Isn't it frustrating when you connect to a node and find yourself wondering where it is, who runs it, what software it is using and so on?

Well that doesn't happen with XRouter nodes!

At the VERY LEAST there will always be two pages of information available, but more on that later.

The INFO command, which can be abbreviated to I, displays the INFOTEXT set up by the sysop, plus some options:

By typing “I *” you can see that Xrouter's INFO command doesn't just serve up a single measly file, it can serve a whole LIBRARY of them! But as this is just a test system there are only 3

To read a topic, type “I” followed by the topic, for example I OARC

Now, remember I said there were always at least 2 pages available?

Even if the sysop hasn't bothered to install any info files, the command INFO PAGE will always show some information:

And the command INFO MORE shows… more information!

Such information isn't hugely interesting, but its purpose is to help other sysops and users when trying to diagnose network problems.

The INFO command has another trick up its sleeve. If the argument is the NetRom callsign or alias of an XRouter that's in the nodes table, XRouter connects to the “information service” of that node and retrieves the data. For example, if I type INFO KIDDER I get this:

That's a part-finished project. The data is meant to be both human and machine-readable.

From the local console select Alt-H then either:

• scroll the highlight down to Info Topics and hit Enter.
• or just hit the hotkey I.

The list of info topics is displayed in a scrollable pane and the highlight can be moved to the desired topic using the arrow and/or tab keys.

Hitting Enter displays the highlighted topic in a scrollable pane

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