Stay Connected! 2.5 for Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT Release Date: 15 February, 2000 New! Stay connected to AltaVista's FreeAccess without getting disconnected. Stay Connected! keeps the "Health Bar" full so that you can continue surfing without distractions. New! When using Stay Connected! with FreeAccess, you can set the browser window title so that you can close off any browser window that pops up during the simulation of activity. New! Under "AOL Gadgets" configuration, AOL users can now configure the titles for the pop up AOL search window, buddy list, Channels and new hotline windows when they change. So when the titles of pop up AOL windows change at any time, you can still "kill" them. New! Now you can set the "Host Configuration" feature to get specific Web pages eg. "www.yourisp.com/index.html" instead of just the default host's home page eg. "www.yourisp.com" when connecting to your ISP. This is very useful if your ISP requires you to connect to a certain page at periodical times in order to stay online. New! AOL users, choose your dialup user screen name from any configured screen names by right clicking on the dialer. You can configure as many as seven screen names and choose which one you want to use to login. New! With support for NetO's version 2.2, Stay Connected! is now better able to automate the login process successfully, taking into account that the "Connection" screen takes a longer time to load when compared to earlier NetO versions. New! Stay Connected! works with CompuServe 2000. Changed: You no longer need to provide the domain names for your ISP's login details. This has now been simplified. Changed: The "Set default button" for screen name, AOL site and external url has been removed in the "AOL options window" for ease of selection. Fixed: Other minor bugz ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 2.3 for Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT Release Date: September 6, 1999 New! Ability to handle AOL 5.0 Browser's new timer New! Ability to handle yet another new timer for AOL 4.0 170.24 Browser New! This release allows AOL users to sign-on using a specific Screen Name New! After signing on to AOL, users now have the ability to go to a designated AOL site automatically New! A new AOL Gadget section is created in this version to handle AOL's not-so-welcomed login procedure. Many AOL users have requested us to turn off those pesky, unwanted windows like "AOL Search" window, "Buddy List" window, "Channels" window, "Welcome" window as well as unsolicited "Advertisement" window while they login. We have implemented these features in this version upon users' requests to allow AOL users a smooth and hassle-free login New! Ability to handle both NetŘ version 1.6 as well as the latest release, version 2.0 Changed: The tabbed dialog box "America Online" no longer existed as it was replaced by "AOL Options" caption. Changed: Previous AOL options allow the launch of an external browser like Internet Explorer or Netscape with one designated URL only. We have enhanced current version of Stay Connected! to add and delete an unlimited list of URLs as well as the ability to set a default URL to visit everytime when an external browser is launched Fixed: When AOL browser is minimized, Stay Connected! frequently pops up a dialog box informing users that Stay Connected! will not be actively scanning for AOL disconnection timer due to AOL browser limitation. This release we added an option to prevent the popup dialog box from showing up in the future. Fixed: If you are using Stay Connected! with AOL option checked, the "Exit" menu isn't too responsive occasionally, causing delayed response Fixed: "Port already open" problem showed up if users have a version older than 1.2 of Microsoft Dial-Up Networking Fixed: The Settings tabbed dialog's Connection Check option was disabled even though user did not choose to use NetZero or Modem Dialer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 2.2 for Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT Release Date: March 31, 1999 New! We have added the ability to handle NetŘ's idle message by clicking the "Resume" button automatically. However, we will not attempt to hide NetŘ's advertisement screen for users, otherwise NetŘ will not be able to provide free Internet dial-up accounts without the support of advertisement revenue New! America Online has just released a new timer dialog recently. The look of the timer is similar to one of the previous timer dialogs except that the new timer dialog does not have a title on the dialog box. For detailed descriptions, please visit our website at http://www.inklineglobal.com/aol.html New! Added secondary registration site for those who cannot access our primary registration site Fixed: Whenever user dials an ISP and the line is busy, the dreaded error message "Port Already Open" from Stay Connected! dialer will refuse to let users redial unless a machine reboot is performed Fixed: The message box "Cannot save dial-up profile with empty login name" keeps showing up even though the user has not selected to use Stay Connected's dialer in the "Configuration" menu Fixed: The menu item "Hang Up" is still grayed out during a successful dial-up session Fixed: If the user's computer font size is set to "Large Fonts", the Stay Connected! logo picture in the splash screen does not position itself appropriately Fixed: Some pictures shows only 16 color even though the user's computer is running at 65536, 16777216 or 4294967296 colors Fixed: AOL users are unable to change the America Online timer title in the "Advanced Options" America Online property page configuration settings Fixed: The URL font sizes in the a few dialog boxes are too large ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 2.1 for Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT Release Date: September 5, 1998 New! The most important feature for this release is the incorporation of a modem dialer. With Stay Connected's modem dialer, users will be able to connect to the Internet, and stay on the net for as long as they wish, with just one mouse click away. This one-stop connectivity solution allows users to bypass Windows 95/98's Dial-Up Networking (DUN) or NT's Remote Access Service (RAS) which is more cumbersome to use. New! Added a modem dialer configuration page which allows multiple dial-up profiles. New! Tested and certified under Microsoft Windows 98. New! After registering the program, the menu "Enter Registration Code" and "Register via Internet" will not show up again. New! URL addresses are properly formatted with blue and underlined text instead of being contained in a button Changed: If you're using Stay Connected's modem dialer, the connection check option may not be available. Fixed: The confusing status of the gray double-bar icon that resides in the tool tray has been changed to dull green Fixed: Some tool tips help was messed up due to inconsistencies with Visual C++ string table ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 2.0 (aka Stealth Version) for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: March 19, 1998 New! In previous versions, users were able to define one and only one host to tag their services to. This version we allow users to tag on to more than one host. New! Many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are now detecting fixed pinging intervals (e.g. previous versions of Stay Connected). If the ISP's server detects a fixed sequence of activity from a user, they'll assume that this user is using automated utilities like Stay Connected to help him stay online; the result? Forced disconnection. With *random interval* plus *random host access* combination, Stay Connected actually stimulates human activities using the Internet when users are actually away from the computer thus fooling the ISP's server from detecting a fixed usage pattern of Stay Connected users. New! Host accesses have a choice of Sequential, Random or Dedicated access over a list of hosts. Hosts can be added/deleted according to user's preferences. New! Priority can be set for the hosts to be accessed during Sequential mode. Should user chooses Random access mode, priority will be changed to Random. No priority is given to Dedicated host since there's only one host's service being tagged. New! Added a Startup Wizard to walk user through the online helpfile with step-by-step graphical guide if Stay Connected detects that this is the first time user is using the software. New! Stay Connected! supports America Online Browser version 4.0 Preview Edition as well as browsers prior to version 4.0. New! AOL users can choose to launch AOL browser automatically when they activate Stay Connected. New! Stay Connected even logs in for AOL users automatically. New! An external browser like Netscape or Internet Explorer can be launched after AOL user has successfully logged into AOL. New! Advanced Options for AOL users to alter the Timer Title should AOL decide to change their Timer Title again. Please refer to our webpage at http://www.inklineglobal.com/aol.htm for history about change of Timer Title by AOL. New! For latest patch or updates for AOL users, click on the button in "Configuration -> America Online -> Latest AOL Updates" button will bring AOL users to our website directly. New! The look and feel of the configuration options are greatly enhanced. New! For users who still prefer the classic Stay Connected configurations, we kept the options of accessing a dedicated host as well as fixed interval. New! Due to the vastly improved configuration choices, we renamed the menu item from "Options" to "Configurations" New! The "Status" windows is renamed to "Online Status Report" because of the vastly improved status feedbacks from individual protocol. We have also added AOL status feedback to this status report screen as well. Fixed: The "Apply" button in the Configuration dialog box will not be grayed out anymore whenever user changes his configuration. Fixed: Online Status Report does not reflect the actual status of some tag services. Fixed: If user's personal color preference for dialog boxes isn't gray, the splash screen's bitmaps and titles reflect gray color when it should be transparent. Obsolete: We removed 2 tag services from existing version, namely Telnet and SMTP. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 1.33 for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: January 8, 1998 Fixed: Stay Connected clicked the AOL Online Clock's 'OK' button whenever the AOL Online Clock for AOL 4.0 browser is displayed Fixed: Stay Connected clicked the 'OK' button when user edits the address book for AOL 3.0 browser ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 1.32 for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: December 31, 1997 Fixed: Ability to handle AOL 4.0 Preview Edition's timer problem Fixed: Disappearing icon when Stay Connected is activated ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 1.31 for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: December 22, 1997 Fixed: America Online changed their timer title from "America Online Timer" to "America Online" Fixed: Under "Options" menu item, "America Online" property page, when user edits the timer title, the edit box does not reflect the changes after user hits "OK" button Fixed: The "Apply" button was disabled under "Options" menu item, "America Online" property page whenever user edits an option ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 1.3 for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: April 12, 1997 Fixed: We have changed the default host to an Atomic Clock server at tycho.usno.navy.mil due to a request from Best Internet reporting that we have placed a strain on Best Internet's system resources and may have degraded Best Internet's services. We strongly encourage you to set your default host to your local ISP to avoid situations like this from happening again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 1.2a for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: March 21, 1997 Fixed: AOL browser pops up a message "You have been online for xx minutes. Do you want to stay online? Please click OK in 10 minutes or you will be logged off." Stay Connected! v1.2 release was not aware of this message, rather, we reacted to a message "You have been idle for a while. Do you want to stay online?" by clicking the "Yes" button. With this release, we are able to click both "Yes" and "OK" on behalf of the user. Fixed: Even when AOL browser is not present, the two bars are showing a misleading Aqua (Cyan) color rather than 2 red bars. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 1.2 for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: March 12, 1997 New! One of our most frequently asked questions is: Does "Stay Connected!" work with America Online? YES! The sole purpose of this release is to respond to that question! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 1.1 for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: February 26, 1997 New! We have added HTTP protocol to improve the dropped connection situation for some users. In the previous version, many users were still disconnected even after checking all tag services. This is due to ISPs detecting browser activities only. If there isn't any browser activity, ISPs assume that the subscriber is not surfing the net. Haven't you had the distressing experience of attempting to download a large file only to have your ISP disconnect you in the middle of your download session? We have hopefully ended this problem! New! We have added a user-specified port to cater to users who access through a proxy server or firewall, and for those who access from specific sites with designated services such as IRC and MSN. New! As a convenience for software registration, we have added a browser shortcut icon to the folder. You can now also register via the newly added menu item "Register Via Internet." Internet registration is your best option since the operation is fully automated, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and registration reply is instantaneous. New! Added more help instructions in the help file to assist beginners. New! We have added a startup screen with evaluation period countdown so that new users will be more aware of the unregistered evaluation period. Registered users have the option to disable this startup screen. New! We have added a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) for the most commonly asked questions. New! Added this whatsnew.txt Fixed: Due to unreliable winsock operation with Windows 95, some modems hang up completely. Hard reboot is often necessary to reestablish connection. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay Connected! 1.0 for Microsoft Windows 95/NT Release Date: October 22, 1996 Initial Release