• QWK Hubbing

    From Avon@21:1/101 to All on Friday, December 29, 2023 10:05:52
    Does anyone have any experience using Mystic as a QWK HUB / using FTP server to enable nodes to poll in to collect a QWK file?

    A) HUB Setup

    I've set up a test system (A48) and am feeding it fsxNet echomail areas from 1/100 .. each echomail area has been linked to a QWK network (fsxNet) and assigned a QWK Base ID (as per Dan's old list.. I also added a new ID for FSX_LFE)

    Under FTP servers I set port 2121 for FTP and enabled only IPv4 at this time, max nodes set to 5 and defaults for Passive Mode (Yes) and Passive Port (60000) with Show QWK (Root)... not sure if Root is root c:\ or \ or if Root is C:\Mystic?

    In Servers > General Options I did have Domain Name set as default (mybbs.com) and note that the logs show when I poll my local IP is the result of the query that comes back from that (unrelated to me) domain name.

    In Networking > QWK Networks .. I have set Active Poll to No (as it's not a node) and Network Name to fsxNet with Member Type to HUB, FTP Host, Login, Password are all blank (again because it's not being set as a node) and Use Passive is also set to No (I don't think it matters as this is a node specific setting?).

    For Packet ID I set FSXQWK and stuck with ZIP as the archive and opted for Use QWKE to Yes.

    ... so that's the initial set up and I'm am polling from a client PC to the QWK HUB PC over my LAN... nothing external at this time.

    I created a test user at this HUB system and set them as a QWK account and assigned the fsxNet QWK network I had defined for them.

    I logged in as that test user to the HUB and made sure the user was active against all echos and set a last scan pointer for some months prior to ensure all older messages would be picked up.

    B) Client Setup

    The client/node test system also uses A48 and under Networking > QWK Networks
    I have set up an entry with Active Poll to yes, the network name of fsxNet, member type = node, the FTP host is the LAN IP and port of the HUB system I am testing against, my user name and login, use passive = yes, packet ID is FSXQWK, archive is ZIP and use QWKE is yes.


    HUB logs show this

    --------------------- Mystic v1.12 A48 2023/01/15 Fri, Dec 29 2023 (loglevel 3)
    + 2023.12.29 09:33:59 MANAGER Starting event system
    + 2023.12.29 09:33:59 MANAGER Starting 1 server(s)
    + 2023.12.29 09:33:59 FTP Data port range 60000 to 60004
    + 2023.12.29 09:33:59 EVENT Starting 3 event(s)
    + 2023.12.29 09:33:59 FTP Listening on IPV4 port 2121 using interface "0.0.0.0"
    + 2023.12.29 09:33:59 FTP Resolving domain:
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:56 FTP > Connect on slot 1/5 (192.168.1.38)
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:56 FTP 1-HostName PH2018
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:56 FTP 1-S: 220 Mystic FTP server ready
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:56 FTP 1-C: USER Data: sam
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:56 FTP 1-S: 331 User name okay, need password.
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-C: PASS
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-S: 230 User logged in, proceed.
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-Logged in as sam
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-C: TYPE Data: I
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-S: 200 All files sent in BINARY mode.
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-C: MODE Data: S
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-S: 200 STREAM mode.
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-C: PASV Data:
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-S: 227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,1,130,234,96).
    + 2023.12.29 09:34:57 FTP 1-C: RETR Data: FSXQWK.qwk
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:02 FTP 1-Exported 8361 [email protected]
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:03 FTP 1-S: 125 Data connection already open
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:03 FTP 1-Sending: c:\mystic-qwkgate\tempq405\FSXQWK.qwk
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:03 FTP 1-Send complete
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:03 FTP 1-S: 226 Closing data connection.
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:03 FTP 1-Connection closed
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:32 MANAGER Server shutdown received from console
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:32 MANAGER Shutdown: EVENT
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:32 MANAGER Shutdown: FTP
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:32 MANAGER Waiting for servers to stop (up to 30 seconds)
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:33 EVENT Event system stopped
    + 2023.12.29 09:35:33 MANAGER Shutdown complete

    and client log shows this

    Dec 29 09:35:02 QWKPOLL Startup (v1.12 A48 Windows/64 Compiled 2023/01/15 15:30:04)
    Dec 29 09:35:02 Exchanging Mail for fsxNet
    Dec 29 09:35:03 Exported @FSXQWK.rep -> 0 msgs
    Dec 29 09:35:03 Connecting via FTP to 192.168.1.130:2121
    Dec 29 09:35:03 R:220 Mystic FTP server ready
    Dec 29 09:35:03 Connected
    Dec 29 09:35:03 Local IP is 64.31.42.235
    Dec 29 09:35:03 S:USER sam
    Dec 29 09:35:03 R:331 User name okay, need password.
    Dec 29 09:35:03 S:PASS <not shown>
    Dec 29 09:35:03 R:230 User logged in, proceed.
    Dec 29 09:35:03 S:TYPE I
    Dec 29 09:35:03 R:200 All files sent in BINARY mode.
    Dec 29 09:35:03 S:MODE S
    Dec 29 09:35:03 R:200 STREAM mode.
    Dec 29 09:35:03 Logged in as sam
    Dec 29 09:35:03 Downloading QWK packet
    Dec 29 09:35:03 S:PASV
    Dec 29 09:35:03 R:227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,1,130,234,96).
    Dec 29 09:35:03 S:RETR FSXQWK.qwk
    Dec 29 09:35:10 R:125 Data connection already open
    Dec 29 09:35:10 Unable to open data connection

    I'm not sure why there is this data connection already open error, but I have tried a few different attempts and settings across both client and HUB to no avail as yes. I've also restarted both HUB MIS a few times but that seems to make no difference.

    On the PC hosting the test QWK HUB I have also enabled TCP and UDP bi-directional traffic for the firewall on the box, and done this for both MIS and QWKPOLL.

    The niggle seems to be getting an acceptable FTP poll/connection from the client/node with the HUB. I think the HUB may be doing the echomail <> QWK gating OK but can't be sure yet as I can't get an (on the fly) QWK packet downloaded from the HUB to check.

    Any thoughts appreciated.

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)
  • From Zip@21:1/202 to Avon on Friday, December 29, 2023 07:33:41
    Hello Avon!

    On 29 Dec 2023, Avon said the following...

    I'm not sure why there is this data connection already open error, but I have tried a few different attempts and settings across both client and HUB to no avail as yes. I've also restarted both HUB MIS a few times but that seems to make no difference.

    I've also come across that error message when connecting with an FTP client
    for transferring files (i.e., when not using QWK), and reported it to g00r00, and he said that this sounded normal for passive FTP (although I don't think it does, as it says "Unable to...", indicating that it's trying to open a data connection anew).

    During some testing I noticed that all the passive ports were "busy"
    (probably in the CLOSE_WAIT TCP state), and restarting MIS solved that temporarily. But it could be something else.

    Just for the sake of testing, try raising the number of FTP nodes significantly to see if the error message goes away.

    You may also try using a "normal" FTP client, such as 'pftp' from the command line, to fetch the file and see if that succeeds (maybe the 125 status code is confusing qwkpoll after all).

    Best regards
    Zip

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)
  • From Avon@21:1/101 to Zip on Sunday, December 31, 2023 12:20:38
    On 29 Dec 2023 at 07:33a, Zip pondered and said...

    I've also come across that error message when connecting with an FTP client for transferring files (i.e., when not using QWK), and reported

    thanks for the ideas, will have a further poke at this and report back :)

    Kerr Avon [Blake's 7] 'I'm not expendable, I'm not stupid and I'm not going' avon[at]bbs.nz | bbs.nz | fsxnet.nz

    --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
    * Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)