PTT button not enabled - UDP blocking on Mac Firewall

[PatoNegro]

I had a problem getting Buster to work on a Mac Mini running OSX El Capitan (10.11.3) with the Mac firewall enabled. I had read about possible problems with UDP port blocking and looked at the firewall options under System Preferences - Security & Privacy. I could not find an option enter specific port settings.

I continued with Buster setup and connected to Reflector 030C. I could hear the traffic but the PTT button was greyed out. The message at the top of Buster window as confusing because it said "Connected to{space}{period}" An email reply from Jeremy (NH6Z) indicated that Buster was not connected. Specifically he said: "Does the status display say “Linked to XXX” and the dock badge change to the reflector name?" For both the answer was NO.

I went back to the firewall settings and clicked Firewall Options. I then clicked the plus sign (+) to add an entry. I was expected some advanced port configuration screen. Instead a file open dialog was presented. Hum, what to choose - some hidden config file setting?? No, all that I needed to do was select Buster in the Applications folder. After that the PPT button was enabled.

Suggested Program Changes:

• Change the status display to explicitly say "Connected to - NOT LINKED TO A REFLECTOR"
• Add a small Help File for Buster to explain how to setup. Include some notes about initially registering on D-Star.
• For a new user not familiar with D-Star, add a pick list of Reflectors using a current list from the internet. May need a text entry box to allow manual entry.

Jon Lockwood - KM4MNX

[mcdermj]

There may be a way to automatically have Buster request the firewall rule. We already handle the NAT-PMP magic for external firewalls, but I didn't think about the on-host one. I'll investigate making this more automatic or obvious for 1.1.

[PatoNegro]

Take a look at the simple help file for EchoMac on Source Forge - [http://echomac.sourceforge.net/index.html]. It has a brief, but outdated, coverage of changing the Mac firewall. That is where I saw the need to setup specific ports for UDP.

I need to learn how to useEchoLink next so that I can to talk from my Mac to my PoFung. I want to demo this feature to some students.