au
>
> The same lookup on rotate.aprs.net.au gives you
> Name:    rotate.aprs.net.au
> Addresses:  202.62.137.85, 150.101.108.109
> which is second.aprs.net.au and third.aprs.net.au
>
> You will see some commonality between these first 2
>
> A Lookup of  Name:    rotate.aprs.net.nz reveals
> Address:  125.236.232.235   which seems to be the same as aprs.net.nz
>
> Clearly theres a lot more more options open to users of aunz.aprs2.netbut its no guarantee it would get you around a bottleneck between VK or ZL
> and aprs.fi servers. Using aunz.aprs2.net would open up a heap more
> variables. The different ISPs used by different server operators all have
> different routes out of vk/zl . But perhaps its really up to the routes
> between the Tier 2 servers and aprs.fi . If it is packet loss on the
> international routes then it would need a bit of homework to find just
> where.
>
>
> Tony Hunt VK5AH  wavetel at internode.on.net
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>
>> Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2013 19:17:32 +1030
>> From: "Tony Hunt" <wavetel at internode.on.net>
>> To: <ozaprs at aprs.net.au>
>> Cc: vk5gr at bigpond.com
>> Subject: Re: [OZAPRS] OZAPRS Digest, Vol 42, Issue 1
>> Message-ID: <**529C41D537F04A64B375A79B476FE6**BA at athlonxp>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
>> reply-type=original
>>
>> Grant,
>>
>> Your assuming that the connection is good between aprs.fi and the
>> Australian
>> servers. Its not. Its a proven fact that theres packet loss at times
>> between
>> our part of the world and servers like aprs.fi and findu.com . Ive seen
>> hours go by in times past where the track of a vehical is just missing on
>> findu and aprs.fi although it was gated properly to the net and also
>> seen by
>> others logged into the same server via the net. It appears there are times
>> that the international connections (offshore) get pretty flakey. Thats ok
>> if
>> your surfing the net because your browser or email just takes a bit longer
>> on that route until it resolves but with the aprs servers the packet is
>> lost
>> and then its just lost and if you want to see if the server got it then it
>> just didnt get there because you guessed it, it was lost.
>> We have previously had discussions about having regionalised mirrors for
>> things like findu and aprs.fi as these servers basically cop the full
>> international load. The chances of seeing any locally based
>> mirrors/servers
>> appear soon does not seem like its going to happen.
>>
>> If your still not 100% sure the problem is not at your end then try
>> setting
>> up a different machine to monitor the situation. If you can organise a
>> independant 3G connection on a laptop to monitor it then great. Try
>> logging
>> the laptop into the same server as your wx station and see if you loose
>> any
>> data at the same time as you find lost data on aprs.fi happening. You
>> could
>> also log the laptop into a different server and see the efffect.
>> try these . You will find that first and second are one of the same. Where
>> first/second is currently feeding the Tier2 system via T2HUB4
>> http://69.39.33.165:14501/  and third is feeding via T2HUB1
>> http://193.190.240.226:14501/
>> You could try the ZL servers as well first.aprs.net.nz as they may take
>> different routes to get to aprs.fi via Hawaii to LA perhaps. Many of our
>> routes leave Australia via Singapore Japan and Asia.
>>
>> http://first.aprs.net.au:**14501/ <http://first.aprs.net.au:14501/>
>> http://second.aprs.net.au:**14501/ <http://second.aprs.net.au:14501/>
>> http://third.aprs.net.au:**14501/ <http://third.aprs.net.au:14501/>
>> http://first.aprs.net.nz:**14501/ <http://first.aprs.net.nz:14501/>
>> http://second.aprs.net.nz:**14501/ <http://second.aprs.net.nz:14501/>
>>
>> Tony Hunt VK5AH wavetel at internode.on.net
>>
>>
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