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The Best of Windows 95.com 1996 December
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WIN95_DEC_1996_1.ISO
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network
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can12.exe
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Can.txt
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1996-12-23
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Connect and Notify version 1.2
by Costas Kotsokalis - C.Kotsokalis@ece.ntua.gr
What is CaN?
CaN (Connect and Notify) is an IP Poster. This is the kind of programs you
would use if you get dynamic PPP (or SLIP) from your Internet Services
Provider, and want to let the others know your current IP address so that they
connect to a FTP, WWW or other Internet server you have set up on your PC. CaN
will upload a HTML file you edit to the WWW server of your choice, using FTP.
What is new from 1.1?
Fixed a bug with ftp password. IF YOU UPGRADE FROM 1.1, REMOVE can.dat OR,
TO SAVE TIME, DELETE THE PASSWORD LINE FROM IT.
Used 8-bit graphics and removed background images to save computer resources.
Added the ability to upload a .plan file (the one used by finger) edited by
the user, and also a feature to connect to a time server and synchronize local
clock if desired.
Added a system tray icon with basic options, to speed up use of CaN. Added
the ability to hide CaN window after going online and work only with the
system tray icon.
CaN will now upload the HTML file with the name you want. If no name is
defined, the name Xline.html will be used as in v1.1.
How does it work?
If you upgrade from 1.0, you will have to delete all of your old configuration
files since CaN reads files in a different format now.
When you first run CaN you have to define some basic parameters for the upload
process. These would be the hostname or IP address of the WWW server to contact
using FTP, your login name there, your password and the directory to change to
before you upload the file. You can make these settings by clicking on the
'Settings' button. This should be the very first thing to do. If you don't set
these values, before uploading an 'online' or an 'offline' file, CaN will prompt
you for that.
There are two different files you will upload each time, a file notifying you
went online, and another one notifying you are going offline. These are pure
HTML files, that you can edit if you click on the 'HTML files' button. This
will bring up a menu from which you'll have to choose which file to edit.
Whatever the choice may be, a dialog box will come up in which you'll have to
define a title, a background (or bgcolor) and the body of the file. These
starting tags (html, head, title, body, etc) are put in the file automatically
by CaN.
In these two files you can use %I and %T to reference your current IP address
and current time respectively. CaN will substitute '%I' sequences with your
current IP, and '%T' with currect time (don't use the quotes!). The files are
edited once and used every time after that. If you want to change these files,
just bring up the two dialogs. If you try to upload without having edited (or
at least saved the examples provided) you will be prompted to perform these
actions.
When you want to upload one of the two files, you'll have to click on 'Online
Notify' or 'Offline Notify' buttons.
While uploading online file, offline button is disabled, and vice versa. This
is because CaN is a multithreaded program and miscellaneous conflicts could be
produced by two threads trying to upload the two different files simultaneously.
I prefered to do this ONLY when uploading, and not all the time the program is
running, meaning that even when you load the program you can actually upload
an offline file. Why? So that users can run the program when they connect,
close it, and run it again right before they disconnect.
CaN will also start local servers, if you define their location on your disk -
we'll get back to this later on though. There are also available:
- A 'finger' button. Using this you can perform finger queries to other
internet users, and see when they last logged in, etc.
- A 'Ping' button. Using this you can a) see if a server worldwide is up,
b) check the connection quality between your PC and this server -through the
Round Trip time provided- and last but not least, c) keep your connection
alive while CaN is pinging some host you define, or until your time limit is
reached :-)
Clicking on the 'Ping' button will bring up a menu with three choices:
1) Set ping properties,
2) Start ping thread, and
3) End ping thread.
Before starting any ping process you should define ping properties. Note that,
you can configure CaN to send only a number of packets, or ping infinitely
until program exits.
- CaN will now get online on startup, if you want it too. This means that, you
can define this feature and as soon as you start CaN it will upload the
online file it will find/generate. As you understand, you can combine all
these things and have CaN do things like automatically upload 'online'
file, start pinging remote host, start the local servers you want it to
(FTP, WWW etc), and disappear so that all functions are performed from the
system tray icon (as discussed above).
- Using 'Local servers' button, now you can launch not only 2 (as in version
1.0) but an infinite number of server programs. It is obvious that you can
launch any executable, even if this is not a server. For example, you can load
CaN and have it go online on startup, launching Netscape, Internet Explorer,
some FTP client, an IRC client, telnet sessions and any other Internet tool
you are using, without you having to perform not even one mouse click.
- Added a timer which will be enabled as soon as you go online, and will show
you for how long you have been online.
Apart from these, CaN has 6 speedbuttons:
1. A button to find/refresh your local IP address and show it on top of the
window.
2. A button to minimize the window
3. A button to refresh the window
4. An 'about' button
5. An 'exit' button.
6. A 'Hide' button was added in this version, which will hide the main window
from the screen AND from the taskbar. The application window will be
visible again if you click on the 'Show main window' option, on the system
tray icon.
The reason for using 'minimize' and 'exit' speedbuttons instead of leaving the
system buttons as they are, is that CaN is multithreaded -again :-))- and
exiting with the 'x' button on top of the window could leave threads alive
while parent application has exited -- see also: System Crash :-)
System Reqirements:
You will definitely need a PC with the Windows95 or NT operating system, and 8 Mbs
of RAM. Although CaN is not that complicated, using nice graphics makes it a
whole lot heavier that it would be with standard buttons etc.
CaN 1.1 had a problem with windows NT which was corrected. Version 1.2
will work fine under NT now. At this point i would like to thank Peter
Laur for his precious co-operation, so that CaN runs under NT as well.
ToDo list:
- Add a help file. I really don't think this is needed, but some complain that
it would be of use. What can i say, users :-)
- Maybe add a 'chat' service, integrated into CaN. Of course,
this could be accomplished with any talk server, but what can i say,
developers :-)
- Add name service lookup
- Add a mail-checker and possibly a mail-sender
BUGS:
Only one that i know, when using pseudo-PPP or pseudo-SLIP the first time you
try to upload the 'online' or 'offline' file, after it's transmitted you will
get a winsock error. The funny thing is that this happens only the first time
of each session, and then it's all nice and perfect. I will try to find what's
the problem with this, although it does not seem to be of need - almost
everyone gets real PPP these days. If you don't, find another ISP :-)
Writing CaN from the beginning and paying attention to synchronization
issues fixed all other bugs i was aware off. If you happen to notice peculiar
behaviour, or get errors like exceptions, GPFs etc., please mail me at
C.Kotsokalis@ece.ntua.gr and let me know exactly what happens.
PLEASE note that if you are upgrading from 1.0, you HAVE to delete the old
configuration files. If you don't you can be sure you will get an error
right on startup.
LISENCE AGREEMENT:
The shareware version of CaN 1.2 has 2 features disabled: It won't hide after
uploading the 'online' file(s), and it will not get the network time (nor will
it synchronize the clock, as obvious). As soon as you use your registration
password these will all be functioning as desired.
You can use this piece of software without registering within an evaluation
period of 30 days. If you want to continue using it after this period, you
have to register with CaN. To do this, send $15 US, to the address:
Constantinos Kotsokalis
Solomou 43
Galatsi 11147
Athens
GREECE
DO NOT FORGET TO WRITE CLEARLY YOUR FULL NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS!!! One day
after i receive your subscription i will email you a password which you can
use to register CaN. Make sure you make a note of the name to register,
because the password will be generated according to this name.
Registering with CaN entitles you to full support though email. This includes
serious effort to add features you would like CaN to have, in next versions.
IF YOU REGISTER WITH CaN YOU WILL ALSO GET THE NEXT VERSIONS OF IT FOR FREE,
UNTIL VERSION 2.0.
Unregistered users have no right to technical support, still i'm eager to hear
their comments, suggestions, bug reports. If you have any of the above, please
let me know - no matter if you have registered or not.
DISCLAIMER:
"Connect and Notify" is supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties,
expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of
merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no
liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use
of "Connect and Notify". By using "Connect and Notify" you automatically
agree to the above conditions of use.