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PTTLink Community Update - 7 Jan 2021
by PTTLink Admin 09 Jan '21

09 Jan '21

PTTLink Update: It’s been a quick past few days and the group wanted to give an update on some items: Implementation of multi-network app_rpt. Initial efforts have begun to implement multi-network support in app_rpt. The concept our team has is to make use of a what is called a network prefix code associated with groups wanting to run their own networks. PTTLink will be one of the first networks and we expect AllStarLink will follow suit. To help facilitate this we are reserving the first two network prefixes with the first to be assigned to AllStarLink (if they wish to participate) and the second to PTTLink. Methods to publicly request a network prefix will be created using a similar procedure to https://dn42.net. Anyone will be able to request a network prefix using a newly created public GitHub repository (more details below). By doing this on GitHub, all requests, and actions are completely visible to the community at large. There are a number of technical challenges. This includes default network dialing, keeping backward compatibility with the existing networks, selecting a method to dial other networks, and how to securely allow connections from other nodes. We’re hoping to have more details on this in the coming weeks, and look forward to community comments on our recommendations. Open sourcing PTTLink’s registration systems. It’s nearly impossible to add more networks to the Amateur Radio VoIP landscape without giving more tools to groups to build them. As such, we’re putting the final touches on a Python based registration system that is easy to configure and use. This can simplify other interested parties in forming their own networks. Our goal is to foster innovation within our humble corner of the internet and this will hopefully bring us closer. Iterations of new registration tools have been in development for a few months and were already deployed in experimental phases. This new iteration is geared towards general usage as opposed to internal use only. To be fully clear, the project to create this was started independently several months ago before the formation of PTTLink. Only after events that created PTTLink was the decision made by the developer to create the registration system in Python and license its use for the community. New GitHub Based Organization. We believe network agnostic code should not be held by any single network. That has the potential to stifle the innovation we believe in. As such, a new GitHub based organization was created to house all the community code bases associated with the VoIP interconnection of repeaters, this includes the above projects this team is releasing to the amateur radio community.: Please keep an eye on https://GitHub.com/Apprpt-Central for current and future releases. New PTTLink portal. With the implementation of multi-network support on app_rpt, we want interested parties to have the ability to keep the same node number(s) that were originally assigned by AllStarLink (“ASL”) on the PTTLink network. Part of this includes a new management portal for nodes within the PTTLink network. This isn’t a small feat, given the state of the existing codebase. We’ve elected to start from scratch and migrate interested parties. Multi-language node configuration menu. Looking to make the project more accessible to the community, we are implementing multilingual versions for the shell configuration menu, starting with the Spanish language, including a first time configuration menu. As follow ups to our Letter to the community: Regarding not revoking access: We pledge to not remove or modify any post on any mailing list, forum, or otherwise within our control. We believe everyone is entitled to their opinions. However, there will be times we’ll need to end threads, moderate, and maybe forbid someone from posting for periods of time. The process for moderation isn’t something to be decided quickly, and a better, clearer policy with the expectation of having community input will follow. Of course, in the interest of privacy to those involved, requests from individuals regarding their personal information will not be shared with anyone else. A reminder that adding a registration line to your IAX2 config file only signals your intent to have the same node number on PTTLink, all call routing will still remain on the AllStarLink network until the multi-network implementation is added to app_rpt - You should NOT remove any existing registration lines unless you no longer want to register with that network. A little about PTTLink: The PTTLink team is made up of multiple individuals trying to give back to the amateur radio community. We strongly believe in sharing knowledge and helping others get on the air. We have members from multiple countries and look forward to having representation from other nations. Our backgrounds include Internet and computer security, major internet and telecom networking, project management, and web design. Rather than speak of our individual experience and qualifications, the PTTLink team were the developers, administrators, and operations members of the AllStarLink network. During our tenure, AllStarLink moved from a single server to a world wide scalable redundant cluster, systems were redesigned, lines upon lines of backend code were written then debugged and our team provided all user level support. We look forward to working with community members on the development and innovation of interconnecting repeaters, hotspots, and hams all over the world, whether it be via the PTTLink Network or your very own network. Signed, The PTTLink Team

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Netiquette
by PTTLink Admin 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '21

The app_rpt-users mailing list is for the benefit of the ham radio community and all members are required to adhere to the usage guidelines at http://lists.keekles.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/app_rpt-users. The recent discussions on this list are not in the spirit of the guidelines for operational and technical content discussion. The repeated cross posting of publicly available statements from other organizations, spamming, harassment, and the back and forth mudslinging are not the type of lively discission this list is meant for. Users who continue to engage in such action may have their posts placed under moderation for review pending release or banned. If you feel this message is in error, please reach out to helpdesk at pttlink.org <mailto:helpdesk at pttlink.org> to discuss. Respectfully, PTTLink Admin Team

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Isn't the Pot calling the Kettle Black?
by Steve Jason 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '21

I just saw the post from the administrators of this list not wanting crossposting. I assume I am going to get banned for saying this. It was you Stacy that has been posting cross posting your anti allstarlink board messages on the Allstarlink Community web page, Slack and on here. It appears to me that you just don't like when someone else calls you out on what you say and does it in every place you post it. Lead by example.

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Letter to the community
by PeteM 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '21

Stacy and the pttlink team, Thank you for posting this letter. It is quite a bit ti digest but it gives us an idea of what happened and what is going on. Now before VE2PF decides to troll or brigade me as he has clearly done to you guys and others I have a few questions regarding this. These questions are directed at Stacy and the rest of the hams who signed the letter. You point to the AllStarLink Wiki and a page for the Admin committee as evidence of your legitimacy regarding what you have and continue to do. What sort of agreements were in place with the donors of the VMs used by what is now the pttlink network? Was there any SLA or agreement in writing with the ASL board regarding handling of data or systems?? Was there anything procedure or policy in place that covered what happens when systems are migrated? Anything covering disposition of data? Can you elaborate on specifically what the ASL board has done for item II, III and IV of your letter? Give some details or evidence of what you are saying has happened? Why did you choose to do the opt in for users? Why not just flush the data and start over? I think you guys are trying to do the right thing here and show you intend to be good stewards of the data. It is too bad a certain person has decided to troll your efforts and cause problems. I'm guessing he hasn't requested his data be removed yet? I also applaud you on your team's pledge. Ham radio is known for its gatekeepers, people who don't like change, bad tempered people as shown here, etc. I think this community really needs to clean up its image as a whole and show that the kind of behavior from people like VE2PF has demonstrated won't be tolerated. If you can't have civil discourse then just go away. Nobody is forcing you to use any of these systems or lists. How will you handle the inevitable moderation that will need to be to these types of people? #6 of your pledge states that you will not revoke someone's access without notice or giving them an opportunity to challenge it. Can you elaborate on this?

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Not a big deal
by Dan Tana 07 Jan '21

07 Jan '21

I know there was a lot of finger pointing but in reality the sky didn't fall down. There were about 5000 nodes registering at any one time on the old allstarlink.org servers (now pttlink.org servers). Now there are 5070 nodes on the new allstarlink.org servers. The new allstarlink servers appear to be working great and the sky didn't fall down. https://www.allstarlink.org/nodelist/ On the contrary, there are only 69 nodes registering on the pttlink.org system. I have been watching it and nodes are dropping like flies as remote sites are rebooted and their DNS is updated. https://www.pttlink.org/nodelist/ On the allstarlink stats page, 4797 nodes are reporting to it. http://stats.allstarlink.org On the contrary, there are 14 nodes reporting on the pttlink system. http://stats.pttlink.org I know a few people are commenting on dual registering and I personally don't see the point. When I looked last time, there were only about 10 nodes that were dual registering. Who knows what that could break! I doubt the allstarlink development team is going to be concerned about ensuring that they don't inadvertently make a change on their end that breaks the 10 nodes that are doing something that is unsupported. Plus, I question the stability of the old allstarlink.org system now being called pttlink. In my book, good riddens that it is gone. I remember seeing posts on reddit about a year ago that the system required the servers to set to restart asterisk every 20 or 30 minutes or the system would lock up. It sure doesn't sound like a robust system to me. No wonder they had to have six servers. I am counting my blessings that it never completely went down in the past. Finally, I am starting to see why there was a need for a new system. Even with the very small load, the old system clearly has problems. Look at the pttlink grafana page. None of the numbers add up. This sure explains a lot. This was probably compounded when you had 5000 nodes registering to the old system instead of just 69 nodes. It can't even handle the 69 nodes properly. https://grafana.pttlink.org/d/LpV1-odmz/default?orgId=2 It says there are 126 nodes currently registered. This doesn't match the 69 nodes showing up on their nodes lists. What is this new math? It doesn't even match up the list of nodes on the grafana page. They said they have six nodes: register-cqf.pttlink.org 22 register-cqf.pttlink.org 15 register-mco.pttlink.org 10 register-sea.pttlink.org 11 register-sin.pttlink.org 10 What do I know but according to my math that adds up to: 68 nodes. This number comes close to the node list. Let's stop the bickering and let the old servers die on the vine. Maybe we should have a funeral in the end for them after Covid ends and have a big ham party. The serveres served us all well for the last two years. It is clear now that the Board of Allstarlink tried to not mention Stacy and Bryan by name and take the high road. It is time for the fighting to stop. We should thank Stacy for maintaining the old servers for two year and ask him to remove our data and restore the git hub back to the Alsltarlink board's control. Remember, it was Steve Zingman, one of the original board members who set it up for Allstarlink Inc. Just because Stacy had admin access doesn't mean he should have deleted it and taken control over it. I understand there was bad blood between Stacy/Bryan and the board but they shouldn't take it out on the Ham Community and especially Steve Zingman. Finally, Bryan should return control of the Class C's and ASN's back to the Allstarlink board. He obtained them as a board member on their behalf and once again, just because he had access/power to get control of them, it isn't right for him to keep it. I know many of you are admins and know that just because you have the power to do whatever you want, doesn't mean you should exercise it. Those are my two cents. I hope the healing can begin and we can just have fun being ham radio operators.

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Toxicity
by PeteM 06 Jan '21

06 Jan '21

I see lots and lots of attempts at political assassination and what can only be described as trolling and harassment from VE2PF in response to what has happened. He posted the same exact thing to all the links listed in the letter and has continued to harass anyone else posting about it in a good way. Pierre nobody likes a loud mouthed know it all. And before you ask yes you look like one with in how you are behaving here. Instead of complaining why don't you take the high road and help them? If you can't do that then stop replying and stop commenting on this. It serves no purpose but to make you look even worse than you already do and stir the pot.

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Message posted by the allstarlink admins on community.allstarlink.og
by Pierre Martel 05 Jan '21

05 Jan '21

Firstly, the core registration system cutover went very smoothly. Our estimate is that more than 95% of nodes switched over quickly and seamlessly and active connections were not disrupted. We did see a small number of nodes that did not seem to notice the IP address change. Happily, most of them migrated over the next 24 hours. Since our initial announcement we have seen several postings concerned about the abruptness of the cutover and that there was no advanced notification. To address this, some history on the two-year project’s secrecy is required. In 2018, we identified valuable ASL resources from Jim’s estate that were squirreled away by a former Board member originally entrusted with passwords and key email addresses. Prior to his resignation from the Board, these resource’s ownership records were modified so we would be unable to make use of, or sell, without the future cooperation of this individual. (At this point in time ASL inc. has not regained control of these assets but will continue to pursue options.) Other events included that the leader of the “admin team” changed the destination of all “(a)allstarlink.xn--org-9o0a email, directing it to a server housed in his Seattle area computer room against specific direction of the Board. His stated justification being that the Board was “not technical enough” to run email and “should stop meddling with things we don’t understand.” Then midproject in May of 2019, the “admin/dev team” switched all of their internal communications to a cloud calibration service managed by the Southern Florida Simulcast Association to avoid oversight. In addition, the team started the recruitment of volunteers for ASL that were unknown to the Board creating a serious liability for the non-profit. >From inception the Board’s majority (later unanimously) was in favor of a simple low maintenance registration design but was effectively held hostage by a few volunteers. . As you can see, we were in a difficult situation, we wanted to improve ASL’s infrastructure and reduce liability but had no way of executing any changes with the system administrators in place. We do want to thank the volunteers that were working on ASL during this period, we have reports that some were unaware that their positive efforts were unknown to the Board. We will post a final status update on February 8th with the goal that the transition will be complete and in a production / maintenance mode. Most secondary systems are migrating smoothly and should be fully available soon. Any problems with your node or account should be emailed to helpdesk(a)allstarlink.org. The current Board has over 150+ years of amateur radio experience and 100+ years of IT experience with titles that have included “CIO”, “Datacenter Manager”, “Director of Communications” and “Senior Engineer”. I am certain that ASL is in good hands long term (with or without me) and we are in good shape for improvements and new creative services. Again, a big thank you to the back-end team for the seamless cut over, the developers that performed POCs over the past months (even the ones that did not have the needed performance) and the supporters of ASL that have entrusted us with your repeater interconnections. Be safe and 73s, Pete Pete Elke /WI6H - President Todd Lesser /KM6RPT - Secretary David Shaw /WB6WTM - Treasurer Tim Sawyer /WD6AWP - Vice President Kevin Custer /W3KKC - Board Member

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Letter to the community
by Stacy 03 Jan '21

03 Jan '21

Also posted to: https://community.allstarlink.org/t/letter-to-the-community/18023 https://www.reddit.com/r/pttlink/comments/kpp1x6/letter_to_the_community/ - - - - The groundwork was laid for what was to become PTTLink on 29 December 2020 after the unannounced and uncoordinated actions taken by the AllStarLink Board of Directors. At approximately 5:00 pm Pacific (0100 UTC, 30 December), the admin committee became aware of multiple catastrophic system outages. Attempts to login to systems to remediate were presented with new IP addresses and messages that the host keys were unknown. Further investigation revealed that the DNS zone record was updated at the registrar for allstarlink.org moving it from the long time home of caustic-sea.allstarlink.org to Cloudflare. In addition, an investigation into the IP addresses being presented revealed that they belonged to Google. (For more information on the AllStarLink admin committee visit: https://wiki.allstarlink.org/wiki/Admin_Committee) Since the admin team was not previously granted access to the DNS control panel, it was unknown at this time if this was the board, or a bad actor. The lead system administrator, Stacy Olivas (KG7QIN) immediately posted to the AllStarLink Slack #operations channel upon notification of the outages asking if anyone was messing with DNS to which he received no replies. At that time all members of the AllStarLink Board of Directors were present or available on Slack as well as those working on their behalf and are believed to have precipitated the outage. Due to this catastrophic outage, actions were taken by the long-time administration and development teams to stabilize the network and this required the use of Jim Dixon’s lapsed domain -- pttlink.org. Due to there being zero coordination regarding what was happening, all the existing data and systems remained in place and merely needed minor updates and configuration changes to use the pttlink.org domain to ensure continued operation of node registration services. The shocking and unprecedented actions taken and continue to be taken by the AllStarLink Board of Directors which include (but are not limited to): 1. changing of DNS without advance notice, coordination or explanation to the admin and development team causing an outage 2. termination of the AllStarLink Slack accounts for several members of the development and admin team without notice or explanation 3. revocation of node numbers and user access of members without notice or explanation 4. continued sending of unsolicited email to users registered with PTTLink. This is considered by the undersigned members of the admin committee to be indicative of poor judgment and a lack of foresight by the AllStarLink Board. There have been several posts made alleging theft of data from the old AllStarLink system. No such actions have been taken by the admin committee and we repudiate these meritless allegations. As previously stated, due to the action of the AllStarLink Board of Directors, all existing data and systems (to include user data) were abandoned in place. In addition, and contrary to statements published by the AllStarLink Board, all servers under control of the admin committee have and shall remain housed in secure commercial data centers. Additionally, we have received commitments from donors of these resources that PTTLink may continue to utilize them. These resources, which were formerly donated to keeping the AllStarLInk Network running for the benefit of the thousands of users worldwide, will continue to be available and keeping the PTTLink systems running in the same manner. The safeguarding of data has been and always will be of the utmost importance to the admin committee and PTTLink team The admin committee understands that there are many unanswered questions regarding the events surrounding the outage of 29 December and the subsequent migration to the PTTLink Network, which was officially formed on 30 December 2020. In an act of good faith and to assuage any concerns users may have regarding their data, the PTTLink team commits to the following: All users who were registered with the AllStarLink system have the opportunity toOPT INto remain registered with the PTTLink network. Users only need to point their nodes at the PTTLink registration server before 3 February 2021 to have their user and associated node data retained. This applies to all nodes that a user may have. On 3 February 2021, any nodes which have not been registered with PTTLink after 2 January 2021 will be removed. Any user accounts that no longer have nodes associated with them as a result of this removal will also be removed from the PTTLink user database. Users can accomplish this by adding to the /etc/asterisk/iax.conf file an additional registration line, duplicating their existing AllStarLink node number and password and changing the registration server from register.allstarlink.org to register.pttlink.org similar to the following: register=<node number>:<password>@register.pttlink.org Any registered user who does not wish to wait until 3 February to have their registration information removed from the PTTLink database can submit a written request (from the registered email account on file) with the subject line of “Request to remove my user and node data from PTTLink” which also contains within the body your callsign and a statement from you requesting to have your user data removed. Send this email request to helpdesk(a)pttlink.org <mailto:helpdesk@pttlink.org>. You will receive an automatic reply with a ticket number assigned to your request. Your request will be processed within 7 days upon receipt and you will receive confirmation back that your account and data have been removed (if the requirements of this request are met). This is limited to one email per user and one callsign/user account only. Emails with requests for removal of multiple user accounts/callsigns (bulk requests) will be rejected without further action taken and will require resubmission as individual requests. Requests to remove data that do not match the email account on file will also be rejected without further action taken. Additionally, no node number assigned as of 3 February, will be reassigned in the PTTLink network for the period of 1 year, such that should someone wish to acquire their original AllStarLink node number after the removals, they can. PTTLink’s Pledge to the Community 1. PTTLink is committed to the fair, open and equitable treatment of all volunteers and users, without regard to race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. 2. PTTLink is committed to the principles of open-source software and adherence to the licenses which have fostered tremendous innovation within the ham radio community; 3. PTTLink is committed to fostering and furthering innovation and the development of the app_rpt and related programs, and all forms of Voice over IP, Radio over IP and associated communications and telecommunications systems and technologies for the benefit of the ham radio community; 4. PTTLink will adhere to the safeguarding of all data on PTTLink systems and respect users wishes with regards to the storage and handling of this data. 5. PTTLink recognizes the free exchange of ideas is necessary to a healthy, functioning organization. As such we are committed to open communication and pledge to never censor discussions between our users. 6. PTTLink will not revoke credentials or users without notice, and without the ability to challenge this for review. To request more information regarding this statement or for assistance with the use of PTTLink, you can send an email to the PTTLink Helpdesk at helpdesk(a)pttlink.org <mailto:helpdesk@pttlink.org> Additionally, the following resources are available: User management and registration portal: https://www.pttlink.org Wiki: https://wiki.pttlink.org Statistics server: http://stats.pttlink.org System status dashboard: https://grafana.pttlink.org Signed the PTTLink Team, Developers, and Supporters on 3 January 2020. PTTLink Team: Juan Carlos Pérez, KM4NNO (XE1F) Bryan Fields, W9CRJeremy Lincicome, W0JRL Stacy Olivas, KG7QIN PTTLink Developers:Jason Kendall, VE3YCA Jeremy Lincicome, W0JRL Stacy Olivas, KG7QIN Juan Carlos Pérez, KM4NNO (XE1F) PTTLink Supporters: Oscar Flores, XE2MFT Pablo Mejia, XE2PMP Note: In addition to the individuals listed above, there are many others within the community who have expressed support for the information contained within this letter. However, they have elected to not sign their names to it out of fear of retribution from the AllStarLink Board. This retribution includes (but is not limited to) the revocation of their assigned AllStarLInk nodes and servers, and the censorship of posts made on the AllStarLink Community forum.

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MY personal info stolen?
by Pierre Martel 03 Jan '21

03 Jan '21

Can I have an explanation why my whole information, phone number, home address and even my allstarlink password and node password are on the pttlink.org web site? I never granted that information to be sent to the owner of that website. I want to know who is the individual behind this. My information was given to allstarlink.org. they were the sole responsible of it. If they did not give permission to take my data. This is stealing my information.

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How to Fix your node
by Bryan Fields 03 Jan '21

03 Jan '21

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA256 The allstarlink Board of Directors has broken DNS for allstarlink.org once again. The Admin Team has migrated all services off allstarlink.org to 'pttlink.org'. Unfortunately for the users of allstarlink this means they will need to update their configurations. Users of allstarlink should update their nodes to use pttlink.org in all the configuration files. The commands below when run from the command prompt will update all references to pttlink.org. The reboot command is optional, but we encourage it for good measure. sudo sed -i 's/allstarlink.org/pttlink.org/g' /usr/local/bin/rc.updatenodelist sudo sed -i 's/allstarlink.org/pttlink.org/g' /usr/local/bin/NodeNameUpdate.sh sudo sed -i 's/allstarlink.org/pttlink.org/g' /usr/local/bin/NodeUpdate.sh sudo sed -i 's/allstarlink.org/pttlink.org/g' /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf sudo sed -i 's/allstarlink.org/pttlink.org/g' /etc/asterisk/iax.conf sudo sed -i 's/allstarlink.org/pttlink.org/g' /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf sudo service asterisk restart #sudo reboot Registration is still coming back now, please bear with the Admin team. Stats should be back and working. The nodes.allstarlink.org is broken at this point, so if you're using that, change over to nodes.pttlink.org as that is working. The phone portal is down, but we should be getting it back up later today. SSL and DNSsec is going to be wonky, you will want to clear cookies and such. For the time being RT is not processing email, please just post here on the list and someone will look into it. We're shocked that there's been no notice of the board again breaking DNS. This will prevent this from happening in the future. - -- Bryan Fields 727-409-1194 - Voice http://bryanfields.net -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAEBCAAdFiEEaESdNosUjpjcN/JhYTmgYVLGkUAFAl/sQeEACgkQYTmgYVLG kUCdKw//Yvp5zFuwu6Vb3ioILhlobKbmXIWJ7e8PLe2RjrVU3hYwBQlGO6IMY1d9 ujIl8sHsPo72Xnp5lYmraxN0lvSPngqvlXIsmDe0fr0iWsjQl363BnUNQ3vlgyJI 77e76AcksA6YoVqJiqRPYK/ZvKarJIG63SjTq6ztciwLiLo1uOKunvj1AHUhy268 9lbn9IPJ/pfdaiP5n9vgbNGXr34eYuxDV9ZP9ZpK2jgJ0Y9LsMDOGs7wJzJMYsym rXHmYwSp8vJZKXzNKmqOHpLVV41bZSsgDuYHhZzqte8in9GXTZ6PXPyiBzR1PUGW xOPM97xmnIOQ2KA+4h31i4MHSOvmvSsfE05kuchd1tISGLl/jYWVVRYKH88ylSM2 GoaXwKUZEmq2HKFIs/9KRFobs47O/dhFFYFp2W6DpmkB8jxvloIfay4+OjKT5UvR ON6KMQgC2hH6oqZeyKTGzYE/KFWwRaCb6dPnzZNdxLJuANrFxN+JUFyxRrzxIB9w EgoskZA9aIT1LoX0JfXqoFHubsRw2wpJ1pxiSIsUGDQDija8AJ2Q+c6+UUYOfHVE hbD6Eyuuh9yE5jmUpASj/daMNgB1rHT9hd2pHoOa1Un5OSyaZRSgfw4Tvuo6sW8S CPmvNQwfzWliEbGDa1b6bVeotVOJ+bESJ/vOrNdptk5RwZMlgsc= =Y8nS -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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