Additional Information

Networking over internet

For particular events like when activating a special event callsign or running a HQ station in the IARU HF Championships, it is possible to network DXLog.net instances over the internet.

VLAN

The most secure way to do this is to rely on a VLAN (virtual LAN) software. There are several available such as:

LogMeIn Hamachi https://www.vpn.net/
FreeLan http://www.freelan.org/
Player.me https://player.me/
ZeroTier https://www.zerotier.com/

Port forwarding

If you are less worried about competitors or government agencies listening in on your contest data, it is possible to route the traffic directly over the internet using port forwarding at the server.

To do this, the following must be observed:

• Only one of the stations should be configured as the server.

• "Connect as client" should not be checked and "UDP network broadcast" should only be enabled if it is

used to communicate with another client on the same LAN.

• The PC acting as server must have a fixed LAN IP address. This is done either by manually configuring the

PC to use a fixed LAN IP address, or by setting up the router in the server's LAN to to always allocate

the same IP address to it.

• The internet connection used by the server PC must either have a fixed public IP

address or use dynamic DNS. Otherwise clients will not be able to reliable connect over the internet.

• The server's IP port (default 9888) must be forwarded to the internet by configuring the router

connecting the server to internet. Only TCP traffic should be forwarded. DXLog.net UDP traffic

is broadcast and should only be used locally.

Example configuration for server for networking over internet

Example of port forwarding UI in router

• All other PC in the multi-station set up should be set up as clients.

• Over the internet, "Server IP" is either the public IP address of the server's internet

connection (e.g. 5.150.248.52) or the dynamic DNS address (e.g. hq.sm7iun.se). Clients connecting

over the internet does not have to enable UDP networking and should not enable a server.

• A client may connect via UDP if it is on the same LAN as the server or a "master client".

A "master client" is a client that connects to the server as a client. A "master client" can act

as a gateway via UDP which means that if several computers on a LAN are part of the same multi station

set up but the server is located elsewhere, only one computer needs to connect as a client and the

rest can use UDP.

Example configuration of client for networking over internet

• Software interlock over internet does not seem reliable. On the other hand there is normally no need for it.
• It is recommended to enable Options->Networking->Don't allow QSO logging if operator isn't logged
• Make sure Options->Enable network is checked