Topic: CWOP Tier 2 Servers Have Withdrawn

[GaryTX]

Anyone posting data to CWOP using the Tier 2 servers need to change your settings, as the Tier 2 servers are offline.  Only the core servers are currently in service.  Things may change, but that's the present status.

Russ Chadwick from NOAA posted the following message on the CWOP QC message list a little while ago:

"As of a few hours ago, the Tier 2 operators abruptly withdrew support
for CWOP traffic through their servers.  We're sorry for any
inconvenience this causes CWOP members, but you will have to change the server designation in your local software.  More details at
http://www.wxqa.com/news.html

Russ"

Available servers at present are:

aprsfl.net : port 14580 - - - Dave, KG4YZY - - - Tampa Bay, FL (Core 3)
first.aprs.net : port 14580 - - - Gerry, N5JXS - - - College Station, TX (Core 1)
rotate.aprs.net : port 14580 - - - connects to a Core APRS-IS server and rotates to a different one if that connection drops.
second.aprs.net : port 14580 - - - Greg, WB6ZSU - - - Irvine, CA (Core 2)

The rotate.aprs.net server is probably the best choice at present.

[Mark / Ohio]

I switched my VP Live over to rotate.aprs.net : port 14580

All seems to be well again.  I seen the email from Russ a couple of hours ago and found they had not received my data for four hours.

This Calvin quote seems an especially fitting description of the server operators at the moment:

"A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day."  

 

P.S. Good to hear from you Gary!

[W3DRM]

I switched my VP Live over to rotate.aprs.net : port 14580

All seems to be well again.  I seen the email from Russ a couple of hours ago and found they had not received my data for four hours.

This Calvin quote seems an especially fitting description of the server operators at the moment:

"A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day."  

 

P.S. Good to hear from you Gary!

And of course, guess who suffers from that "drama"? We, the users who have no control over anything...  

[tinplate]

VPLive should have detected the failure of the tier 2 servers and switched automatically to the core servers, but there was, unfortunately a bug in the error detection. I have uploaded a new version of VPLive to fix that bug and also change the default servers.

Also, the tier 2 servers switched from taking data on port 23 to taking it via port 14850. For now, VPLive 1.1.6 is using the core servers as the primary, and the tier 2 servers as failovers.

Steve

[wuhu_software]

I switched my VP Live over to rotate.aprs.net : port 14580

Having watched over the QC list for the past few days, what is being said about Windows and DNS servers preventing the proper use of the rotate server does make sense to me.

Have you guys already disabled DNS caching when using the rotate server?

Thoughts?

Thanks.

---

PS - I found this page that goes in to detail on how to disable your DNS caching on a Windows 2000 or XP machine.

http://www.speedguide.net/read_articles.php?id=158

---

[tinplate]

After doing some research into the DNS topic, I think that changing your windows DNS caching setting may be unnecessary. It turns out that the setting is just the maximum caching period. The DNS record itself has its own cache period (called the TTL - time to live). Windows uses the smaller of the two. Right now, rotate.aprs.net has a TTL of 60 seconds. That means that if you are uploading your CWOP data every 5 minutes, windows will hit the DNS server to resolve the address every time you do a CWOP upload. I've tested this out, and I get the same results (i.e. I don't get stuck hitting a single server) whether I have a short period set in windows or a long period. You still may hit the same server a few times in a row because right now there are only two servers in the core rotation (first and third).

By contrast, the tier 2 rotation has a TTL of 2400 seconds (40 minutes), so that is likely why it looked like you got stuck on a single server using that rotation.

[wuhu_software]

After doing some research into the DNS topic, I think that changing your windows DNS caching setting may be unnecessary. It turns out that the setting is just the maximum caching period. The DNS record itself has its own cache period (called the TTL - time to live). Windows uses the smaller of the two. Right now, rotate.aprs.net has a TTL of 60 seconds. That means that if you are uploading your CWOP data every 5 minutes, windows will hit the DNS server to resolve the address every time you do a CWOP upload. I've tested this out, and I get the same results (i.e. I don't get stuck hitting a single server) whether I have a short period set in windows or a long period. You still may hit the same server a few times in a row because right now there are only two servers in the core rotation (first and third).

By contrast, the tier 2 rotation has a TTL of 2400 seconds (40 minutes), so that is likely why it looked like you got stuck on a single server using that rotation.

Thanks for the detailed response. I see why this is a non-issue.

Too bad that answer could have not been posted in the QC list!

[daveh]

Hi Everyone,

Seems the word is out on this Forum concerning the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP) recommended server list, but I'll restate the list anyway...

In order to enhance network stability and increase the potential of your weather reports getting to NOAA, we (Russ and I) are recommending everyone use the following server to send data to CWOP:
Default Server:  rotate.aprs.net                        Port: 14580

Alternative Servers:
Server Name:   first.aprs.net                           Port: 14580
Server Name:   second.aprs.net                      Port: 14580
Server Name:   third.aprs.net                          Port: 14580
Server Name:   fifth.aprs.net                           Port: 14580

Please check the following CWOP links to see the latest info:
CWOP News: http://www.wxqa.com/news.html
CWOP Server List:  http://www.wxqa.com/activecwd.html

Please contact me if you have any questions,

DaveH
CW0351
dave@cwop.info