[aprssig] Periodic Disconnects from APRS-IS

[Steve Dimse]

On Jan 18, 2007, at 10:44 AM, Phillip B. Pacier wrote:

> Ah!  One of the main reasons why Tier 2 was created!

Pete's post had nothing to do with Tier 2.

This is a client issue, not a hub issue. The APRS IS stream has  
reached the point where some people's computer/software/internet  
connection cannot keep up with the full stream. This causes no  
problems for the hub. Pete's point was those people with this trouble  
should use a filtered feed, which is just as available on the core as  
on your servers. Many people want a full feed, and have systems that  
can handle it, and the core provides them the option to receive it  
there.

People can make their own choice where they connect, but if you are  
going to turn every post involving the APRS IS into a commercial for  
your system, I will use it to remind people that the leaders of Tier  
2 have in the past demonstrated their contempt for their users by  
cutting off access to thousands of weather sites without warning,  
using them as pawns in a failed power play.

On the other hand, the core has plenty of capacity, with high  
reliability servers housed in professional data centers, and with  
operators that express the highest ideals of amateur radio,  
professionalism and service.

> It should also be pointed out that round-robin DNS does not account  
> for a server becoming suddenly unavailable.  If a server in the  
> list becomes unavailable, until the DNS zone file is updated and  
> all of the caching is reset, that server's IP will still be issued  
> on the pseudo-random basis.  There is rotate.aprs.net and there is  
> also rotate.aprs2.net, but I recommend not using them for any reason.

If a client has the ability to specify a list of servers, that is the  
preferred way. However, if the client only allows a single name, then  
rotate.aprs.net is much better than picking a single server's name.  
The core situation is monitored very closely, with human as well as  
automated means, and when a change is needed in rotate.aprs.net, it  
is made quickly.

Steve K4HG