This document contains late breaking news of the latest features added to the VICOM SoftRouter which do not appear in the VICOM SoftRouter manual. At the end of the document, the version history of the product is also listed.
For the latest news about updaters, shows that Vicom Technology are attending, new versions of our software, new products, press news and lots more, take a regular look at our news page at:
http://www.vicomtech.com/newsflash.html
Contents:
• Previous Users of the VICOM SoftRouter
• Vicom Technology's Technical Support Area on the Web
• Saving Information About the Set-up of Your VICOM SoftRouter (Contacting Technical Support)
• Version History
Previous Users of the VICOM SoftRouter
The "DHCP Clients" file and the "VICOM TCP/IP Preferences" file can now be located in the "VICOM Settings" folder within the Systems "Preferences Folder". The default is for the VICOM SoftRouter to use the files that are placed in the "VICOM Settings" folder.
We recommend that previous users of the VICOM SoftRouter move their existing "DHCP Clients" and "VICOM TCP/IP Preferences" files into the "VICOM Settings" folder.
Please see the VICOM SoftRouter User Guide for more details on the contents of the "VICOM Settings" folder, but please note that the folder has now been moved to the Systems "Preferences Folder" for this and future versions.
Vicom Technology's Technical Support Area on the Web
Vicom Technology's Technical Support team have an area on the Vicom web site which contains:
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Tutorials
• Vicom Software Updaters
• Application Notes and Version Histories
• Contacting Technical Support
This area is constantly updated to address common questions and problems our users experience.
The main page for the Support area can be found at:
A new set of web pages have been added to the Support area called "Communications Products". These pages contain a list of TCP/IP applications that can be used with the VICOM SoftRouter and that Vicom Technology's Technical Support team think users will find useful. The web page can be found at: http://www.vicomtech.com/support/appnotes/vig.apps.html
Saving Information About the Set-up of Your VICOM SoftRouter
When contacting VICOM Technical Support for help with the VICOM SoftRouter, you can now help us to help you by sending a text document containing the set-up of your VICOM SoftRouter.
If you need help from VICOM Technical Support, we recommend the following:
1) Select "Save Config As..." from the "File" pull-down menu of the VICOM SoftRouter and save the file (this file is automatically saved as a text file).
2) Fill out the "Contacting Technical Support" form along with the contents of the configuration text file on the following web page: http://www.vicomtech.com/support/support.form.html
3a) Email the file along with a description of your problem to "support@vicomtech.com" OR
3b) Print the file (by using any text editor) and fax the file along with a description of the problem to:
North America: +1 415-691-9838
Europe/International: +44 1202 310241
Sending this file to VICOM's Technical Support Team helps us provide a speedier and more accurate response.
Version History
Version 4.0.4
1. The SoftRouter now supports dial in user authentication by Radius server.
2. The SoftRouter's Status Window is now resizable.
3. MTU negotiation is now improved on PPP connections so that the requested MTU is now passed to the remote end. This ensures that packets larger than the value set in the "specify MTU" preference are not forwarded to the Softrouter on links with short frame sizes.
4. ICMP Destination unreachable packets now forwarded correctly when they need to transit another router, enabling MTU Path discovery to work correctly. This is particularly relevant where a SoftRouter is used as a PPP server on a network which is attached to the Internet via another router.
5. DHCP Packets are now of the correct size and format to conform to RFC 2131.
6. The SoftRouter could not read in the "Users & Groups" file under MacOS 8. This version fixes this problem and allows the SoftRouter to read in the file so it can be used with Dial-in port security. This version also fixes a problem where the "Users & Groups" menu item within the SoftRouter would not work.
7. Fixed a problem with the "DHCP Clients" file which meant that Windows 95 machines that were set to always get the same IP address would instead be assigned an address from within the DHCP range. Any machines that were set to always get the same IP address outside of the DHCP range would instead be assigned an address from within the DHCP range.
8. The default MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) for PPP ports is now 576 bytes. This has no adverse effect on performance and eliminates some problems encountered with CTB tools that have a limited packet size.
9. Fixed a problem where an FTP data channel could time out while uploading, and if there was a lot of traffic through a PPP port. This would cause an FTP client transfer to fail.
Version 4.0.3
1. The SoftRouter now distributes DNS server address (as set in SoftRouter preferences) to MacIP clients. Previously the address had to be set manually on each MacIP client.
2. The SoftRouter will now prompt the user for confirmation before quitting if it is turned on. This is to stop users accidentally quitting the SoftRouter when it may be in use by other people. This version includes a fix where after 30 seconds of the alert appearing, it will be dismissed as if the "OK" button had been pressed.
3. The "VICOM Settings" folder and its contents ("MultiHosting", "DHCP Clients" and "VICOM TCP/IP Preferences" files) have been moved to the System's Preferences Folder. This is the default location for these files as of this version.
4. A dial-out port now just reports that it has connected rather than reporting the Connected speed (this speed was not the real connected speed of the device being used, but the speed as set in the Communication ToolBox used (e.g. the Apple Modem Tool). A dial-in port now reports the username of the person who has dialled in.
5. The SoftRouter now supports the HTTP "POST" command.
6. A problem was found and has been fixed where the SoftRouter was used on a network with more than one router. If the routers were on the same network as an Ethernet port being mirrored, the SoftRouter would route packets incorrectly to the mirror port.
7. The port probe option for a MacIP port (which was not supposed to be enabled for that type of port) has been greyed out.
Version 4.0.2
1. New 3D look.
2. The previous limit of 8 ports has now been extended to allow an unlimited number of ports.
3. On machines running Open Transport, you can now create multiple Ethernet ports on a single Ethernet card.
4. A new multi-hosting option has been added to the SoftRouter, allowing multiple virtual web sites to be located on one machine.
5. New Dynamic PPP Server facility had been integrated into the previous PPP server functionality of the SoftRouter. This allows PPP dial-in ports to be assigned an address when a remote client has connected to them. These "dial-in" ports can be on the same network as other ports the SoftRouter has.
6. New Global Host Access Rights option which also includes an import and export facility.
7. The "Login Info" window has been improved to provide the option of entering a login script or using PAP in the one location.
8. The SoftRouter now creates a folder called "VICOM Settings" in the VICOM SoftRouter folder. This folder is used to store the settings for the VICOM SoftRouter, including the preferences, DHCP Clients and Multihosting files.
9. The SoftRouter now supports the CHAP authentication protocol used by some routers. The SoftRouter will automatically detect if the router is using PAP or CHAP and respond accordingly.
10. The SoftRouter can now be a DHCP client by setting an Ethernet port to dynamic address.
11. It is now possible to manually set PPP connections to synchronous or asynchronous mode.
12. The "DHCP Clients" window (available in the "File" pull-down menu) is now resizable.
13. PPP framing information is shown in the trace window for a PPP port to enable Vicom Technology's Technical Support staff to be able to help with problems related to connecting to another router via PPP.
14. The SoftRouter now reports the speed at which a modem connection was made. In previous versions, the SoftRouter would display "Connected". It now display's "Connected at x" where x is the speed at which the port was set to connect (e.g. 9600).
15. The SoftRouter can distinguish the difference between echo replies from a modem and echo replies from a remote router, and therefore will correctly detect that the line has been dropped if the "Echo Interval" has been set.
16. The login monitor shown when tracing a port on the SoftRouter (which can be seen by selecting "Start Tracing Port" from the "Ports" pull-down menu) has been improved, including the ability to scroll and to save items from the Trace Window directly to disk after seeing the trace information.
17. The "Port Trace" window is now resizable.
Version 3.7.4
1. The VICOM SoftRouter product is now a completely separate product to the VICOM Internet Gateway with its own installer.
2. The SoftRouter now supports plug-in International Language Enablers.
3. Some problems were experienced when dialling into the SoftRouter from a remote client which have been fixed in this version.
4. A problem was fixed when trying to process a log file on some machines.
5. Fixes some minor bugs related to the main status window.
6. A problem was fixed where the SoftRouter would stop sending RIP when a port was disabled/stopped.
Version 3.7.3
1. The SoftRouter now supports PCI Token Ring cards.
2. Fixes a problem on some machines where the SoftRouter would crash when quit.
Version 3.7.2
1. Downloading large files using a web browser on the SoftRouter machine could cause the transfer to fail.
2. The Routing Tables window correctly appears on small monitors rather than appearing slightly off the screen.
Version 3.7.1
1. The VICOM SoftRouter now supports PCI Ethernet cards.
2. The SoftRouter also supports PCMCIA Ethernet cards.
3. The lease time is shown in the "DHCP Clients" window. This also enables the user to see which clients are BOOTP clients and which clients are DHCP clients.
4. The VICOM SoftRouter now includes native code for both PowerPCs and 68k Mac's. This fat binary application (which is the default installation) will only work on PowerPC's with Open Transport. To use MacTCP with the VICOM Internet Gateway on a PowerPC, you will need to install the secondary installation Gateway. Please click on the "Read Me" button within the "Install Gateway" program for more details.
5. While the SoftRouter is running, the mirror port cannot be deleted.
6. A message is now shown to indicate when the "Mirror this Port" option has been used.
7. In previous versions of the SoftRouter, if a client machine was assigned the same IP address as one of the SoftRouter's ports, the SoftRouter would stop the port until it was manually reset. In this version the SoftRouter will not stop the port, and it will become active when the conflicting address is removed.
8. The number of DHCP/BOOTP clients that the SoftRouter can handle can now be adjusted up to a maximum of 1024.
9. The DHCP lease time can now be changed from the default of 1 hour.
10. Inbuilt PING function added.
11. A "DHCP Clients" file is now installed as standard.
12. Settings are saved every time something is changed by the user.
13. Synchronous PPP support added.
14. When a dial-out port has connected, the "Connect" pull-down menu option now becomes "Disconnect" rather than being greyed out.
Previous Versions
For the history of previous versions of the VICOM SoftRouter, please see the complete VICOM SoftRouter Version History document on our web site at:
