[drats_users] Email Proposal

[Dan Smith]

> All they'd have to do to support D-STAR would be to create another 
> configuration item that was the same code as their serial port code, 
> with limits on how much could be transmitted out the "serial port" at
> a time before an ACK from the far end.

Well, actually what they need to do is implement the equivalent of my
software flow control which will allow you to feed data through the
radio with no buffer problems as long as the radio doesn't melt.  Based
on their prior issues with Kenwood TNCs, however, this isn't the way
they normally attack problems :)

> I never sent them this info.  Perhaps someone more into WinLink
> should, if they want to do WinLink on D-STAR.

Actually, D-RATS provides an abstracted TCP tunnel transport that would
let you treat it like an SMTP server, which is even less work for them
(and should work as-is, unless their software sucks more than I expect).

> The WinLink folks probably don't like me too much (I don't care)
> because of heated debate about how their stations on HF really needed
> to learn to back off if the frequency was in use, and me poking at
> them for PACTOR-III not being in any way an open protocol back then,
> thus... real close to "encryption" since one couldn't even copy who
> was hammering you on 20M, while you were trying to do other digital
> modes.

Don't get me started on that.  I only wish I was visible enough for them
to hate me :)

> It "feels" like putting all of this stuff into D-RATS is "reinventing
> the wheel" again... we had ways to gateway IP to AX.25 clear back at
> the JNOS days, which would have handled encapsulated STMP, just fine.
> That was in the early 90's... so, we're still fiddling around with
> the whole concept of e-mail to Amateur Gateways, with no winning
> standard other than WinLink which isn't (as Dan pointed out, and I
> agree) cross-platform... and it's almost 2010.

It seems to be something that people want, which is my reason for
considering it.  The VHF side of Winlink seems rather useless to me, to
be honest.  Email in D-RATS doesn't make too much more sense, except
that it would be open, cross-platform, and cross-hardware.

> Ham Radio is becoming the "master" of creating incompatible
> protocols... meanwhile, SMS has ended up working fine on darn near
> every cell phone on the planet... LOL!

And it also happens to be the #1 most expensive[1] way to get 160
bytes of data from one device to the other.  Hard to call that much
of a success, but...point taken :)

AX.25 is ancient, bloated, and less relevant today than ever.  WinLink
(and lots of other stuff) uses the FBB forwarding protocol, which is
beyond archaic and limited.  TCP/IP is quite relevant, but doesn't lend
itself very well to mesh networks and brings a fair bit of overhead to a
1200 baud half duplex link.  What to do?

http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/29/0244208

-- 
Dan Smith
dsmith#danplanet.com, s/#/@/
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS