so ive been messing with APRS for a few weeks now and i can see my packets hitting the local digi (W4XXX-2 shows up in my log) but the position is just never showing up on aprs.fi or anywhere online. i've got a TM-D710G with the internal TNC and im using the built in APRS stuff, beacon is set to every 3 minutes, path is WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 which i thought was pretty standard for my area.

checked my callsign and SSID like five times. symbol is set to the little car icon. honestly not sure what else to check, the radio seems to be transmitting fine because i can see it keying up and the digi is clearly hearing me. is there maybe no igate in range or is there something wrong with how im configured? i dont really understand the whole digi vs igate thing even though ive read about it like three times now

yeah the digi and igate are two totally separate things and that trips up a lot of people. the digipeater just retransmits your RF packet so it goes farther over the air, but it doesn't touch the internet at all. you need an igate in range for your packets to actually get uploaded to aprs-is and show up on aprs.fi. some digis have igates built in but plenty dont.

go to aprs.fi and look up the coverage area around you, or check aprsisce or even just look at what stations are showing up near you and see if any of them have the igate symbol (the blue diamond thing). if theres no igate within like 100-150 miles or so with decent coverage you might just be in an RF-only area which honestly does still happen. you could also set up your own igate with a raspberry pi and direwolf, its not that hard and would solve the problem immediately if thats whats going on.

also just double check your path isnt doing something weird. WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1 is fine but some areas the local coordinator actually wants you to drop the WIDE1-1 and just run WIDE2-1 or even WIDE2-2 depending on digi density. wouldnt explain the igate issue but its worth knowing. what part of the country are you in roughly?