THD ProScan Version 9.1 ----------------------- THD ProScan Version 9.0 was the most popular release of THD ProScan to date. It is my extreme pleasure to see so many people using it. Although intended to be perfect (and beta tested for much longer than previous releases) it fell short on a few points. Many of these things would affect very few people. But they do account for something and therefore deserved to be fixed. People who have asked about "registration" should see THDDOC under Registration / Donations. The program is still free (donations are accepted). THD ProScan version 9.1 is a maintenance release which functionally repairs some problems with Version 9.0. A new parameter is introduced. The use of "/KO" will cause THDPRO.EXE to leave the original archive when converting. This parameter is likely only useful for those BBS types which require the original to be present after a conversion so that the BBS can delete the original. (Don't ask me I just programmed it ) A new parameter "/NODESC" was also introduced. Using this parameter will cause THD ProScan to not update the descriptions in the BBS file data bases while still allowing it to update name changes in the data bases. presently only truly useful for RemoteAccess. Network support has been improved in the following manner. If THDPRO.EXE is not supplied a drive letter to the file to be tested or in the paths to the utils which it uses, the drive letter of the "current" drive will be placed at the beginning of the supplied path. ie. THDPRO.EXE \DOWNLOAD\TEST.ZIP would be treated as.. THDPRO C:\DOWNLOAD\TEST.ZIP if the current drive was "C". This current drive is the drive at the start of testing for this purpose and in network environments will be the drive assumed by the remote rather than the server. The environment variable THDOPT=NDx can also be used by the remote to determine the drive to be used for testing since it will be checked before the hardcoded drives in the configuration. While this may not conform to "full network support", it should operate correctly in a network environment and still offer the same security as a DOS based system. Non-network users should supply drive letters in all cases. For users of RemoteAccess... Some persons running RemoteAccess 2.00 and 2.01 have found that THD ProScan version 9.0 would not update their File Data Bases. The problem was due to the fact that RA 2.00 only accepts capitals for input in RACONFIG, but the upgrade program did not automatically convert the old path to capitals. THD now converts the case to capitals before comparing and can now properly index the file bases. Thanks to peter jannsens for allowing me to use his FILES.RA in my search for the cause. Persons still having difficulty in this respect should double check that long descriptions are allowed in this area and that they have a properly indexed set of FDB files (run RAFILE INDEX). Version 9.0 refused to add comments on "some" bbs setups. The problem was eventually traced to Share.exe and repaired. Version 9.0 would lock some systems when attempting to strip the comments from PAK and/or ARC packets. This was due to a problem with redirection in the new windowed environment. THD now determines if the window is being used and skips attempts to modify these comments when a window is being used. (the window does not allow ansi and therefore there is no threat of ansi bombs during any "windowed" process.) A similar problem to that above was encountered by some systems with ARJ archives. This too has been fixed. More and more false detections of ARC and PAK archive types have been reported. When an archive of either of these types is detected, it will undergo a short verification of it's integrity before being regarded as an archive. (Many new programs contain menu and pif files which could be identified as ARC type files otherwise.) Version 9.0's command line when calling F-Prot.exe proved to be incompatible with the new F-Prot 2.10. The command line supplied by 9.1 is compatible with this and older versions of F-PROT. THDPRO.EXE from version 9.0 ignored the AV when removing files by CRC value in ZIP files (Secured packets also ignored, but ARJ does not allow modification so no damage was done). Version 9.1 recognizes and does not attempt file removal under these circumstances. During the installation THDINSTL had severe difficulty dealing with "SCAN.EXE" when it was not in the dos path. This has been rectified. Also during installation, if the sysop were to use the new dos shell and change directories and/or drives, THDINSTL would experience a runtime error #2. This has been repaired as well. The settings as stated in the documents did not actually default to failing of heuristic tests when SCAN.EXE was not used. This has been repaired. Persons running Share.exe experienced a runtime error when attempting to use CRC mode. Fixed. Telegard FILE_ID.DIZ importation will only work if the file being tested is already in TG's file database. This is an inherent problem with the way TG handles new uploads. (I hadn't realized this when originally programming this feature). The feature is left in so that those wishing to retest files on their boards can have the DIZ's imported. (Same problem applies to the renaming of the file after conversion). See TG-RG.TXT for specifics on the use of the THDPRO.DIZ feature new to this maintenance release. And please if you find a better method of implementation than that suggested, I would appreciate being informed so that I might offer this advice to other sysops. TBSCAN uses the TBSCAN.LNG and TBSCAN.SIG files from it's current directory (if they are present). This causes TBSCAN to use the incorrect signature file if it is present in the temporary directory. THDPRO has been modified to change directories before initializing this type of scan so that malicious persons cannot upload modified versions of these files to fool the virus scanner through the use of false signature files. (The heuristic mode should still catch most viruses even with a bad signature file, but better safe than sorry). The author have been informed and has rectifed the problem in TBAV609. TBSCAN version 6.08 also introduced a date checking procedure. If the files are older than 6 months, TBSCAN will prompt the sysop to press a key. Version 9.1 supplies the necessary switch to avoid this prompt. The planned "enhancement" utility which will add the "extra" features to THDPRO.EXE for those BBS types not yet supported internally will begin development immediately following the release of this maintenance version. This utility will be used automatically if found in the same directory as THDPRO.EXE. First BBS types to be supported are intended to be SBBS/TAG/PCB. This is limited to my ability to setup boards of these types and find the necessary structures. (In pascal) I will not likely add support for any BBS type which I cannot set up or run on my XT with CGA (unless accompanied by excessive requests and volunteers). Release of this utility is planned for "around" Feb 1st 1994 (May be sooner or later depending on my free time between now and then). For personal correspondence please see THDDOC.EXE for details on reaching the author. Netmail is always welcomed. The addition of the THDOPT environment variable is new to this release and allows "some" minor aspects of the tester to be modified. ANSI - will force "ANSI" output to the remote regardless of ansi detect. NDx - Network Drive to first attempt testing on. Where "x" represents any valid drive letter from A-Y (Z is not supported). NDL would check for sufficient free space on drive "L" before attempting the default configured drive(s). this option may also be used to force THDPRO.EXE to attempt to use a drive letter not recognized by the auto detection during the installation. The THDOPT environment variable can contain either or both of the above. Possible settings are as follows. SET THDOPT=ANSI {forces ANSI output) SET THDOPT=NDE {Tells THDPRO.EXE to attempt extraction on drive "E" first.} SET THDOPT=ANSI NDH {use ANSI and attempt drive "H" first} The variables must be separated by at least a single space. No other separators will be recognized and could cause the desired option(s) to be skipped if other separators are used.