THDPro ver 9.0 Every sysop wants to be sure that the files that are downloaded from their BBS are safe and secure. That a user does not waist his or her time downloading a file just to find out it will not unpack due to a CRC failure, or that the inocent little Archive comment is really an Ansi bomb. For this reason, most of us (if not all) use some sort of upload checker. Weather it be the Internal provided by Mark, or something with a few more bells and whistles. For several months now I have been using THDPro which in my mind, is one of the best Upload Checkers around. It has all the features the others have but has a totally different design idea. THDPro was mainly designed with security involved. It does not only check the file for the normal things, but it does so in a way to insure that the integrity of your BBS remains intact against "hackers". While he does not claim it can not happen, the athor will say that he knows of no one who can hack into a system while it is running. Lets take a look at some the requrements and the features of this latest release: REQUREMENTS: PC/XT ( or compatible) MS-DOS 3.3 (or higher) (other "DOS" systems may be acceptable A Fossil Driver (user output will not be sent if no fossil is found, but testing will still be done) At least One Hard Drive At least one of the following : i) McAfee's Viruscan ii) F-PROT iii) TBScan Enough memeory to run each of the utilities used by the program (+3k) FEATURES: - Complete logging of file testing - Logging of heuristic testing only when suspicious code is found - Sysop can opt to NOT test files if they are too large - 100% share aware and compatible (SHARE.EXE is not a requirement) - Allows the sysop to use any combination of SCAN.EXE / F-PROT.EXE / TBSCAN.EXE (1, 2, or all three of them) - Allows the sysop to supply up to 9 user side "interfaces" - The sysop can opt to update the tested files date and time or keep the original time stamp - Identifies all archives by their internal signatures Including Self extracting archives - Allows files to be rejected based on the dates of the files inside the archive - Can reject files by name using a "hack list" (HACK****.COL and IDX files can be read directly from the hack report) - Supports "heuristic" testing for suspicious code using F-PROT or TBSCAN - Optionally pass or fail files which contains suspicious code found by heuristic testers. - Support for remote ansi or ASCII as determined by auto ansi detech - Protection for "ZIP" archives which have a valid "AV" - Strips comments from all archives before any processing is done (to avoid "ansi bombs" in comments) - Recreates full directory structure "from" the temp directory thus allowing all internal archives to be tested regardless of how deeply inbedded they may be - Does not allow the "overwrite" option on any of the archive types (stops some forms of "hacking") - Add loaders to the main archive - Insert a specific comment depending on the location of the file being tested. - Will use one of as many as three drives to test files by searching in order to find enough available space on one of them - Intelligent installation which attempts to do as much of the installation for you as possible - Online help during the installation - DOS shell from the installation - Full control over the options available and paths to archive utilities - Support for ZIP-GIF-TD0-ARC-ARJ-PAK-HYP-LZH-SQZ file types - Will virus scan all file types regardless of types configured - Remove unwanted files from the archives tested (using name and/or CRC) - Option to hang up on users who upload viruses - Option to reboot after a viral detection - No known ways to "alter" the operation of your BBS through its use - All operations controlled by a single EXE file (some features will require a "text" control file) THDPro has three modes of operation, Test Mode, CRC mode, and Convert mode. To use the test mode, it is very simple. Since this is a TriBBS Newsletter, I'll give you the command line for use with the latest version of TriBBS: THDPRO.EXE %1 Simple as that. The %1 is used by TriBBS to pass the full name and path to THDPro for it to process. THDPRO will pass along one of several errorlevels depending on the outcome of its test. They are as follows: 0 - All test were passed satisfactorily 1 - An imbedded archive failed the CRC test 3 - The file has failed due to date restrictions 4 - The file was failed for being on the hack list 5 - An imbedded archive failed the CRC test due to a disk read error 10 - A virus was detected during the Scan (or optionally, the heuristic scan ) 15 - The main archive failed the CRC test These error levels can be used in your upload batch file as you see fit. The CRC Mode is new to version 9. It is used to create and/or update a CRC list (for use with the removal funtion.) The use of CRC mode is intended specifically for use by those wishing to remove files from archives bases on the files CRC value. In order to use this ability, you must have chosen to use the CRC method of file removal during installation. Please read the docs for futher information. The Conversion Mode is also new with ver 9. This is a fully functinal archive converter. This archive converter can convert from any of the supported archive types to anyh of the ARJ/LHA/SQZ/ZIP file formats. It can be used interactivly during the testing (not recommened for TriBBS as TriBBS will not find the file) or as a standalone conversion utility. Once again, I'll send you to the docs for futher information. Setting up THDPro is as easy as anything you've every done. You just run the program THDINSTL.EXE and answer the prompts. It will take you step by step through setting up the program. There is no .CFG file as all the setup information is written to the .EXE file. Trust me on this one, it is very very easy to set up. THDPro is in my opinion, one of, if not the best Upload Processers around. It offers just about everything a sysop could want in one small package. And best of all (Joe, are you listening!!) its FREE. Yup, I said that FREE. What more can you ask. THDPRO is avail on Imagine, and the Lobster Bouy, and I'm sure many other TriBBS support boards. I hope you enjoy it.