The menu system in Port Explorer has been enriched with icons and keyboard shortcuts to make menu navigation easy and aesthetically pleasing.

File

Save Table
Allows you to save the current Port Explorer list to a file. Two format options are available:
        Formatted Text File (.txt)- This format is visually easier to read
        Comma-Separated Values File (.csv) - This format  is easier for programs (such as Excel) to read.
The text is saved exactly as it is seen in Port Explorer - even row and column positions and ordering are preserved.

Refresh View   F5
Manually refreshes the list. This is useful if Automatic Refresh is turned off.

Exit   Alt+F4
Shuts down the Port Explorer program. You can also shut down Port Explorer by pressing Alt+F4, or by pressing the "X" button next to the minimise and maximise buttons in the top right-hand corner of the main Port Explorer window. 

View

Always on Top
Forces the main Port Explorer window to remain on top of the windows of other applications. 

Minimize to Systray
Port Explorer will create a small icon in the system tray in the bottom right-hand corner of your Windows task bar.  Right-clicking on this icon will produce a popup menu showing the following:
        Hide Window - Hides the main Port Explorer window
        Restore Window - Displays the main Port Explorer window 
        Exit - Shuts down Port Explorer

Disable Sorting   F3
If selected, Port Explorer won't sort the list - new items will simply be appended to the end of the list. This may improve performance on slower machines with large amounts of sockets.

Colors
You can change 8 different color settings to give Port Explorer the look and feel you prefer. Color changes are automatically saved and remembered by Port Explorer, but if you ever want to go back to the default settings, simply press the Restore to Default submenu item.

Choose Font
You can choose which font is used in the main Port Explorer list. The default is Verdana (Regular) at size 8.

Show Log Window
If selected the Traffic Log window will be visible.

Large Icons
Process icons will display with pixel dimensions of 32x32 rather than 16x16. If Large Icons is selected the font size of the list is also automatically increased.

Show Grid
Displays a grid in the list which may make it easier to find specific information in the list.  

Settings

Pause Display   F2
Prevents any automatic refreshes from occurring, essentially pausing the display.

Automatic Refresh
If selected, the display will automatically refresh at an interval determined by Refresh Interval.

Refresh Interval
The interval in seconds for the automatic display refresh. Available options are 1, 3, 5, 10, or 30 seconds.

Window Logging
Options to enable/disable traffic logging, restrict the size of the window log, and disable size restrictions.

File Logging
Options to view/clear the log file, restrict the size of the log file, enable/disable file logging, and disable size restrictions.

Show New/Dead Sockets For
The interval in seconds for how long new or dead sockets should remain in the list. New/dead sockets can be identified by their color-highlighted background. Available options are 1, 3, 5 or 10 seconds.

Show Resolved Addresses
If selected, Remote Address and Local Address columns will display resolved addresses (when possible) rather than numeric IP addresses. 

Show Process As
Determines how the process name should be displayed. Available options:
    EXE Name - The filename only (eg. "telnet.exe")
    Full Path - The full path and filename (eg. "d:\winnt\system32\telnet.exe")
    File Information - The program name, taken from its Version characteristics (eg. "Windows Telnet Client")

Reduce Memory Usage
Selecting this option will safely move the Port Explorer process out of physical RAM memory, freeing up memory for other processes in doing so. This may or may not have any noticeable effect on Port Explorer's performance, but any degradation will be minimal and not very noticeable. Under Windows NT/2000/XP you can easily see the memory reduction by watching the Mem Usage column of the portexplorer.exe process in Windows Task Manager. Port Explorer is by design a very memory-economic program, but we've built this feature in to cater for systems with older processors and/or not much memory.

Hide Netstat Sockets
Hides all '---NETSTAT---' sockets. These are sockets that were created very early in the boot process of your system, and were created before Port Explorer initialised. They are usually safe to ignore. 

Utilities

Port Explorer comes with several utilities that allow you to perform advanced network operations from within Port Explorer itself. 

Lookup - A simple database lookup facility that provides four searches:
  Port to Service - Searching for a port such as '23' will return 'telnet'
  Service to Port - Searching for a service such as 'telnet' will return '23'
  Country to Domain - Searching for a country such as 'Australia' will return '.au'
  Domain to Country - Searching for a domain such as '.au' will return 'Australia' 

Ping/Traceroute - Two similar utilities commonly used by network administrators.
  Ping allows you to determine if a remote host is 'alive'. It does this by sending ICMP request packets, essentially asking "are you there?". If the remote host is alive and its firewall allows it to send/receive such ICMP packets, the remote host will respond "yes I'm here". 
  Traceroute is very similar to ping and also uses ICMP packets, but rather than just attempting to determine if the remote host is alive, Traceroute attempts to literally trace the route between your system and the remote host, allowing you to see which computers your data moves through on its journey to the remote host.

Resolve - This simple utility allows you to resolve numeric IP addresses (such as 202.6.126.12) to their DNS host address (www.diamondcs.com.au), and vice-versa.

Socket Spy - The most advanced utility in Port Explorer, Socket Spy actually gives you the ability to packet-sniff (capture and record data packets that are sent/received). Unlike conventional packet-sniffers, Socket Spy allows you to eavesdrop on individual sockets and processes so you can zero in on the sockets you want to analyse without being flooded by data from other sockets.

Statistics - Provides a wealth of TCP, UDP, IP and ICMP real-time statistics on your system.

Whois - Whois is a database service originally maintained by the Network Information Center (NIC) at SRI International on behalf of the Defense Communications Agency (DCA). It accepts search queries of domain names, IP addresses and more, and returns  information such as full name, mailing address, telephone number, email address, DNS server(s), network mailbox(es), and more. The Whois utility built into Port Explorer allows you full unrestricted access to this information by providing an intelligent automatic search function which returns fruitful results on the majority of the worlds Internet addresses (allowing novice users to find the information they want simply by typing in the target address) , and also provides manual capabilities for advanced users who wish to explicitly query Whois servers.

Command Prompt - Launches your command prompt, where you can then immediately utilise console applications that come with Windows, such as netstat and nbtstat

Please see the Utilities section in this help manual for detailed information on each utility.

Language

The Language menu allows you to select the language that Port Explorer will use. Selecting any language will instantly change the text in Port Explorer to the language selected.

Please see the Language section in this help manual for more information.

Help

Index   F1
Opens the Port Explorer help manual (what you're reading now) at the Index page. 

Members Area
Licensed Port Explorer users have the advantage of being able to enter our Members Area - strictly for licensed Port Explorer users only!

Check For
 New Version of Port Explorer - Connects a socket to www.diamondcs.com.au:80 to check if a new version of Port Explorer is available. If there is, a Yes/No messagebox will be displayed, asking you if you want to download the new version. Clicking Yes will open your default browser at the Port Explorer download page.
 New Port and Domain Databases - Connects a socket to www.diamondcs.com.au:80 to check if new Port and Domain databases are available. If there is, a Yes/No messagebox will be displayed, asking you if you want to download the new databases. Clicking Yes will re-connect a socket to to www.diamondcs.com.au:80 and download the files automatically. The new databases are loaded automatically so there is no need to restart Port Explorer.

Go To
 Port Explorer website - Launches your default web browser to http://www.diamondcs.com.au/portexplorer
 DiamondCS website - Launches your default web browser to http://www.diamondcs.com.au

About
Displays the About box and license registration information.
Licensed users will have five or six fields displaying, these are:
 Name - The name your keyfile is registered to. eg "John Smith", "Riverside University"
 Email - The primary contact email address of the owner of the registration keyfile
 Region - The region (country) the license is to be used in. eg. "Australia"
 Licenses - How many computers the keyfile may be used on, normally 1. "Use" is also displayed in brackets. eg. "Personal use", "Educational use"
 Registered - The date the keyfile was created
 Expires - When the keyfile expires. This field is not visible on non-expiring keyfiles.