Introduction
Presently, the whole distribution is split in two parts. While most
of the stuff is easy to install and to set up, the FlexNet Node-Module
is rather complex and we consider it as not being of general interest.
Basically, we want to protect ourselves from getting mails like this:
"Oh thanks a lot for this flexnet thingy I downloaded from your
site recently, it looks pretty fine, thanks for all the work you spent
on it, by the way I have a very problem with it - could you please tell
me, what is it good for ?"
One of the possible answers could look a little bit like this:
"Oh we damn know that writing all this did cost a precious amount
of work, and we are willing to do even more but guys like you keep us busy
with mailing answers to stupid questions."
Therefore it is not available via anonymous ftp. Remember that this
is a FUN project and noone of us makes a profit out of it. However, if
you are operator of a digital repeater station and want to set up a node
for public access, or if you are just curious to see if it is actually
"as good as people claim", write a mail to
<flexnet@afthd.tu-darmstadt.de>
stating that you would like to receive the node module. The mail should
contain at least:
- your amateur radio callsign
- your digipeaters' callsign
- your email address for reply mail
- the IARU locator of your digipeater
- the city/state of your digipeaters location.
This is mainly to help us keeping track of how many people actually
use a FlexNet node. I have removed the Request-Form, basically because
I lost lots of requests due to lost MIME attachements.
Please check the licensing conditions prior
to downloading any of the packages. FlexNet (RMNC and PC versions) is NOT
in the public domain. Don't be mislead by the fact that the software is
provided free of charge. FlexNet is licensed only for noncommercial applications
in amateur packet radio!
System Requirements
To run PC/FlexNet you need an Intel x86 based PC and at least MSDOS
3.1. A minimum of 512KByte of RAM is required. Although PC/FlexNet will
run on XT-Type PCs, too, we recommend that you use at least an AT286 compatible
machine. However, for low performance issues like simple terminal programs
and only a single, slow radio interface an XT will do happily.
You can run PC/FlexNet under Windows 3.1x, but you will probably gain
no fun out of doing this. It will work if you load FlexNet prior to starting
Windows, but all "realtime" hardware drivers like for the 1200
and 9600 baud BayCom modems, and even KISS, will suffer from low Interrupt-Performance.
However, all Ethernet drivers will probably work, and thus you can integrate
a PC running Windows 3.1x into the Packet-Radio Network by connecting it
to a DOS based PC via you LAN.
If you have your PC running under Windows95 you will greatly appreciate
the Win95-AddOns described on an additional page.
Downloading Procedure
You can download the distribution either while browsing this document
or directly from
ftp://ftp.afthd.tU-darmstadt.de/pub/flexnet/3.3g/
We will also keep older versions of the software at this place.
The complete package has several hundred KBytes, but at least some of
the stuff is not needed for general purpose usage, and you perhaps may
not want do download it. As News and Updates will be announced on this
page first, it is, as we think, the preferred way to get all the stuff,
but if you prefer a shell based ftp client or think you might find something
we haven't announced here, or just want to "have it all" (whether
you need "it all" or not), feel free to copy it directly from
the ftp site.
To download the different parts of the distribution you simply need
to press the appropriate buttons. The packages provided for download are
packed as LZH-Archives. Please make sure that your browser is aware of
how to handle files with .lzh suffixes.
As you are prepared now, check the directory
page for download!
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