Running more than one Kiwi on one network

colin99

I'd like to run more than one Kiwi on my single IP passthrough on my Modem -- I guess it is no more complicated than setting one Kiwi to Port 8073 and the other 8074 and just port forwarding accordingly -
Anyone else doing this? Or, if you are running multi Kiwi from one network, what do you do?

Many thanks --
Colin - VA7WWV

jks

Yes, that's how it's usually done.

There is another consideration. If the second Kiwi is really just meant to add more channels to the first then rather than listing both Kiwis publicly you can only list the first. Then configure the first Kiwi to "spill over" incoming connections to the second when the first Kiwi's connections are full. See the "redirect" setting on the first Kiwi's admin config tab. The second Kiwi still has to have a router entry. Just not publicly listed.

If the two Kiwis have different characteristics (e.g. different antennas, filtering etc.) then this doesn't make sense. You probably want to list them both publicly.

9Kkiwi

Hello,

In the next hour or so i will be relocating the Kiwisdr from current location to permanent location where it will be connected to a router which already has a kiwisdr connected to it and also it will have its own antenna connected. I'm worried about issues that could occur from having two kiwi's on a single router. any heads up before doing so?

What i will do before disconnecting it from the currrent location is changing the kiwisdrs info page etc,
should i request a new reverse proxy with a 8074 port? as i have read in the kiwi instructions..

cheers

jks

You do not have to pre-configure a second Kiwi to use port 8074 ahead of moving it to a new network that contains an existing Kiwi using port 8073. At least for the purposes of connecting and configuring each individually. This is because each is uniquely addressable, i.e. local_ip1:8073 versus local_ip2:8073.

The issue becomes how to handle access (public or not) from the Internet side of a router. This is slightly complicated because there are a number of ways to do it. In almost all cases it requires that the second Kiwi have a unique port number (typically 8074). So you would first make that change on the second Kiwi and restart.

Does the first Kiwi use the proxy service? There are many possible reasons it might. The two can simultaneously use two different proxy user keys and be addressed as follows: my_kiwi1.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073 my_kiwi2.proxy.kiwisdr.com Note that port 8073 on kiwisdr.com is always used even though connections to my_kiwi2 will map to the Kiwi at port 8074 on your local network. The unique names you choose "my_kiwi1" and "my_kiwi2" is what distinguishes them. Request a second proxy user key from us to do this (be sure to include a photo of your second Kiwi showing the serial number on top of the PCB).

If you are simply mapping a single public ip address (with dynamic changes by your ISP possibly tracked using a DDNS client) then you need to configure your router with two NAT mappings:

public_ip:8073 => local_ip1:8073
public_ip:8074 => local_ip2:8074

Although it is technically possible for the second Kiwi to run on port 8073 since it is uniquely addressed by the local ip addresses:

public_ip:8073 => local_ip1:8073
public_ip:8074 => local_ip2:8073 (note same port number)

9Kkiwi

Hello Jks,

"unique port number (typically 8074). So you would first make that change on the second Kiwi and restart"

Are you referring to the internal/external port setting under the Network tab?


"Does the first Kiwi use the proxy service?"

yes it's using a proxy service and the one i will be moving is also using a proxy service as you may have expected

jks

Are you referring to the internal/external port setting under the Network tab?

Yes. Those port numbers are almost always changed together. They exist separately to support the last case I mentioned above where the local (internal) and public (external) port numbers are different. Someone had to have this for some reason.

9Kkiwi

ok gotcha
i am about to change the ports now to 8074
restart the kiwi and request a new key via email
move the kiwi to its new location and set the rest up from there

Question, if for any unseen reason i have to have them share an antenna (via splitter) and end up using the "multiple Kiwis to respond to a single URL" option, is there any specific settings i should change on the secondary kiwi?

cheers

jks

Question, if for any unseen reason i have to have them share an antenna (via splitter) and end up using the "multiple Kiwis to respond to a single URL" option, is there any specific settings i should change on the secondary kiwi?

Just follow the directions on the admin page "connect" tab for setting up redirection. Redirection should work when Kiwis are proxied.

In the proxy case even though your second kiwi has a proxy-accessible name (e.g. 9k_kiwi2.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073) you would only be setting public registration on the first Kiwi since the second Kiwi is just a "roll-over" Kiwi for when the first Kiwi's channels are all full. The first Kiwi might be known as 9k_kiwi.proxy.kiwisdr.com:8073

There's nothing preventing you from setting public registration on the second Kiwi. And you might want to do that. As mentioned on the connect tab instructions just don't create a "cycle" by setting up redirection as A -> B -> A. Only set it up as A -> B.

There is an issue with re-directed Kiwis in that map.kiwisdr.com doesn't take the total channel count into account when showing the Kiwi marker pin in yellow indicating "all channels full". That is, the pin will be yellow when Kiwi1's 4 channels are full even though Kiwi2's channels are empty. The pin should really only be yellow when the combined 8-channels are full.

9Kkiwi

ok
Thanx for the help mate
ive sent the email for a new key,
taking the kiwi and heading out to the new location
i'll let you know what happens

jks

Reply sent..