WARNING - THIS IS A KNOWLEDGE DUMP NOT A GUIDE - Info here is being shared by a beginner as is, and is likely wrong or missing key facts. Please use discord to discuss if things aren't making sense!
As the packet network expands, more and more services appear, and more and more nodes are listed on each stations “nodes” command
The nodes command gives users no information on how “far” services are, how many nodes are providing duplicate services - like BBQ / Chat etc…How many are RF vs IP
To counter this node owners may want to consider curating which nodes are available and the paths they will follow
This will provide a very smooth experience for local users, and more advance users who want to “surf the network” may still do so using a combination of MHEARD and CONNECT <PORT> command
The first step is to stop your node from paying attention to node broadcasts. This is done at a PORT level within BPQ32.cfg. For example. within MB7NMK's port definition for the NinoTNC interface on 144.950 i have added
IGNOREUNLOCKEDROUTES=1
This tells BPQ to ignore any nodes broadcasts on this port.
A route is a path to another node - for example the node OUKNOD:GB7OUK-1 is accessed via GB7OUK To white list services on GB7OUK i'll need to add it to the route table.
To do this, add the following to the end of your BPQ32.cfg file
ROUTES: GB7OUK,200,1 GB7ABC,200,1
First - Stop BPQ from running [it automatically writes to various configs on close and will undo all your work]
Find and open BPQNODES.dat
When you start your node, it loads details of which nodes it is aware of from this file. If you prune this down, your node will only display these as options. If you need to add new nodes, you can edit this and restart bpq
NODE ADD OUKNOD:GB7OUK GB7OUK 1 192 NODE ADD MNKBBS:GB7MNK GB7OUK 1 137 NODE ADD MNKNOD:GB7MNK-1 GB7OUK 1 138 NODE ADD OUKCHT:GB7OUK-2 GB7OUK 1 191 NODE ADD OUKDEV:GB7OUK-3 GB7OUK 1 191 NODE ADD VARC:MB7NHA MB7NHA 1 192