November 23rd, 1999: X-NetStat Professional Beta 3 released
Hey guys, I’m going away for Thanksgiving, I’ll be stopping in Chicago, Grand Rapids Michigan, on to Lansing, Brighton, and finally metro Detroit. Yummy.
X-NetStat Beta 3 is out and available to download. I’m really counting on you guys this time. Be sure to tell all your friends about it.
http://fs.arez.com/xns/xnsprob3.exe (1.9 megs)
Have a good one,
-Andrew
November 3rd, 1999: X-NetStat Professional Beta 2 available to public!
Now you can get a taste of what X-NetStat Professional will be like! We’ve just pumped out Beta 2, and its free to download for anyone. You can use it until November 30th – at that time the software will disable itself and you must delete it.
There is absolutely too many things different in XNS pro to list! Check it out!
Download: X-NetStat Professional Beta 2 (1.1 MB)
New Look! (10/15/99)
Website re-done – I managed to renovate the webpage a little so it was easier to navigate, but also had familiarity to it.
What do you think? fresh@arez.com for comments.
Status Update (9/28/99)
XNS Pro – I took about a month off of programming X-NetStat, but things are back on track again. Another dedicated weekend and Beta 1 should be finished, at that point I’ll have new screenshots up and a bit of documentation done.
Server change – After being graciously hosted by BetaNews for several months, I got word today that with the expansion of the BetaNews Network, security is going to be tightened and I won’t be able to live there anymore. So, once again we need to find yet a 4th home for arez.com
Can you help? We need POP3, email forwards, subdomains, perl, ftp, etc. Basically we need somebody to host us who is really flexible and a nice guy. Let me know, we can work out a price!
icos@arez.com
08/07/99 (10:07 PM) – Fresh Software completes Advanced Connection Table design for X-NetStat Professional
Hey all, I got back from a 2 day camping trip this morning, and while I was amongst mosquitos and rain I drew up some plans for X-NetStat’s new table design on a notebook (paper, not computer) I brought along. I filled up three pages of what I wanted to accomplish, impacts the new design would have on the application, and the flowchart of it’s key functions. So armed with 20 ounces of Mountain Dew and a blueprint, I finished the ACT for X-NetStat.
OK, OK, you are all wondering what the hell thing means to you. For people who set XNS to automatically refresh connections, you may notice that it updates the connections in blocks. That is, it redraws every single item even if it hasn’t changed. In the ACT, Netstat compares the new connection list to what’s already in the table, and only changes the items that are needed. The result? The application looks incredibly smoother, it’s easier on your eyes, and it’s easier to navigate your connections. It may sound like peanuts, but this is actually a very important step in the evolution of the XNS user interface.
Other stuff:
I’m looking for a Delphi programmer with Windows NT to help me finish AntiGen 2000. I simply can’t develop for a platform that I don’t have access to. Email me: icos@arez.com and we can make a deal!
07/31/99 – Remember how on June 24th my sound system blew out? Well, exactly 2 hours and 18 minutes ago, my house got hit by lightning. Now my brand new $350 sound system is toast as well. What can I say? It sucks to be me. The only good I can make out of this is that the storms are the beginning of a coldfront that should end this ludicrous weather. It hit 98 degrees today, which is scorching given that I live in north-central Wisconsin. When I woke up today, I opened the front door to grab the mail and the hot air just whooshed into the house full force. The humidity must have been close to 100%, you could feel the air when you walked through it. I don’t think I was outside for more than 30 seconds today..
Anyway, back to the bad news: my computer is toasty and acting funny even though I did have it in a surge protector. Bottom line is less time playing games, more time doing business stuff in silence… bah.
Happy Birthday, Fresh Software! 07/29/99
Today is Fresh Software’s first birthday! I had planned on doing something special, but never got around to it. Ah well! I played StarCraft all day today, so I had fun. It’s been an interesting year with FS. I’ve learned a lot from the media, users, and friends. Not all of it has been easy, but I’m glad that I took the risks that I did. I really look forward to another fun, crazy, and eventful year with Fresh Software. Thanks for everyone’s support, you are the people who make it all worthwhile.
Andrew Niese founder, Fresh Software
Whats new (07/18/99): Going on a 5 day business seminar. I probably wont have access to email, so You guys will just have to sit tight till thursday. See you then. Oh yeah, check out AntiGen 2000.
AntiGen 2000 beta.We lied. AntiGen will continue. We have a beta version of AntiGen 2000 for you to test out. Why beta? Because it won’t clean BO from NT. However, it works perfectly for cleaning Back Orifice and Back Orifice 2000 from Win95 and Win98 machines.It even does custom configurations. Download it if you want to.No bug reports are being accepted.
I tried my best to make it NT compatible before my trip, but alas, it’s 3 am and I’m pooped. I’m sorry. At least Windows 9x users will be able to use it. See you in 5 days.
AntiGen 2000 – doesn’t work under Windows NT or Win2000.
07/15/99 –Arez.com is one year old! Happy birthday!
NEW! The BusJack webpage is now up.
NEW! The X-NetStat and Sentry web pages have been updated with awards.
07/04/99 – Happy 4th of July! As you noticed, I removed the banner (people weren’t clicking it anyway) that used to be directly above, and also trimmed down the main page. All archived news can be found on the news page.
07/03/99 11:54 PM – XNS News: Currently, X-NetStat professional isn’t really professional. It’s pretty unstable and is acting wacky. For some reason, any time a ToolTip is activated when the ViewBar is on, the whole application crashes. When the ViewBar closes, the whole app closes. It’s really annoying to have it like this. This is the part of programming that is *not* fun. I’m off to bed, tomarrow is a massive debug day 🙁
06/29/99 9:49 PM – News.
I’m now accepting applications for the X-NetStat Professional beta test. The Professional version of XNS is geared especially towards Network Administrators and power users running the Windows operating system. It builds on the standard version of XNS, adds advanced hostname lookup, a ViewBar to show connections in real-time even when XNS is minimized, firewall style rulesets, and many other improvements. Please remember that this beta test is aimed at people who would have a serious use for this type of program. If you are interested in joining our growing team, email icos@arez.com with a little bit of information on your computer, operating system, connection (modem, lan-only, cable, t1, etc), and anything else we might be interested in. Thanks!
Gateway delivered my sound system today, and I figured out that the only thing that blew on the old one was the AC adapter… sheesh. My Intellimouse wheel keeps jamming, and I’m about to go on a hunt for a really tiny screwdriver so I can “disect” my mouse and fix ‘er up.
-Andrew
06/29/99 2:17 AM – X-NetStat Professional worklog: It’s been a while since I’ve done work on XNS Pro worth mentioning. Today I added the Advanced Network Status window, which shows all the TCP/IP stack details for ICMP, TCP, UDP, and IP variables. Real hardcore stuff. It also shows the data bytes sent, data bytes received, and includes LED’s similar to the ones Microsoft uses in Dial Up Networking for when you send and receive data, as well as other modem variables. Alpha 1 should be out soon, people interested in beta testing can email me.
Its about time to archive this news page! Goodnight.
-Andrew
06/28/99 10:30 PM – Discussion board now open! We’ve added a discussion forum as a general means of communication between our users and visitors. There still may be a few bugs to work out, but check it out!
06/24/99 11:14 PM – XNS Pro worklog: Got the Advanced Lookup & tracing dialog finished and bugs fixed, shouldn’t change much between now and final release. Speaking of final release, I marked the calendar for July 22. Any ideas on pricing? I’m thinking $20-$30 bucks.
Jon Holmes once again helped out by writing a parser utility that read a raw text database of all known TCP ports and outputted it into an Excel file. I’m going to use Excel to edit the port information with “friendly” descriptions, and then Jon will write another converter which will write it to its own compressed, more efficient, proprietary format to be distributed with XNS pro. This “Port Information” database will help diagnose what each connection is there for. Respects go out to my man Coda Hale from Independent Software for hooking me up with the port information text file.
In other news, last night I blew out my sound system playing Jack of All Trades just a wee bit too loud. Luckily, those nice fellas at Gateway told me I was still under warranty, and a new one is coming within a week. However, life without music kills me, and headphones just don’t do songs like that justice. Sigh.
Keep the emails coming, I read them all, and listen to every idea people tell me. Signing off..
-Andy
06/24/99 3:22 AM – XNS Pro worklog: It’s the end of day 5 of X-NetStat Professional development, and today I added lots of stuff. The “Listen Panel” now has a “Port Test” button that connects to a listening port on your system as to help identify the purpose of that listening port. Also with the Listen Panel, the grid cells are highlighted as you move your mouse over them when in “Port Info” mode. Also added a line of code to help find the right cells when clicking out-of-grid-bounds. Fixed a few bugs along the way to make it really clean.
I continued work on the Advanced Lookup dialog today, and got Traceroute working just as I wanted. You can now right click on a hop and perform an ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, or regular Internic whois on it. Whois now works as excepted and has its own status panel.
Also on the Lookup form, I added buttons for handy tools that quickly let the admin email authorities on a queried domain, lookup detailed contact information for the domain contacts, go to the domain website, and of course, save the results to a file. The save-to-file, emailing, and website buttons work like a charm, tomarrow I import old SuperSnoop code to look up domain name profiles, and hook up a save dialog for each whois result box.
Signing off.
06/23/99 1:18 AM – XNS Pro worklog: I had a hell of a time today getting the Toolbar docking to work in harmony with form resizing, whether the ListPanel is visible or not. It works perfectly in all but one situation, which users aren’t likely to come across anyway. I decided to leave it at that, as trying to fix that could create 10 other problems. So, its looking solid, even though it took up 90% of my programming time today. I started the PortInfo dialog today, I will have to hook it up to a database. I also started the Advanced Lookup & Tracing tool to help find more information on connections, currently Traceroute and Whois work. Holmes will have TRule done in 2 days, so I’ll keep improving and adding onto other areas until then.
Speaking of XNS, I won another award for it today… time to update the webpage again.
06/22/99 3:26 AM – XNS Pro worklog: I figured out how I wanted to display listening connections! They just didn’t fit in the main connection table. Check out the “main” screenshot below. Yes, you heard me right, I got screenshots! OK, maybe I’m the only one excited, but hey, X-NetStat Professional is really shaping up nicely. I just fixed some resizing issue and now everything is super-dee-duper. I have Jon Holmes working with me on the rules, tomarrow I will finish up the viewbar and do whatever else I can do (so long as to avoid doing the rules!) Anyway, goodnight, and feast your eyes upon these:
06/21/99 7:52 PM – XNS Pro worklog: Had some real rough waves when I tried to switch the forms from AutoCreate to runtime create (saves memory and loads app faster), but I finally got a way to get it working with the help of Jon. The ViewBar is really kickin! It has a smart-menu now, it resizes itself when something is too big, automatically scrolls connections smoothly, displays system time, etc. Smoothed out the bugs, and started the options frame for the viewbar. System administrators will love it!
Sorry, no screenshots. Gotta dash.
06/20/99 10:31 PM – XNS Pro worklog: Didn’t want to work on rules so put in the viewbar. Connection navigation is working with error trapping, and it looks good. You can right click on the items to copy each property to the clipboard (after throwing out my attempts at having read-only subitems). Groovy.
I watched Pirates of Silicon Valley tonight, very good movie!
06/20/99 2:25 AM – XNS Pro worklog: Touched up cache editor with cursor and object enable/disable feedback when its loading and saving. Got DNS Options section mostly done, now you can change your TCP/IP name servers on the fly, and have up to 4 backup servers in case of failure. I’m rather proud of the way I designed the interface for that part.
Tried starting the “add rule” dialog, but then I realized I needed to give it more thought. Tomorrow (er, later this day) I’m going to do a flowchart of how I want the rule system to work, and throw in the ViewBar if I feel adventurous. Screenshots will be posted by the end of the day.
06/19/99 – Cache Editor is PERFECT. Taking a break from coding now (5:21 pm)
06/19/99 – I’ve been running on caffine for a while now, so I decided to get some late night coding in. I officially started X-NetStat Professional tonight, working from the current 3.0 source. I started work on the options dialog, which is multi-paged to accomodate the hefty amount of options, and dreampt up the cache editor, which looks smooth, but can not save to the cache yet. Tomarrow I will start programming the “rulesets”, just like a firewall, finish the cache editor, and maybe work on the “ip address book”. Should be fun!
Time to sleep, its 4:30 am.
06/18/99 – Are you running Windows 98 with multiple monitors? I want YOU to help test Sentry 2.2! Email me at icos@arez.com. Hopefully, 2.2 will fix a multiple monitor bug as well large-font mode problems. Any other suggestions will be taken into consideration, just email me at the address above.
06/11/99 – Things to do:
Create BusJack web page
Create TopTen list web page
Create Port Magic web page
Create Links web page
Update Sentry web page with awards
06/10/99 – Custom programming: Uploaded the custom programming page.
06/10/99 – XNS patch: An updated version of X-NetStat has been uploaded to correct a registry problem for people running Windows NT who were NOT administrators. If you had a problem with XNS running on NT, please re-download the file xns3setup.exe. Sorry for the trouble.
X-NetStat 3 released!
06/09/99 –Fresh Software releases brand new X-NetStat 3.0
Fresh Software today released a new version of its popular X-NetStat software, an application which monitors your current network and Internet connections.
The new version, 3.0, is a major upgrade from all previous versions. The software has been completely rewritten from scratch in hopes of optimizing the program. All functions in the code have been streamlined, program overhead has been kept to a minimum, and the program now runs much faster. Brand new version 3 supports several exciting features:
–Native SNMP and Multithreading: X-NetStat no longer relies on an external program call to fetch its connection data, which prevents “stalling” and means users can visually see the progress of connection refreshing. Native SNMP also allows XNS to now run flawlessly in Windows NT and Windows 2000, and reduces memory usage significantly.
–DNS Caching: A new option in XNS 3 will store DNS information in memory, which means an IP address only has to be resolved one time to retrieve a hostname. This increases the speed of a refresh by up to 95%! The DNS lookup procedures themselves have also been rewritten to use less memory and execute faster.
–AutoRefresh: X-NetStat can now automatically update the connection information at a specified interval, showing connections in realtime.
–Sleek new interface: XNS 3 has a smart, dockable toolbar that quickly allows users to access all of the programs functions and features. The connection table is more intuitive, allowing the end-user to rearrange the columns and sort the items within the table.
Fresh Software has received a number of ideas and suggestions from users of previous versions. Most of those suggestions have been implemented in this new version, as well. Fresh Software welcomes and encourages all users of this new version to submit feedback to help improve future versions of X-NetStat.
Because of the amount of work and effort put into this new version, Fresh Software has decided make the program Shareware and charge a minimal amount of money for it. Users can download the program and use it free of charge for a total of 30 days without any restrictions, but once the evaluation period is over, a reminder will be displayed to register their software. The cost of X-NetStat 3.0 is a mere $5, and can be paid over the web, with credit card, check, or cash.
We hope you thoroughly enjoy this new version of X-NetStat, and we thank you for all your patience and support for this new version.
X-NetStat web page (updated)
Download NOW: here
—
06/09/99: Counters working again: The counters will be fixed one by one shortly. The data is from 02/24/99 though 😛
05/31/99 – Updated some pages. AntiGen, and SuperSnoop pages have been updated with new navigation bar and some important information. XNS: I have the finished installation file. All that remains is that I change a single URL in the “readme.txt” (registration URL) and then I upload it.
I have a Spanish, History, English, and Publications final tomarrow. Spanish should be the only mind-destroying one, but wish me luck for all of them. Hasta luego.
-FS
05/28/99 – Sentry 2.1 now available. Sentry 2.1 is now online. Changes from 2.0:
What’s new in Sentry? =================== Version 2.1 ==========
**Source code optimizations performed by Andrew Bent:**
– Source code indentation was standardized on ALL source files. – Auto-Centering added to the main form. Code is contained in the OnResize procedure for the form. The frame “All” was added to the form itself. “All” contains all of the components on the form and used for centering only. No functional changes were made. – Old commented debug code removed. – Encryption procedure was consolidated into one unit. It was present in two. – Debug procedures that began with “Exit” were removed. – Looked over loops for efficiency purposes, most seem good.
**Changes made by Andrew Niese** New Features:
———————-
* Sentry will now read SafeShutDown in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Sentry\Security. If the entry is there (by default Sentry doesn’t use it) and the value is “1” (string), then Sentry will use the Application.Terminate to shut down as opposed to Halt. Application.Terminate is supposedly more “proper” than Halt, even though no problems have been found by using Halt. Consider changing this registry value if you have problems when exiting sentry. *When an intruder puts a CD-ROM in the drive expecting AutoPlay to bring up Windows Explorer, it now not only catches it but also puts a notice in the failed attempts box.
Feature Improvements
———————————- * Input fields now always get cleared and re-focused on the Password protection forms, so you don’t have to re-click it each time * Nag screen no longer has timer, OK is always enabled. * Center and Lower graphics both display “error loading graphic file..” message when an error occurs * The customization images now clean themselves after processing options * The failed attempts list now is smoother, looks better * Added a few hints to Away message prompt * Encryption function improved
Bug Fixes
—————— * When hitting the ScreenSaver button without defining the default ScreenSaver, Explorer no longer opens up, but tells that default saver isn’t set * Taskbar will now NEVER pop up when Sentry is running. * “Leftover taskbar entry” bug fixed
For those interested in obtaining the newer version:
Filename
Size
Server location
Description
sentry21full.exe
1.96 MB
Virginia
The full installation of Sentry for
users who never installed before
sentry21update.exe
.62 MB
Virginia
Upgrade from Sentry 2.0 to 2.1
-FS
05/27/99 – We are back online. After 3 weeks or so (!) of downtime, we are back up. NEVER use galaxy-web.net as your web hoster, they are a scam. Nate Mook was nice enough to share his dedicated server for betanews.com with us for a reasonable price. The server is now located in Virginia, its fast, and the smallest pipeline between the site and the CAIS backbone is a single 10-mbps hop. Rock on! The server is fast, the guy is a friend, and finally, just maybe, Fresh Software and arez.com may have a permanent home. Sadly, I was unable to get any email from fresh@arez.com for months. We are still working on getting things set up. You can expect all of Fresh Software’s webpages to be 100% working in a few weeks.
BTW, I only have a couple days of school left, so I wont be as busy. Anyway, on to the status updates:
X-NetStat 3 – I decided to charge 5 bucks a copy for XNS 3. You get a 30-day nag-free trial period, and after the 30 days is exceeded you get a nag message each time the program starts. You will be able to pay by credit card over the web, check, etc. I finished the code, and beta testers are looking at it currently. Expect it in a week.
Sentry 2.1 – featuring optimized code, several bugfixes, and a new feature or 2. It’s been done for a while, but when I was about to upload it, galaxy-web had more turbulence. Argh. I’ll upload it in a day or 2, I promise!
Web pages: XNS webpage will be completely updated when XNS 3 lands. I am currently working on a custom programming webpage. All pages will be re-done with the standard toolbar like the one on the top of this page.
Other: TopTen list maker will be my next short-term goal, and I have begun thinking about SuperSnoop 2 some more. I’m probably NOT going to use the alpha code that I started writing, it came from a while ago, contains unefficient code, and is too much like a utility belt. I am thinking that I may want to have SuperSnoop more intelligent, with wizards, and AI to help locate the person you are looking for. I want it to be more automatic. We shall see.
I got a CD-rom burner! Woohoo! Thanks to Eric Zimmerman, my best Sentry beta tester who gave me a good deal on it. You the man!
See you guys later,
-Andrew / FS
04/23/99 – Sentry receives multiple awards. Hey guys, it was initially quiet after the Sentry launch, but things are now starting to get more interesting. Check out the awards that Sentry has won!
The highest out of three awards that topfile.com rates software with.
5 stars – ZDNet’s Hotfiles give this to software that is “Outstanding in all respects”
winfiles.com
Each award is the highest that the software sites have. I’m feeling good 🙂 Some software sites still haven’t uploaded Sentry yet, so I may have to contact them about that.
Speaking of Sentry…
Sentry code revision in works
We have just started working on a de-bloat code optimizing process for Sentry. When this is finished, the source code will be much easier to read and modify later, and will also run faster and smaller. Thanks to Andrew Bent for tackling this project!
X-NetStat 3.0 status
X-NetStat 3.0 has been code-complete for 3 weeks now, sitting untouched without documentation. The reason why I am not releasing XNS 3 right away is because I am trying to consider whether I should charge for it or not. X-NetStat 2.5 was an OK program, but X-NetStat III is 1000% better and is completely rewritten.
What do you guys think? Should it be free for non-commercial personal use, and $10 for commercial use and rely on the honor system? Should it be completely functional for 30 days, and then have a nag screen after that until you pay $5? I’d be very interested in hearing your opinions! Email me personally at icos@digitalchat.net. The sooner I decide, the sooner this great new version will be out!
We’re on a new server!
You may have noticed a faster connection to arez.com starting about the 20th of April. This is because the server transfer we told you about (yes, from January!) finally happened. However, we are still having technical difficulties. For this reason, we ask you contact us at fresh@wilter.com instead of fresh@arez.com.Thanks for bearing with us!
Wrapping things up for this update..
Things are finally changing at Fresh Software. We released our first commercial program, and are beginning to see money coming in! Our “staff” has expanded to several volunteers, which will be named later. It’s cool watching your business evolve!
In terms of the future, TopTen list maker will be finished once X-NetStat 3 is out the door. After that comes work on the phantom project SuperSnoop, which will incorporate Mozilla technology and several UI inclusions. All the while, background work will be done on future versions of Sentry, which will be camera enabled by version 2.5. Don’t worry, there is free upgrades for all registered users…
If you have any questions, ask. Until then, stay tuned for more news from Fresh Software.
Regards,
-Andrew Niese
Sentry 2 Professional now available!
03/30/99 – Check it all out at the Sentry page!
03/14/99 – Whoa, what’s going on with Fresh Software?
Wow. Its been a while. Time for a status check on everything:
Server Change
We have been having problems with our new V-host. Apparently they lost our order. Don’t ask! If things work out and we switch, we’ll let you know. If for some reason this page goes down, go to http://www.wilter.com/fs. If that doesn’t work, check betanews.com for our current location. Sorry for the craziness.
Sentry
A week ago we released Sentry Beta 3. Yeah, the last news we told you about Sentry was alpha 2. Since then, there has been beta 1, 2, and now 3. Guess what? We have gotten NO BUG REPORTS for beta 3. You can consider Sentry done. The only thing left is the documentation, which is about 70-80% done. Woohoo!
X-NetStat III
After beta 3 of Sentry was released, I was too bored to write the documentation much, so I started X-NetStat 3.0. XNS 3 is a complete rewrite of the code, and compared to 2.6, DAMN IS IT SMOOTH! Whats new:
Sleek new interface : I have been told XNS 3 is “Very Win98”. No more clutter.
Native SNMP : No more relying on netstat.exe ! This means Windows NT COMPATIBILITY.
Completely multithreaded code : No more stalls, no leftover memory!
Connection AutoRefresh : You now have an option to automatically update connections, showing them in real time. You choose the interval.
DNS Caching: One of the best new features, DNS Caching reduces the amount of time to lookup hostnames by 95% or more. Also, the DNS resolution code uses less resources and communicates directly with the Winsock.
All these features are included in the standard edition of X-NetStat 3. The professional version will have firewall abilities, rulesets, and IP tracing features. Standard version is free, Professional will cost money (i have still not made a cent from writing free software)
Expect the standard version out midweek. I have a term paper to write.
BusJack 1.1
BusJack 1.1 has been released. If you were running windows in Large-fonts mode, you were unable to see the “Next” buttons in BusJack 1.0. Basically, it made BusJack look like it just sat there, doing nothing. Whoops, sorry.
Get 1.1 here.
-FS
01/27/99 – Server change looms
With the launch of Arez Internet Services in the beginning of February, the arez.com domain name is being transfered to a new, more powerful server. Because Fresh Software is graciously hosted by arez, the site may be affected with some problems.
The domain transfer will take place in approximently 4 days. With any luck, it should be uneventful. However, don’t be surprised if we experience some downtime. If for some reason a disaster occurs, and the website is down for more than a day, you can go to http://www.wctc.net/~uncommon/fs/ for any news regarding the problem, and the status of it.
We’d like to thank DeZines for hosting us since July, for offering superb service and tech support. If you are interested in a great provider, go to their webpage and see what they have to offer.
See you in a few days!
-Arez and Fresh Software
01/18/99 – Fresh Software releases BusJack in response to NetBus 2.0 announcement
On 01/16/99, Carl-Fredrik Neikter announced a Beta version of NetBus 2.0 Pro, a brand new version of the popular trojan horse. The NetBus trojan, once installed on your computer system, can open it up for virtually anyone on the Internet to toy with. This high danger program is actually not uncommon – the trojan can easily be sent over email, ICQ, and anybody can become unknowingly infected by simple clicking a program someone sent.
In responce, Fresh Software created BusJack, probably the easiest way to rid your computer from all varieties of NetBus. BusJack is similiar to another program written by Fresh Software….
Five days after the Back Orifice trojan was released, Fresh Software produced AntiGen, the first-of-its kind remedy program to automatically remove the trojan. Like AntiGen, BusJack automatically detects the trojan horse and diagnoses the infection level. But Because AntiGen 1.0 was plauged with a few problems, we have taken extra care to make sure that BusJack works 100% of the time. After a complete lookover by our beta testers, we can confirm that BusJack will remove any combination of NetBus 1.x and 2.x.
BusJack is also different than AntiGen in that it can stop all versions of NetBus from running on the spot, without the need for a reboot. And if that’s not enough, after disabling, halting, and destroying NetBus, BusJack will also take a stab at guessing who sent you the trojan.
We did our best to make sure that the first version was as flawless as possible, but we are very open to feedback. Included in the archive is a feedback utility to contact Fresh Software. Just click the about box, and the “Feedback Engine” link.
We hope BusJack saves you some time and makes your life a little easier. Remember, be careful out there!
-Fresh Software
BusJack 1.0 – 426 kb
01/14/99 – Sentry 2 Alpha 2 released
Sentry 2.0 Alpha 2 has been released to our QA testers, with a huge thumbs up. After tediously checking and rechecking that each of the options worked OK (Assigned to global variables, Saved to the registry, Loaded from the registry, Reassigned, Reflected changes on the options window and finally processed the options), Alpha 2 was compiled and sent out.
The milestone in this build is that testers can see the full potential of the product, and get to see the advanced features work before their eyes. Sentry has had massive work done on it in the past week, and it steadily getting better and better. The next pre-release build of Sentry will be Beta 1, and after that all that remains is to work out the final bugs, create a feedback program, and package.
Sentry 2 could be available by early February.
Betanews.com was one of the few sites that got an Alpha 2 distribution, and was kind enough to evaluate some of the features. Check out the Sentry 2.0 preview at betanews.
Also, thanks to help from Jon Holmes, the Sentry Launcher app is 99% done. It’s already been integrated into Sentry.
See ya around,
-FS
01/06/99 – Project progress: Since Fresh Software is a one programmer company, it is impossible to create multiple programs at the same time. Sometimes I can work on something dedicated for a week, sometimes I will work on it in bits and pieces. The 4 current, big projects I am working on are as follows:
Sentry – Camera support has been delayed for later versions and will not make it in the 2.0 release. I need to get the loading, saving,and the applying of the user settings. I need to do minor work on the message system, and create a launch program. After that, implementation of a log file system (easy), and registering Sentry as a system screensaver in the registry. Substantial debugging, and then its done. The project could be finished as early as March or as late as summer.
SuperSnoop – Hasn’t been touched in ages, but I did do a little work on it tonight. Already has interface building blocks and limited functionality. Needs settings, final UI decisions, OVERALL FEATURE IMPROVEMENT and tweaking, registration scheme, report system, and some planned features haven’t even been started. Most likely will be finished after Sentry, maybe in the fall. (SuperSnoop first came on the idea table in the Summer of 1997).
X-NetStat 3 – Not started, except for testing API calls, which do work very efficiently. Features have been drawn up and ideas presented, but is still a long ways off. It is possible that this could be a “side program” and be finished within a week, such as spring break. No idea when a public version will be out.
Top Ten list maker – What else is there to change? Perhaps a few options to present the lists better, but a working beta is out, and you downloaded the program for the laughs, and not the features, right?
So, with any luck, you will see some major progress over Spring Break and Summer Vacation periods. We’ll keep you posted!
-FS
12/27/98 – Loose ends: I am leaving to go to a funeral tomorrow in New York, and won’t be back until 01/06/99. What a way to spend New Years, eh?
A beta of a new program, Top Ten List Maker, is now available for download. It is extremely important that you read the contents of the About box!
I didn’t have time to upload the brand new version of “AntiGen”, but there is a patch available for those who wish to make their versions legally compliant with Sybari Software’s request to change the name (Sybari owns the trademark “AntiGen”).
This updater utility is the first commercial use of JPS, a patching system for developers to easily deploy updates to their applications. JPS is a program in development by
Jon Holmes, a great friend of mine. Download here
Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!
-FS
12/13/98 – X-NetStat 2.6 is released! Check out the X-NetStat webpage.
AntiGen update tomarrow!
12/10/98 – Website gets a New Navigation bar! This is the first step in giving the website a facelift.
12/04/98 – X-NetStat webpage finished!
11/30/98 – Upcoming events:
AntiGen to be renamed. Due to legal trouble, the popular AntiGen program will be renamed within a week. A press release will follow in a few days explaining the whole crazy situation.
X-NetStat webpage to be finished, FINALLY! Expect it by the 3rd of December.
Arez Internet Services to go into full effect: by the 1st of 1999.
11/14/98 – Stop right there! All of the software that we develop is FREEWARE, and we don’t get a cent for making them. I am a poor guy, and I need some people to click on that banner, as I dont have a “real” job. So go ahead and make this kid’s day: Click on the above banner, follow through to “Mamma’s” web site, and do a search for something (it gives impressive results, so it will be worth your while, anyway!)
So thanks for your support, its a way of showing me that people do care about the programs I write. On to the real news…
AntiGen 1.02 released! This fixes all of the bugs users have reported to me in the past few months. Please view the readme file. Thanks. Also, the AntiGen FAQ is updated.
AntiGen web page
AntiGen 1.02 download
10/31/98 – Happy Halloween! Independant Software has released Genius 2, the latest version of its internet utilities suite. Having beta tested the product for a long time myself, I can assure you that its an extremely handy program for internet users. Get it!
Genius 2 Homepage
10/12/98 – I got the drivers for the QuickCam, and have started beta testing Sentry for compatible video capture devices.
Our buddies at betanews.com got a facelift! Check it out, they have some great stuff there.
The FAQ for AntiGen has started! Check it out here. The new version of AntiGen has yet to be tested, because I dont like having trojans on my computer 😛
It will get done, dont worry! BTW – I’m also working on a program for BetaNews .. its a freeware program, and should prove handy. More information on that later.
-FS
10/01/98 – UPDATES COMING! I am going to be in New York Friday to Monday to see my Grandma for the last time. She has pancreatic cancer, and only has a couple months left, if that. Wish me luck.
I have a QuickCam in possesion, and am looking for the drivers for the greyscale ( B&W ) model. Connectix only has the driver upgrades, which will not install unless you have the original files. If you have the original disks / drivers, feel free to upload them via anonymous FTP to arez.com, in the pub directory. Include it in a ZIP file with your name and email, and you get a free copy of Sentry Pro. Your help is appreciated! You can also email us. Again, thanks a million for any help you can offer.
As soon as the Camera gets working, Sentry development will finish and SuperSnoop will be started.
-Andrew
09/24/98 – Whoa! Fresh Software was on TV in Brazil, about the whole Back Orifice ordeal! I have been FLOODED with emails, pages, etc on this program. This is why there are Portuguese translations here and there, to help me maintain my sanity over the initial flood of Brazilian visitors 🙂
I must say, this has been quite an experience.
-Andrew
09/21/98 – I am working on AntiGen 1.02, and an online FAQ for it. I will test out the build tomorrow when I have more time. Also, some of you may remember a program called Aurora from the former group Esoteric. Although in a crude state now, it may become a Fresh Software product 🙂
You can download it now, but its kinda in a weird state… have fun. BTW, check the automatic updater in about a week for a product update.
Finally, my Quake 2 CD is scratched! Gah! I have only had it 10 days! 😛
-FS
09/20/98 – Sorry about the delay in updates. Added a previous news page to avoid getting crowded. You can check out the arez.com page to see the top FS logo candidate. Logo page will be updated soon.
Sentry project is stalled (DOH!) until I get a camera of some kind, whether it is a quickcam or something else. A friend sent me one, but apparently it takes the juice from the keyboard and requires a special adapter. I haven’t made any progress in about 3 weeks.
SuperSnoop is stalled until Sentry is finished. All other projects are not high in priority.
I may start work on a CD Player program, because I think that all of those out there suck. If I were to do it, I would ask for a ton of user feedback, having them tell me what they hate the most about the Windows CD player and all the others. This is still in a brainstorming state, because there are SOOOOO many ways to make the UI (User Interface).
I am really going to try to get an AntiGen FAQ online sometime about all of the questions that keep coming up. I apologize for not being able to respond to most of the Emails I get! Perhaps a new version is in order, too.
Previous News
Old News
November 23rd, 1999: X-NetStat Professional Beta 3 released
Hey guys, I’m going away for Thanksgiving, I’ll be stopping in Chicago, Grand Rapids Michigan, on to Lansing, Brighton, and finally metro Detroit. Yummy.
X-NetStat Beta 3 is out and available to download. I’m really counting on you guys this time. Be sure to tell all your friends about it.
http://fs.arez.com/xns/xnsprob3.exe (1.9 megs)
Have a good one,
-Andrew
November 3rd, 1999: X-NetStat Professional Beta 2 available to public!
Now you can get a taste of what X-NetStat Professional will be like! We’ve just pumped out Beta 2, and its free to download for anyone. You can use it until November 30th – at that time the software will disable itself and you must delete it.
There is absolutely too many things different in XNS pro to list! Check it out!
Download: X-NetStat Professional Beta 2 (1.1 MB)
New Look! (10/15/99)
Website re-done – I managed to renovate the webpage a little so it was easier to navigate, but also had familiarity to it.
What do you think? fresh@arez.com for comments.
Status Update (9/28/99)
XNS Pro – I took about a month off of programming X-NetStat, but things are back on track again. Another dedicated weekend and Beta 1 should be finished, at that point I’ll have new screenshots up and a bit of documentation done.
Server change – After being graciously hosted by BetaNews for several months, I got word today that with the expansion of the BetaNews Network, security is going to be tightened and I won’t be able to live there anymore. So, once again we need to find yet a 4th home for arez.com
Can you help? We need POP3, email forwards, subdomains, perl, ftp, etc. Basically we need somebody to host us who is really flexible and a nice guy. Let me know, we can work out a price!
icos@arez.com
08/07/99 (10:07 PM) – Fresh Software completes Advanced Connection Table design for X-NetStat Professional
Hey all, I got back from a 2 day camping trip this morning, and while I was amongst mosquitos and rain I drew up some plans for X-NetStat’s new table design on a notebook (paper, not computer) I brought along. I filled up three pages of what I wanted to accomplish, impacts the new design would have on the application, and the flowchart of it’s key functions. So armed with 20 ounces of Mountain Dew and a blueprint, I finished the ACT for X-NetStat.
OK, OK, you are all wondering what the hell thing means to you. For people who set XNS to automatically refresh connections, you may notice that it updates the connections in blocks. That is, it redraws every single item even if it hasn’t changed. In the ACT, Netstat compares the new connection list to what’s already in the table, and only changes the items that are needed. The result? The application looks incredibly smoother, it’s easier on your eyes, and it’s easier to navigate your connections. It may sound like peanuts, but this is actually a very important step in the evolution of the XNS user interface.
Other stuff:
I’m looking for a Delphi programmer with Windows NT to help me finish AntiGen 2000. I simply can’t develop for a platform that I don’t have access to. Email me: icos@arez.com and we can make a deal!
07/31/99 – Remember how on June 24th my sound system blew out? Well, exactly 2 hours and 18 minutes ago, my house got hit by lightning. Now my brand new $350 sound system is toast as well. What can I say? It sucks to be me. The only good I can make out of this is that the storms are the beginning of a coldfront that should end this ludicrous weather. It hit 98 degrees today, which is scorching given that I live in north-central Wisconsin. When I woke up today, I opened the front door to grab the mail and the hot air just whooshed into the house full force. The humidity must have been close to 100%, you could feel the air when you walked through it. I don’t think I was outside for more than 30 seconds today..
Anyway, back to the bad news: my computer is toasty and acting funny even though I did have it in a surge protector. Bottom line is less time playing games, more time doing business stuff in silence… bah.
Happy Birthday, Fresh Software! 07/29/99
Today is Fresh Software’s first birthday! I had planned on doing something special, but never got around to it. Ah well! I played StarCraft all day today, so I had fun. It’s been an interesting year with FS. I’ve learned a lot from the media, users, and friends. Not all of it has been easy, but I’m glad that I took the risks that I did. I really look forward to another fun, crazy, and eventful year with Fresh Software. Thanks for everyone’s support, you are the people who make it all worthwhile.
Andrew Niese
founder, Fresh Software
Whats new (07/18/99): Going on a 5 day business seminar. I probably wont have access to email, so You guys will just have to sit tight till thursday. See you then. Oh yeah, check out AntiGen 2000.
AntiGen 2000 beta.We lied. AntiGen will continue. We have a beta version of AntiGen 2000 for you to test out. Why beta? Because it won’t clean BO from NT. However, it works perfectly for cleaning Back Orifice and Back Orifice 2000 from Win95 and Win98 machines.It even does custom configurations. Download it if you want to.No bug reports are being accepted.
I tried my best to make it NT compatible before my trip, but alas, it’s 3 am and I’m pooped. I’m sorry. At least Windows 9x users will be able to use it. See you in 5 days.
AntiGen 2000 – doesn’t work under Windows NT or Win2000.
07/15/99 –Arez.com is one year old! Happy birthday!
NEW! The BusJack webpage is now up.
NEW! The X-NetStat and Sentry web pages have been updated with awards.
07/04/99 – Happy 4th of July! As you noticed, I removed the banner (people weren’t clicking it anyway) that used to be directly above, and also trimmed down the main page. All archived news can be found on the news page.
07/03/99 11:54 PM – XNS News: Currently, X-NetStat professional isn’t really professional. It’s pretty unstable and is acting wacky. For some reason, any time a ToolTip is activated when the ViewBar is on, the whole application crashes. When the ViewBar closes, the whole app closes. It’s really annoying to have it like this. This is the part of programming that is *not* fun. I’m off to bed, tomarrow is a massive debug day 🙁
06/29/99 9:49 PM – News.
I’m now accepting applications for the X-NetStat Professional beta test. The Professional version of XNS is geared especially towards Network Administrators and power users running the Windows operating system. It builds on the standard version of XNS, adds advanced hostname lookup, a ViewBar to show connections in real-time even when XNS is minimized, firewall style rulesets, and many other improvements. Please remember that this beta test is aimed at people who would have a serious use for this type of program. If you are interested in joining our growing team, email icos@arez.com with a little bit of information on your computer, operating system, connection (modem, lan-only, cable, t1, etc), and anything else we might be interested in. Thanks!
Gateway delivered my sound system today, and I figured out that the only thing that blew on the old one was the AC adapter… sheesh. My Intellimouse wheel keeps jamming, and I’m about to go on a hunt for a really tiny screwdriver so I can “disect” my mouse and fix ‘er up.
-Andrew
06/29/99 2:17 AM – X-NetStat Professional worklog: It’s been a while since I’ve done work on XNS Pro worth mentioning. Today I added the Advanced Network Status window, which shows all the TCP/IP stack details for ICMP, TCP, UDP, and IP variables. Real hardcore stuff. It also shows the data bytes sent, data bytes received, and includes LED’s similar to the ones Microsoft uses in Dial Up Networking for when you send and receive data, as well as other modem variables. Alpha 1 should be out soon, people interested in beta testing can email me.
Its about time to archive this news page! Goodnight.
-Andrew
06/28/99 10:30 PM – Discussion board now open! We’ve added a discussion forum as a general means of communication between our users and visitors. There still may be a few bugs to work out, but check it out!
06/24/99 11:14 PM – XNS Pro worklog: Got the Advanced Lookup & tracing dialog finished and bugs fixed, shouldn’t change much between now and final release. Speaking of final release, I marked the calendar for July 22. Any ideas on pricing? I’m thinking $20-$30 bucks.
Jon Holmes once again helped out by writing a parser utility that read a raw text database of all known TCP ports and outputted it into an Excel file. I’m going to use Excel to edit the port information with “friendly” descriptions, and then Jon will write another converter which will write it to its own compressed, more efficient, proprietary format to be distributed with XNS pro. This “Port Information” database will help diagnose what each connection is there for. Respects go out to my man Coda Hale from Independent Software for hooking me up with the port information text file.
In other news, last night I blew out my sound system playing Jack of All Trades just a wee bit too loud. Luckily, those nice fellas at Gateway told me I was still under warranty, and a new one is coming within a week. However, life without music kills me, and headphones just don’t do songs like that justice. Sigh.
Keep the emails coming, I read them all, and listen to every idea people tell me. Signing off..
-Andy
06/24/99 3:22 AM – XNS Pro worklog: It’s the end of day 5 of X-NetStat Professional development, and today I added lots of stuff. The “Listen Panel” now has a “Port Test” button that connects to a listening port on your system as to help identify the purpose of that listening port. Also with the Listen Panel, the grid cells are highlighted as you move your mouse over them when in “Port Info” mode. Also added a line of code to help find the right cells when clicking out-of-grid-bounds. Fixed a few bugs along the way to make it really clean.
I continued work on the Advanced Lookup dialog today, and got Traceroute working just as I wanted. You can now right click on a hop and perform an ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, or regular Internic whois on it. Whois now works as excepted and has its own status panel.
Also on the Lookup form, I added buttons for handy tools that quickly let the admin email authorities on a queried domain, lookup detailed contact information for the domain contacts, go to the domain website, and of course, save the results to a file. The save-to-file, emailing, and website buttons work like a charm, tomarrow I import old SuperSnoop code to look up domain name profiles, and hook up a save dialog for each whois result box.
Signing off.
06/23/99 1:18 AM – XNS Pro worklog: I had a hell of a time today getting the Toolbar docking to work in harmony with form resizing, whether the ListPanel is visible or not. It works perfectly in all but one situation, which users aren’t likely to come across anyway. I decided to leave it at that, as trying to fix that could create 10 other problems. So, its looking solid, even though it took up 90% of my programming time today. I started the PortInfo dialog today, I will have to hook it up to a database. I also started the Advanced Lookup & Tracing tool to help find more information on connections, currently Traceroute and Whois work. Holmes will have TRule done in 2 days, so I’ll keep improving and adding onto other areas until then.
Speaking of XNS, I won another award for it today… time to update the webpage again.
06/22/99 3:26 AM – XNS Pro worklog: I figured out how I wanted to display listening connections! They just didn’t fit in the main connection table. Check out the “main” screenshot below. Yes, you heard me right, I got screenshots! OK, maybe I’m the only one excited, but hey, X-NetStat Professional is really shaping up nicely. I just fixed some resizing issue and now everything is super-dee-duper. I have Jon Holmes working with me on the rules, tomarrow I will finish up the viewbar and do whatever else I can do (so long as to avoid doing the rules!) Anyway, goodnight, and feast your eyes upon these:
06/21/99 7:52 PM – XNS Pro worklog: Had some real rough waves when I tried to switch the forms from AutoCreate to runtime create (saves memory and loads app faster), but I finally got a way to get it working with the help of Jon. The ViewBar is really kickin! It has a smart-menu now, it resizes itself when something is too big, automatically scrolls connections smoothly, displays system time, etc. Smoothed out the bugs, and started the options frame for the viewbar. System administrators will love it!
Sorry, no screenshots. Gotta dash.
06/20/99 10:31 PM – XNS Pro worklog: Didn’t want to work on rules so put in the viewbar. Connection navigation is working with error trapping, and it looks good. You can right click on the items to copy each property to the clipboard (after throwing out my attempts at having read-only subitems). Groovy.
I watched Pirates of Silicon Valley tonight, very good movie!
06/20/99 2:25 AM – XNS Pro worklog: Touched up cache editor with cursor and object enable/disable feedback when its loading and saving. Got DNS Options section mostly done, now you can change your TCP/IP name servers on the fly, and have up to 4 backup servers in case of failure. I’m rather proud of the way I designed the interface for that part.
Tried starting the “add rule” dialog, but then I realized I needed to give it more thought. Tomorrow (er, later this day) I’m going to do a flowchart of how I want the rule system to work, and throw in the ViewBar if I feel adventurous. Screenshots will be posted by the end of the day.
06/19/99 – Cache Editor is PERFECT. Taking a break from coding now (5:21 pm)
06/19/99 – I’ve been running on caffine for a while now, so I decided to get some late night coding in. I officially started X-NetStat Professional tonight, working from the current 3.0 source. I started work on the options dialog, which is multi-paged to accomodate the hefty amount of options, and dreampt up the cache editor, which looks smooth, but can not save to the cache yet. Tomarrow I will start programming the “rulesets”, just like a firewall, finish the cache editor, and maybe work on the “ip address book”. Should be fun!
Time to sleep, its 4:30 am.
06/18/99 – Are you running Windows 98 with multiple monitors? I want YOU to help test Sentry 2.2! Email me at icos@arez.com. Hopefully, 2.2 will fix a multiple monitor bug as well large-font mode problems. Any other suggestions will be taken into consideration, just email me at the address above.
06/11/99 – Things to do:
06/10/99 – Custom programming: Uploaded the custom programming page.
06/10/99 – XNS patch: An updated version of X-NetStat has been uploaded to correct a registry problem for people running Windows NT who were NOT administrators. If you had a problem with XNS running on NT, please re-download the file xns3setup.exe. Sorry for the trouble.
X-NetStat 3 released!
06/09/99 – Fresh Software releases brand new X-NetStat 3.0
Fresh Software today released a new version of its popular X-NetStat software, an application which monitors your current network and Internet connections.
The new version, 3.0, is a major upgrade from all previous versions. The software has been completely rewritten from scratch in hopes of optimizing the program. All functions in the code have been streamlined, program overhead has been kept to a minimum, and the program now runs much faster. Brand new version 3 supports several exciting features:
Fresh Software has received a number of ideas and suggestions from users of previous versions. Most of those suggestions have been implemented in this new version, as well. Fresh Software welcomes and encourages all users of this new version to submit feedback to help improve future versions of X-NetStat.
Because of the amount of work and effort put into this new version, Fresh Software has decided make the program Shareware and charge a minimal amount of money for it. Users can download the program and use it free of charge for a total of 30 days without any restrictions, but once the evaluation period is over, a reminder will be displayed to register their software. The cost of X-NetStat 3.0 is a mere $5, and can be paid over the web, with credit card, check, or cash.
We hope you thoroughly enjoy this new version of X-NetStat, and we thank you for all your patience and support for this new version.
X-NetStat web page (updated)
Download NOW: here
—
06/09/99: Counters working again: The counters will be fixed one by one shortly. The data is from 02/24/99 though 😛
05/31/99 – Updated some pages. AntiGen, and SuperSnoop pages have been updated with new navigation bar and some important information. XNS: I have the finished installation file. All that remains is that I change a single URL in the “readme.txt” (registration URL) and then I upload it.
I have a Spanish, History, English, and Publications final tomarrow. Spanish should be the only mind-destroying one, but wish me luck for all of them. Hasta luego.
-FS
05/28/99 – Sentry 2.1 now available. Sentry 2.1 is now online. Changes from 2.0:
For those interested in obtaining the newer version:
-FS
05/27/99 – We are back online. After 3 weeks or so (!) of downtime, we are back up. NEVER use galaxy-web.net as your web hoster, they are a scam. Nate Mook was nice enough to share his dedicated server for betanews.com with us for a reasonable price. The server is now located in Virginia, its fast, and the smallest pipeline between the site and the CAIS backbone is a single 10-mbps hop. Rock on! The server is fast, the guy is a friend, and finally, just maybe, Fresh Software and arez.com may have a permanent home. Sadly, I was unable to get any email from fresh@arez.com for months. We are still working on getting things set up. You can expect all of Fresh Software’s webpages to be 100% working in a few weeks.
BTW, I only have a couple days of school left, so I wont be as busy. Anyway, on to the status updates:
X-NetStat 3 – I decided to charge 5 bucks a copy for XNS 3. You get a 30-day nag-free trial period, and after the 30 days is exceeded you get a nag message each time the program starts. You will be able to pay by credit card over the web, check, etc. I finished the code, and beta testers are looking at it currently. Expect it in a week.
Sentry 2.1 – featuring optimized code, several bugfixes, and a new feature or 2. It’s been done for a while, but when I was about to upload it, galaxy-web had more turbulence. Argh. I’ll upload it in a day or 2, I promise!
Web pages: XNS webpage will be completely updated when XNS 3 lands. I am currently working on a custom programming webpage. All pages will be re-done with the standard toolbar like the one on the top of this page.
Other: TopTen list maker will be my next short-term goal, and I have begun thinking about SuperSnoop 2 some more. I’m probably NOT going to use the alpha code that I started writing, it came from a while ago, contains unefficient code, and is too much like a utility belt. I am thinking that I may want to have SuperSnoop more intelligent, with wizards, and AI to help locate the person you are looking for. I want it to be more automatic. We shall see.
I got a CD-rom burner! Woohoo! Thanks to Eric Zimmerman, my best Sentry beta tester who gave me a good deal on it. You the man!
See you guys later,
-Andrew / FS
04/23/99 – Sentry receives multiple awards. Hey guys, it was initially quiet after the Sentry launch, but things are now starting to get more interesting. Check out the awards that Sentry has won!
Each award is the highest that the software sites have. I’m feeling good 🙂 Some software sites still haven’t uploaded Sentry yet, so I may have to contact them about that.
Speaking of Sentry…
Sentry code revision in works
We have just started working on a de-bloat code optimizing process for Sentry. When this is finished, the source code will be much easier to read and modify later, and will also run faster and smaller. Thanks to Andrew Bent for tackling this project!
X-NetStat 3.0 status
X-NetStat 3.0 has been code-complete for 3 weeks now, sitting untouched without documentation. The reason why I am not releasing XNS 3 right away is because I am trying to consider whether I should charge for it or not. X-NetStat 2.5 was an OK program, but X-NetStat III is 1000% better and is completely rewritten.
What do you guys think? Should it be free for non-commercial personal use, and $10 for commercial use and rely on the honor system? Should it be completely functional for 30 days, and then have a nag screen after that until you pay $5? I’d be very interested in hearing your opinions! Email me personally at icos@digitalchat.net. The sooner I decide, the sooner this great new version will be out!
We’re on a new server!
You may have noticed a faster connection to arez.com starting about the 20th of April. This is because the server transfer we told you about (yes, from January!) finally happened. However, we are still having technical difficulties. For this reason, we ask you contact us at fresh@wilter.com instead of fresh@arez.com.Thanks for bearing with us!
Wrapping things up for this update..
Things are finally changing at Fresh Software. We released our first commercial program, and are beginning to see money coming in! Our “staff” has expanded to several volunteers, which will be named later. It’s cool watching your business evolve!
In terms of the future, TopTen list maker will be finished once X-NetStat 3 is out the door. After that comes work on the phantom project SuperSnoop, which will incorporate Mozilla technology and several UI inclusions. All the while, background work will be done on future versions of Sentry, which will be camera enabled by version 2.5. Don’t worry, there is free upgrades for all registered users…
If you have any questions, ask. Until then, stay tuned for more news from Fresh Software.
Regards,
-Andrew Niese
Sentry 2 Professional now available!
03/30/99 – Check it all out at the Sentry page!
03/14/99 – Whoa, what’s going on with Fresh Software?
Wow. Its been a while. Time for a status check on everything:
Server Change
We have been having problems with our new V-host. Apparently they lost our order. Don’t ask! If things work out and we switch, we’ll let you know. If for some reason this page goes down, go to http://www.wilter.com/fs. If that doesn’t work, check betanews.com for our current location. Sorry for the craziness.
Sentry
A week ago we released Sentry Beta 3. Yeah, the last news we told you about Sentry was alpha 2. Since then, there has been beta 1, 2, and now 3. Guess what? We have gotten NO BUG REPORTS for beta 3. You can consider Sentry done. The only thing left is the documentation, which is about 70-80% done. Woohoo!
X-NetStat III
After beta 3 of Sentry was released, I was too bored to write the documentation much, so I started X-NetStat 3.0. XNS 3 is a complete rewrite of the code, and compared to 2.6, DAMN IS IT SMOOTH! Whats new:
All these features are included in the standard edition of X-NetStat 3. The professional version will have firewall abilities, rulesets, and IP tracing features. Standard version is free, Professional will cost money (i have still not made a cent from writing free software)
Expect the standard version out midweek. I have a term paper to write.
BusJack 1.1
BusJack 1.1 has been released. If you were running windows in Large-fonts mode, you were unable to see the “Next” buttons in BusJack 1.0. Basically, it made BusJack look like it just sat there, doing nothing. Whoops, sorry.
Get 1.1 here.
-FS
01/27/99 – Server change looms
With the launch of Arez Internet Services in the beginning of February, the arez.com domain name is being transfered to a new, more powerful server. Because Fresh Software is graciously hosted by arez, the site may be affected with some problems.
The domain transfer will take place in approximently 4 days. With any luck, it should be uneventful. However, don’t be surprised if we experience some downtime. If for some reason a disaster occurs, and the website is down for more than a day, you can go to http://www.wctc.net/~uncommon/fs/ for any news regarding the problem, and the status of it.
We’d like to thank DeZines for hosting us since July, for offering superb service and tech support. If you are interested in a great provider, go to their webpage and see what they have to offer.
See you in a few days!
-Arez and Fresh Software
01/18/99 – Fresh Software releases BusJack in response to NetBus 2.0 announcement
On 01/16/99, Carl-Fredrik Neikter announced a Beta version of NetBus 2.0 Pro, a brand new version of the popular trojan horse. The NetBus trojan, once installed on your computer system, can open it up for virtually anyone on the Internet to toy with. This high danger program is actually not uncommon – the trojan can easily be sent over email, ICQ, and anybody can become unknowingly infected by simple clicking a program someone sent.
In responce, Fresh Software created BusJack, probably the easiest way to rid your computer from all varieties of NetBus. BusJack is similiar to another program written by Fresh Software….
Five days after the Back Orifice trojan was released, Fresh Software produced AntiGen, the first-of-its kind remedy program to automatically remove the trojan. Like AntiGen, BusJack automatically detects the trojan horse and diagnoses the infection level. But Because AntiGen 1.0 was plauged with a few problems, we have taken extra care to make sure that BusJack works 100% of the time. After a complete lookover by our beta testers, we can confirm that BusJack will remove any combination of NetBus 1.x and 2.x.
BusJack is also different than AntiGen in that it can stop all versions of NetBus from running on the spot, without the need for a reboot. And if that’s not enough, after disabling, halting, and destroying NetBus, BusJack will also take a stab at guessing who sent you the trojan.
We did our best to make sure that the first version was as flawless as possible, but we are very open to feedback. Included in the archive is a feedback utility to contact Fresh Software. Just click the about box, and the “Feedback Engine” link.
We hope BusJack saves you some time and makes your life a little easier. Remember, be careful out there!
-Fresh Software
BusJack 1.0 – 426 kb
01/14/99 – Sentry 2 Alpha 2 released
Sentry 2.0 Alpha 2 has been released to our QA testers, with a huge thumbs up. After tediously checking and rechecking that each of the options worked OK (Assigned to global variables, Saved to the registry, Loaded from the registry, Reassigned, Reflected changes on the options window and finally processed the options), Alpha 2 was compiled and sent out.
The milestone in this build is that testers can see the full potential of the product, and get to see the advanced features work before their eyes. Sentry has had massive work done on it in the past week, and it steadily getting better and better. The next pre-release build of Sentry will be Beta 1, and after that all that remains is to work out the final bugs, create a feedback program, and package.
Sentry 2 could be available by early February.
Betanews.com was one of the few sites that got an Alpha 2 distribution, and was kind enough to evaluate some of the features. Check out the Sentry 2.0 preview at betanews.
Also, thanks to help from Jon Holmes, the Sentry Launcher app is 99% done. It’s already been integrated into Sentry.
See ya around,
-FS
01/06/99 – Project progress: Since Fresh Software is a one programmer company, it is impossible to create multiple programs at the same time. Sometimes I can work on something dedicated for a week, sometimes I will work on it in bits and pieces. The 4 current, big projects I am working on are as follows:
Sentry – Camera support has been delayed for later versions and will not make it in the 2.0 release. I need to get the loading, saving,and the applying of the user settings. I need to do minor work on the message system, and create a launch program. After that, implementation of a log file system (easy), and registering Sentry as a system screensaver in the registry. Substantial debugging, and then its done. The project could be finished as early as March or as late as summer.
SuperSnoop – Hasn’t been touched in ages, but I did do a little work on it tonight. Already has interface building blocks and limited functionality. Needs settings, final UI decisions, OVERALL FEATURE IMPROVEMENT and tweaking, registration scheme, report system, and some planned features haven’t even been started. Most likely will be finished after Sentry, maybe in the fall. (SuperSnoop first came on the idea table in the Summer of 1997).
X-NetStat 3 – Not started, except for testing API calls, which do work very efficiently. Features have been drawn up and ideas presented, but is still a long ways off. It is possible that this could be a “side program” and be finished within a week, such as spring break. No idea when a public version will be out.
Top Ten list maker – What else is there to change? Perhaps a few options to present the lists better, but a working beta is out, and you downloaded the program for the laughs, and not the features, right?
So, with any luck, you will see some major progress over Spring Break and Summer Vacation periods. We’ll keep you posted!
-FS
12/27/98 – Loose ends: I am leaving to go to a funeral tomorrow in New York, and won’t be back until 01/06/99. What a way to spend New Years, eh?
This updater utility is the first commercial use of JPS, a patching system for developers to easily deploy updates to their applications. JPS is a program in development by
Jon Holmes, a great friend of mine. Download here
Hope you all enjoyed the holidays!
-FS
12/13/98 – X-NetStat 2.6 is released! Check out the X-NetStat webpage.
AntiGen update tomarrow!
12/10/98 – Website gets a New Navigation bar! This is the first step in giving the website a facelift.
12/04/98 – X-NetStat webpage finished!
11/30/98 – Upcoming events:
11/14/98 – Stop right there! All of the software that we develop is FREEWARE, and we don’t get a cent for making them. I am a poor guy, and I need some people to click on that banner, as I dont have a “real” job. So go ahead and make this kid’s day: Click on the above banner, follow through to “Mamma’s” web site, and do a search for something (it gives impressive results, so it will be worth your while, anyway!)
So thanks for your support, its a way of showing me that people do care about the programs I write. On to the real news…
AntiGen 1.02 released! This fixes all of the bugs users have reported to me in the past few months. Please view the readme file. Thanks. Also, the AntiGen FAQ is updated.
10/31/98 – Happy Halloween! Independant Software has released Genius 2, the latest version of its internet utilities suite. Having beta tested the product for a long time myself, I can assure you that its an extremely handy program for internet users. Get it!
Genius 2 Homepage
10/12/98 – I got the drivers for the QuickCam, and have started beta testing Sentry for compatible video capture devices.
Our buddies at betanews.com got a facelift! Check it out, they have some great stuff there.
The FAQ for AntiGen has started! Check it out here. The new version of AntiGen has yet to be tested, because I dont like having trojans on my computer 😛
It will get done, dont worry! BTW – I’m also working on a program for BetaNews .. its a freeware program, and should prove handy. More information on that later.
-FS
10/01/98 – UPDATES COMING! I am going to be in New York Friday to Monday to see my Grandma for the last time. She has pancreatic cancer, and only has a couple months left, if that. Wish me luck.
I have a QuickCam in possesion, and am looking for the drivers for the greyscale ( B&W ) model. Connectix only has the driver upgrades, which will not install unless you have the original files. If you have the original disks / drivers, feel free to upload them via anonymous FTP to arez.com, in the pub directory. Include it in a ZIP file with your name and email, and you get a free copy of Sentry Pro. Your help is appreciated! You can also email us. Again, thanks a million for any help you can offer.
As soon as the Camera gets working, Sentry development will finish and SuperSnoop will be started.
-Andrew
09/24/98 – Whoa! Fresh Software was on TV in Brazil, about the whole Back Orifice ordeal! I have been FLOODED with emails, pages, etc on this program. This is why there are Portuguese translations here and there, to help me maintain my sanity over the initial flood of Brazilian visitors 🙂
I must say, this has been quite an experience.
-Andrew
09/21/98 – I am working on AntiGen 1.02, and an online FAQ for it. I will test out the build tomorrow when I have more time. Also, some of you may remember a program called Aurora from the former group Esoteric. Although in a crude state now, it may become a Fresh Software product 🙂
You can download it now, but its kinda in a weird state… have fun. BTW, check the automatic updater in about a week for a product update.
Finally, my Quake 2 CD is scratched! Gah! I have only had it 10 days! 😛
-FS
09/20/98 – Sorry about the delay in updates. Added a previous news page to avoid getting crowded. You can check out the arez.com page to see the top FS logo candidate. Logo page will be updated soon.
Sentry project is stalled (DOH!) until I get a camera of some kind, whether it is a quickcam or something else. A friend sent me one, but apparently it takes the juice from the keyboard and requires a special adapter. I haven’t made any progress in about 3 weeks.
SuperSnoop is stalled until Sentry is finished. All other projects are not high in priority.
I may start work on a CD Player program, because I think that all of those out there suck. If I were to do it, I would ask for a ton of user feedback, having them tell me what they hate the most about the Windows CD player and all the others. This is still in a brainstorming state, because there are SOOOOO many ways to make the UI (User Interface).
I am really going to try to get an AntiGen FAQ online sometime about all of the questions that keep coming up. I apologize for not being able to respond to most of the Emails I get! Perhaps a new version is in order, too.
Hasta luego,
FS
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