Although Microsoft is no longer supporting these platforms, Catalyst has no plans to discontinue support for Windows 2000 or Windows XP SP2 at this time. However, it is important to consider that the inability to obtain support from Microsoft for these platforms may impact our ability to provide support to our customers. If a customer reports a problem on either of these platforms, we will follow this process:

1. If a problem is reported on Windows 2000 or Windows XP SP2, we will first attempt to reproduce that problem on a supported version of Windows. Typically, that will be on both a development system running Windows 7 and a test system running Windows XP SP3. If the problem can be reproduced, then it’s not likely to be a platform-specific issue and we’ll proceed towards resolving the issue.

2. If the problem cannot be reproduced on a supported version of Windows, we’ll attempt to reproduce it on either Windows 2000 or Windows XP SP2, depending on which platform the customer is experiencing the problem. If we can reproduce the problem, then we’ll determine the nature of the issue. For example, if the problem can be isolated as a certain network function that doesn’t have the same functionality as on supported versions of Windows, we’ll determine what change or work-around can be made to correct the problem.

3. If it is determined that the problem is specific to an unsupported version of Windows and is related to something that cannot be addressed directly in our code, such as a system configuration issue or a problem with a particular driver, then we will do our best to provide a work-around solution for the customer as a temporary measure until the customer and/or end-user can migrate to a supported platform.

While we have no immediate plans to discontinue support for these platforms, it is also important to note that future versions of our products may not include support for them, or certain features may not be available when new functionality is added to our products. If you haven’t done so already, we recommend that you make plans to migrate any of your end-users to a supported version of Windows as soon as possible. This is particularly important for any systems which have Internet connectivity because the lack of security updates for these platforms has the potential to make those systems increasingly vulnerable to malicious software and denial-of-service attacks.

For Visual Basic programmers, the new version of Visual Studio includes some nice features such as implicit line continuation (no more underscore characters to continue lines), auto-implemented class properties, collection initializers and lambda expressions (essentially functions within functions). On the C# side of things, they’ve added support for late binding to dynamic types, and improved interoperability with COM objects. This is a real benefit to C# developers who need to make extensive use of the Office automation APIs, since these changes make it significantly easier to work with. For the most part, the language changes make it easier to do more with less code, and brings VB and C# into parity with one another in terms of language features and overall functionality. Microsoft decided to merge the VB and C# language teams together, ensuring that both languages are “first class citizens” in the .NET universe.

For those who are interested in working with Visual Studio 2010, here’s some useful links:

• Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions
• Visual Studio 2010 Professional
• .NET Framework 4 Installer
• Visual Studio 2010 Help Keyword Index
• Help Viewer Power Tool

Visual Studio 2010 Professional can be installed as a 30-day trial and you can get an additional 60-day extension, if necessary. The Express Editions are free, of course, but are more limited. New projects build with VS2010 will target the .NET 4 Framework, so your end-users would need to have that installed. You could either have them install it using the web installer I linked above, or you could have your own installation program pre-install the framework.

The link to the keyword index addon is something that addresses the one significant negative in VS2010, which is the new help system that they’re using. It lacks an index, and the searching functionality leaves a lot to be desired (for example, there’s no ability to filter search results). This addon adds a panel that provides an index that integrates directly into the IDE, and is really something that should have been included with the product. One caveat is that this addon won’t work with the Express editions because they don’t support tool extensions. The Help Viewer power tool allows you to configure the VIsual Studio 2010 help to use a standalone viewer, rather than your browser. Keep in mind that if you want to make full use of the Help Viewer power tool, make sure that you install all of the Visual Studio documentation locally.

For professional developers who need security, additional functionality and technical support, we have commercial versions of SocketWrench. Secure connections using SSL/TLS can be easily established, usually with just an extra line of code, and for projects where you need to create a server application, the commercial version also includes the Internet Server component which makes it easy to create custom TCP/IP servers.

For those programmers who are primarily working with native code, such as classic Visual Basic, PowerBasic, C++ and other similar languages, our SocketWrench Secure Edition includes both an ActiveX control and a standard dynamic link library (DLL) that provides an interface that’s similar to the standard Windows API. It can be used with virtually any programming language, and has a great degree of flexibility.

For Visual Basic .NET and C# developers, we’ve designed SocketWrench .NET to really simplify Internet programming beyond what’s included as part of the .NET Framework. Microsoft has a lot of interdependency in their classes where you end up creating a number of different class instances and writing a lot of “glue code” to tie them together. An example of this would be the TcpClient class which uses the NetworkStream class, and then to convert the data read to a string, you’d need to use the System.Text.Encoding class and so on. If you need SSL support, then you’d also need the SslStream class, and write the code to integrate that. All of this functionality is incorporated directly into SocketWrench, which significantly reduces the amount of code that needs to be written. And as every developer knows, the less code you have to write, fewer errors will be in that code. A simple, straight-forward design is one of the cornerstones of reliable software. Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Here is a brief overview of just a few of the major changes that will be coming in the next release. Additional information about SocketTools 7 can be found in the Frequently Asked Questions document on our website.

Native support for 64-bit Windows applications. The SocketTools 7 .NET and Library Editions will include 64-bit editions that can be used to build native 64-bit versions of your applications. Of course, we will continue to offer our 32-bit components as well, allowing developers to target the platforms of their choice.

Support for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Commonly known as the next generation Internet protocol, IPv6 is designed to eventually replace the current version. IPv6 addresses many of the problems with the current version of the protocol, and adds a number of improvements in terms of routing, network configuration and overall performance. While most of the Internet still uses IPv4, offering support for IPv6 ensures the long-term compatibility of your application software.

Support for Quality of Service functionality. The ability to negotiate and manage the bandwidth allocated to a connection is known as Quality of Service (QoS). This allows an application to prioritize network traffic for mission-critical applications, as well as obtain statistical information about the connection.

Support for the Really Simple Syndication (RSS) protocol. A new library and component will be included that provides a simplified interface to download and parse RSS feeds. RSS has become common place in providing updates to frequently changing content on the Internet, and can also be used programmatically. For example, your application could check an RSS feed to determine if it is running the current version, or if the user should be notified of a new release.

Support for Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging. This component and library enables developers to send short text messages, typically 160 characters or less, to a mobile device. All you need to know is the cell phone number and provide the text that you wish to send. A method for specifying an alternate email gateway server, typically needed for providers outside of the United States, can also be specified if needed.

Support for very large file transfers. Currently, file transfers using protocols like FTP and HTTP are limited to 4GB. In SocketTools 7, these limitations will be removed, enabling applications to upload and download very large files that exceed 4GB.

Support for automatic management of background file transfers. This will enable your application to queue file transfers in the background, without interfering with the current thread of execution. For example, you could have a number of files that you want your software to download at one time. With this option enabled, you request the files as you normally would and the data transfer begins in the background, executing in a separate thread and control is immediately returned to your program. An event is used to signal when the transfer has completed. There’s no need for you to worry about managing multiple threads or worry about writing complex inter-process communication code.

Network protocol improvements and extensions. SocketTools 7 will also include improvements to many of the network protocols, such as support for HTTP compression, Integrated Windows Authentication support and improved session logging and debugging features.

Of course, one of the most common concerns for developers is code compatibility. SocketTools 7 will continue to include all of the components and libraries in the current version and will be source compatible to ensure that upgrading is as easy as possible. This includes continuing support for ActiveX controls and Visual Basic 6.0 (Classic VB). We will continue to support all of the current Windows platforms from Windows 2000 and later, including the new release of Windows 7 in October, 2009. As with previous versions, SocketTools 7 will support side-by-side installation. You can safely install the new version on the same system that already has a previous version of SocketTools installed.

SocketTools 7 is currently under development, and there will be phased beta testing similar to how the beta test for version 6.0 was managed. If you’re a current beta tester, you’ll automatically be invited for the first round of testing. We’ll then open up testing to other developers who are interested in working with the new release. We currently plan on releasing SocketTools 7 in the summer of 2010, although this is subject to change based on the testing process and feedback from developers.

For example, in Visual Basic the code could look like this:

  SecureShell.HostName = "remote.server.net"
  SecureShell.UserName = "username"
  SecureShell.Password = "password"

  Dim strResult = SecureShell.Execute("/bin/ps -ef")
  If strResult.Length = 0 And SecureShell.LastError > 0 Then
      MessageBox.Show(SecureShell.LastErrorString)
      Exit Sub
  End If

  TextBox1.Text = strResult

In this example, the typical property values are set for the SSH server domain name or IP address, the user name and password required to authenticate the session. The Execute method is then called, providing the command to execute as a parameter, and the output from the command will be returned to a string value. In this case, we’re connecting to a UNIX based system and listing all of the running processes using the /bin/ps command.

If an error occurs, then the return value will be an empty string and the LastError property will be set to a value which identifies the error condition. In this case, we simply display a message box that shows a human-readable description of the last error code and then exit the subroutine.

As with an interactive terminal session, the entire operation is encrypted over the network, including the command that is sent and the output that it returns. For this reason, using SSH is preferred over the old rexec protocol which would send both the user credentials and the command as plain text. If you’re currently using the Remote Command class in your applications, it’s recommended that you consider rewriting your code to use the SSH component as a secure alternative.

SocketTools 6.0 is fully compatible with Windows 7 and it is recommended that developers download the current service pack update. For those developers who are using older versions of SocketTools, we recommend upgrading to the current version of SocketTools to ensure compatibility with the Windows 7 operating system. Customers who have purchased the SocketTools Subscription can download the latest version using the download link provided when they purchased the subscription. More information about SocketTools 6.0 is available on our website.

If you are currently using version 5.0, you can upgrade to the current version at a discounted price. Version 6.0 is source compatible with version 5.0 and can be installed side-by-side on the same development system. For more information about what’s new with SocketTools 6.0, please visit our website. If you have any questions, feel free to post in the technical support forum section appropriate for your product.