RELEASE NOTES

Changes from 0.4.3 to 0.4.4

Released 2/5/2012

Repaired a bug in the smtpclient -A attach option that required and extra argument to the flag that did not need any arguments.

Repaired a logging bug in the dyndns script that caused the name "dyndns" not to be displayed.

Repaired a firewall problem that allowed access to servers on PPP Internet connections when the server was set in secure mode. This bug was introduced in 0.4.3 in the firewall only mode option.

Repaired a bug in the mv2hd command that caused other language definitions for control characters not to work.

Repaired a bug in the rc_net script that used the wrong 'restart' command when another language was in use other than English.

Repaired the 'pkg' command so that when downloading files or installing kernels "Installation aborted" is not displayed on exit.

Repaired a bug in the live.cfg creation scripting that would sometimes loose some of the data in the file due to more than one instance trying to write to the file at the same time.

Repaired a bug in the setup that did not show server security accurately when enabled in secure mode and using an alternate language using different control characters was being used. This was strictly a visual repair.

Changed the kernel to use a 'full cone NAT'. This change required enabling the 'loose UDP masquerading' option in the kernel source. Without this option enabled the firewall is a 'port restricted NAT' and inhibits some particular applications from wanting to run behind FREESCO.

Added full system support for virtual interfaces. This also includes DHCP for virtual networks and interfaces so that more than one subnet can be supported on a single interface.

Added a system test at boot time so the system can automatically adjust the configuration language from any previous language to the currently installed default language.

Added a new language section into the setup to make converting the system to a different language an easy operation.

Added the ability to change the smtp port into the individual mail client configuration files.

Added gzip to compress files

Added tar create to make tarballs of files and directories.

Added wput as an FTP client suitable for uploading backup files and directories for network backups. Which is a planned new feature on a future release of FREESCO.

Added a new auto patching mechanism. This mechanism checks for system patches every two weeks and auto installs them if enabled. This new feature does not check for updates at every boot and requires two weeks of uptime before it will activate when enabled.

Added boot CD support into the system. Also added a new ISO image of FREESCO to make creating a boot-able CD easier. This version has all available PCI drivers installed on the disk to make the initial CD boot a running system with minimal services running. It is also possible to re-master this image to be a live system capable of running in any mode by copying the running /etc directory to the CD.

Added DHCP static IP and IP range support for virtual interfaces and networks.

Added wol v0.2.0 to the base system binaries. This allows for all wake-on-lan enabled computers to be started remotely.

Added a control panel 'wol' section that displays all internal machines connected using DHCP and allows the user to wake any of them up remotely with two clicks of a mouse button.

Added IP address monitoring capabilities into the netmon binary. Using this new feature allows current bandwidth usage and tracking any any internal IP address. The resulting information can be seen on screen 6 and in the control panel under the 'network' function. To add or remove IP addresses in 'netmon' just use 'netmon -e' to edit the configuration file.

Added clearing of bandwidth usage for the netmon binary. Using the new 'netmon' binary all that is required is to use 'netmon -r' to reset all of the data fields for bandwidth usage.

Added the boot time Romanian language translation into the system so that the base system commands before the drive is mounted will show correctly in Romanian when defined as the default language. Thanks to 'Casian Colcher' for this translation.

Added client logging. This option will log the current name and/or IP address of every client that connects to FREESCO when 'client logging' is enabled. It also logs the MAC address time and date of there last connection. To keep this log on a permanent basis to survive reboots just enable 'save system logs'.

Changed the netmon binary to correctly calculate the receive data for virtual interfaces. Thanks to 'justdave' for the new code and countless hours of work.

74K free on the floppy

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