5.3 Build 447: Info on update released September 8, 1999

wcServer

The Wildcat! Server (wcServer) now has improved client connection logic. (Detail)
The Wildcat! finger service has been improved. If your finger server is enabled, type: finger help@servermachine to obtain more information on the new finger options. (More about Finger Service)
Internal changes to Wildcat! server improves client applications that utilize the SDK user database functions. This should help speed up applications drastically on large system with large user databases.
Internal change to Wildcat! server fixes a mite in storing the lastcaller per node. Applications that wish to display the lastcaller per node, may do so with SDK or wcBasic GetNodeInfo() function.
Internal fix to Wildcat! server now makes sure the user's time left value is not negative.
Internal fix to Wildcat! server now makes sure new messages added to the system do not have "garbage" in some of the string fields due to some Wildcat! clients not initializing the message header. This fix may help clear a situation where a long subject line is 72 characters or more and it clobbers other fields in the message header.
The expiration warning system changed. (Detail)
Automated shutdown and restart support added. This is very useful for automated backups. Shutdown across network supported via a new program, wcNetRunner. See autorun.zip for examples of usage.

New Program: wcNetRunner

Administrative control of your system across the network is now possible with wcNetRunner. (Detail)

POP3 Server Changes

POP3 server now will automatically mark all mail as received. If a POP3 client has the option Save Server Mail , this means the client will not ask the server to delete the mail.
Previously, the mail was marked received only of the client asked to delete the mail. With the new logic, your server operations should be more optimized, faster since it won't be sending the mail again to users.
The POP3 server now honors the posting of expiration warning messages when the POP3 client logs into the server.
Previously, the POP3 client would not get any expire warnings and it potentially nullified other connections methods from sending the warnings. (More about expiration warnings)
Added POP3 error logging in the case of login failures, or failure to retrieve messages from the message database.

wcSMTP Server Changes

wcSMTP has gone thru a major change to offer better anti-relay, blocking and user authentication operations. (More about SPAM and wcSMTP)
Improved Configurability of SMTP through wcConfig. See the new SMTP section in wcConfig.
wcSMTP now the option validate users when SMTP clients attempts to sent mail to your system. Mail destined to users who do not belong to your system, will be rejected at the SMTP level. A standard SMTP Error "User Not Local" will be reported to the sender. This saves wcMail from having to bounce the message when it is imported.
wcSMTP will now "learn" bad domains and E-mail addresses. (Detail)
wcSMTP now supports the Extended SMTP protocol (ESMTP) for user authentication. With ESMTP, E-mail clients must log into Wildcat in order to verify the accounts. It is now possible to regulate which users can relay mail thru your system.
wcSMTP is now part of the "server list" for wcNode. wcNode will now show SMTP as a server. This allows the server to be shutdown for maintenance.
wcSMTP now has a very informative log file system. wcSMTP now will automatically rotate the log file every day. (Detail)
Support for MAPS RBL (Mail Anti-Spam Protection System - Real Time Blackhole List). This system blocks thousands of sites known to openly allow the use of their SMTP servers by spammers. This option is only usable for systems connected to the Internet full-time. (More about MAPS RBL).

Web Server Changes

Greater Configurability.
A new icon in wcConfig for the web server. Mime types can now be easily added to the server.
Improved support for CGI scripts.
The web server now supports script mapping to support external languages, such as Perl, Python, PHP and more (this does not include ASP).
Fixed and added several CGI Environment variables.
Support for index file names other than default.htm
Improved log file support.
You can improve performance of the web server by turning off reverse DNS in wcconfig-general-network. You can reduce the size of the log file by excluding specific files, directories, or file types (such as gif and jpg files)
Automated support for closed vs. open systems. (Detail)

FTP Server Changes

The FTP Server will now offer a 2 level directory display system as oppose to the flat directory system used before. With the new 2 level system, Level 1 is the File Groups, and Level 2 is the File Conferences within a File Group. (Detail)
FTP Server now has a wcFTP.log file to consolidate the users who connect to the FTP server.

ANSI/TELNET Server Changes

Now supports sending of expiration warning messages. Previously, it displayed warnings. Now it can do both.
A fix was made to the sysop file upload manager where it was not clearing the recently file uploaded and if you wanted to upload the same file into different areas, it would give you an "Already Exist" error.

wcListServe Changes

Improved Setup program, easier to configure and manage users.
wcListServe now uses an internal database system for the subscriber database. This results in a faster database access system. A conversion tool (wclsupdate) was provided to convert the ODBC database.
wcListServe now properly handles failed E-mail addresses. Previously it would stop sending list messages when one subscriber failed.
Domain E-mail is now supported in wcListServe.
Remote administration of lists added.
New administrative tool (wcladmin.exe) for importing and exporting large lists of addresses.

wcRadius Server Changes

wcRadius is now part of the "server list" for wcNode. wcNode will now show RADIUS as a server. This allows the server to be shutdown for maintenance.
Custom configuration per user can now be stored in the user database, rather than the wcradius.users.txt file. This is configured in the wcRadius options.
Timeout support fixed.

wcPPP Changes (Changes are not in the Vircom drivers)

wcPPP Server now has better logging and diagnostic information written to the activity logs.
wcPPP Server had a mite where it was possible to get a "Fast Disconnect" if the user's timeleft value had an internal negative value stored.
wcPPP Server idle timeout value can now be set in wcConfig General Settings | Idle Timeouts. Default is 15 minutes.

wcNews changes

wcNews has a new command line option /HOST to define the host to export/import news group mail. This works with the networks setup. A host must be defined where the domain name is the news domain host. Newsgroup conferences must be linked to the host.
Type wcNews /? for help. (More about /host switch)

wcMail changes

Better logging and added daily log rotation.
Fixed problem with "folded header lines"
wcMail now has the capability of sending an auto response and posting the original message. Prior, once the auto response was sent, the original message was killed. This allows for sysops to create E-mail systems where an 'acknowledgment' can be sent back to the originator, i.e., order or support E-mail system.
Although unrelated to wcMail, wcMail will do less mail bouncing because wcSMTP is handling the bouncing of E-mail immediately. This reduces wcMail overhead in handling bounced mail. Of course, in setups where wcSMTP is not used, wcMail will handle the mail bouncing.

wcSetup Changes

wcSetup had a bug in skipping the Wildcat! 4.0 file database import if 1 file failed to be imported. Now, this error is ignored and it continues with the import.

wcBasic (wcCode) Changes

New window socket "helper" library, see wsockhlp.wcc
New extraprompt.wcc internal wcc to create extra prompts not in the normal wcc files.
New html-mailform.wcc for creating submitting form responses to a mail conference. (Detail)
New function SendExpireWarningMessage is used in logonutl.wcc to generate any new expiration warning messages.
ODBC support added. See wcodbc.wch for details. (Note: This does not provide ODBC access to the Wildcat! Databases.)
New functions in htmlutil.wch:

Added support for language prompts (previously hard coded):

PressEnter
ContinueNonStopQuit
ContinueNonStop (NEW)

wcStart Changes

Improved support for synchronizing networked startups.
New configuration options for programs (start minimized)

Software Development Kit

The SDK has been updated with this release. This is the first update to the SDK in two years. Examples are the same, but you'll need the headers and libraries.