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Welcome to -Mortens HostAlive- webpage.

 

Content of this webpage:

Version history...

[top]

Changes and improvements in -Mortens HostAlive-:

Version 1.20 - build 55 (Roll-Up)
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: (iunternal, for devs) InIDE feature (disable subclassing in IDE)
  • Added: Port scan results are shown in status (applies to all messaging)
  • Improved: Handling of Windows Scripting Host (WSH), updated installer
  • Improved: Online update check
  • Fixed: Several issues with menu in systray (not disabling...)
  • Fixed: Issues with UpDown control (which is now fully Freeware)
  • Fixed: Bug with non-working /nocfg parameter
  • Fixed: Bug with non-working ASCii import
  • Fixed: Bug with non-working sorting of hostlist by IP/hostname

Version 1.19 - build 53 (Service Release)
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Fixed: Error [339] showing up when running the application.
  • Fixed: Issues with parsing the command-line.

Version 1.19 - build 52
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Importing a hostlist now shows a progress in percent (requested in case of large hostlist-files - e.g. with a long history)
  • Added: Ability to QuickPing/Ident host directly from hostlist
  • Added: Ability to trace-route host from hostlist (by request)
  • Added: Ability to suppress multiple instance warning
  • Added: Ability to quickly resolve the IP adress to a hostname or vice versa
  • Added: Ability to test selected WAV file to play and selected application to run (by request)
  • Added: Ability to select time- and date format for outputs (by request)
  • Added: Introduced grouping to hosts. Hosts can now be put into a host-group and sorted by groups (by request)
  • Added: A threshold (definition) for a ping failure can now be be defined for each host as number of failed pings and/or maximum RTT
  • Added: Support for CC: and BCC recipients in email report (by request)
  • Added: New command line switch "/hosts=" to resize internal hostslist. Please note: Observing more then 512 hosts is at your own risk! (by request)
  • Improved: Command-line handler now allows command line parameters in quotation marks
  • Improved: Rewrite of command line parser. It is now implemented in a general way that it can be used in all my other applications.
  • Improved: Resizable formulars do no longer flicker if trying to resize below minimum size
  • Improved: If a host is broken the whole line is marked red
  • Improved: Re-ordered general settings slightly for better overview
  • Improved: Another code separation for better modularisation
  • Improved: Redesign of host definition dialog.
  • Improved: Changes to be more compatible to VB.NET (Porting is still in progress...)
  • Improved: Redesign of hostlist import routine which is now much smaller
  • Improved: Rewrite of core Email functions for better code- separation
  • Fixed: Bug with non-working SMTP AUTH challenge in Email
  • Fixed: Bug that unresolved hostnames sometimes led to invalid hostlists
  • Fixed: Bug that some sockets were not cleanly closed. (This sometimes led to memory leaks.)
  • Fixed: Bug with wrong hops settings in alternative ping
  • Fixed: Hostlist import error message "invalid history" now appears only, if history is in fact corrupt. There was a bug storing the port-scan data.
  • Fixed: Minor issues with Email report (server connectivity issues)

Version 1.18 - build 49 (Service Release)
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Possibility to import plain-text host list files.
  • Fixed: Error [401] [402] showing up when changing settings related to the host list in the options dialog. Please note: This error was non-critical!
  • Fixed: Possible bug to not exiting application correctly.
  • Fixed: Mouse buttons in systray work again under Win9X.

Version 1.18 - build 48
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Ability to move hosts in list for individual sorting (by request).
  • Added: Support for checking for services on specific ports (by request).
  • Added: Support for an alternative ping using the Win32 iphlpapi.dll.
  • Added: Ability to import host list-files with corrupted history.
  • Added: Ability to view the hosts history as a chart with several options (by request).
  • Improved: New command-line option "/min" to force a minimized state after startup.
  • Improved: Ping packet size is now shown (in settings).
  • Improved: Table width in html-logging file is now at 90% (by request).
  • Improved: Writing the logging file should be much faster now.
  • Improved: MHA does now minimize before first ping if option "run pinging on startup" is activated.
  • Improved: Internal re-arrangements and optimisations.
  • Improved: Added new IANA top-level-domains to address validation.
  • Improved: Some minor cosmetic corrections, including tab-ordering and consistency at labels for some options.
  • Improved: Better temp-file handling using Windows API.
  • Improved: Time-taking host list and GUI operations are now shown as "operating" in an activity form.
  • Improved: Minimized time application cannot respond to input commands due to calculations.
  • Improved: Internal code-separation to minimize function-complexity.
  • Improved: Introduced key-shortcuts to several options dialogs.
  • Improved: Date is now written as year-month-day for the file extension with the file-logging option "Write a new file every day but keep the old one".
  • Fixed: Minor bug in ping settings validation.
  • Fixed: Bug with date and time beeing "00:00:00".
  • Fixed: Possible bug with form-handling (if minimized to systray).
  • Fixed: Bug that some hosts got corrupted in host list: "Invalid entries detected in host list-file that have been skipped."
  • Fixed: Option "Show resolved IP-address/hostname..." does now what it says.
  • Fixed: Suddenly disabled Email report feature on restart.
  • Fixed: Bug with file-renaming when saving an old logging file on english systems. This applied to the file-logging option "Write a new file every day but keep the old one". (The old logging file was not saved there.)
  • Fixed: Conversation issue of host list-files between english and non- english systems. Files are now beeing automatically converted appropriate.
  • Fixed: Bug with UpDown controls in options.
  • Fixed: Possible bug with installer concerning issues with service-packs.
  • Fixed: Bug with suddenly appearing of systray popup menu and minimization of application.

Version 1.17 - build 46 (Service Release 2)
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: (Enabled) Ability to play a WAV-file on specified host's status (by request).
  • Fixed: Error when trying to restore a maximized application.
  • Fixed: MHA does not show strings in textboxes that have an unlimited string length

Version 1.17 - build 45 (Service Release)
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: (Enabled) Quick status request via PopUp menu in systray.
  • Fixed: In HTML file-logging the first entry was always set to "status".
  • Fixed: Wrong status "pinging this host is disabled" if changes to hosts were made (including enabling to ping this host).
  • Fixed: Minor bug in (online) update-checking algorithm.
  • Fixed: A few spelling mistakes.
  • Improved: Few cosmetic operations including internal code crunch.

Version 1.17 - build 44
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Ability to select the style of the "Email report".
  • Added: Ability to view the logging-file via menu.
  • Added: Ability to check for an update online.
  • Added: Ability to generally resolve and show IP-address (hostname) next to the hostname (IP-address) or alias (by request).
  • Added: Ability to sort host list by mean response time.
  • Added: Ability to write the logging-file in .CSV-format as well (by request).
  • Added: Ability to save host list with or without statistics.
  • Added: Windows XP style support (if running under WinXP).
  • Added: Ability disable entries to logging file, if no hosts are concerned (by request).
  • Added: Ability not to reset hosts statistic if changing host-settings (by request).
  • Added: Label that shows current file loaded and it's status.
  • Added: Support for command-line switches (by request)
    "/cfg=" Enables load a provided configuration file on startup.
    "/nomin" Disables minimizing the MHA on startup.
    "/noping" Forces no pinging on startup (overriding the config-file).
    "/?" Shows a short help describing the options.
  • Improved: Hostnames will be checked for (illegal) blanks.
  • Improved: Made QuickPing - feature more robust.
  • Improved: Removed (additional) linefeeds in Email-body (by request).
  • Improved: Rearrangement of controls in options-dialog.
  • Improved: Changed support-form a little.
  • Improved: The "Add/Change hosts" dialog by adding a "Ok - Next" function.
  • Improved: Some code-optimisations.
  • Improved: A few consistency and cosmetic corrections.
  • Improved: PopUp-form is now resizable.
  • Fixed: A few spelling mistakes and possibly misunderstandable captions and messages.
  • Fixed: Cleaned up hotkeys that did conflict with standard Windows-operations (e.g. copy and paste).
  • Fixed: If Options menu was opened and in background it will now be brought to front when clicking the systray-icon. (You need to close this first for the Show/Hide command to work).
  • Fixed: (Possible) overflow error with tray-icon2 "Show/Hide" command.
  • Fixed: Major issue when trying to load or append a host list with more than 255 (512) hosts.
  • Fixed: Minor issue that MHA did not minimize into systray if option "run pinging on application startup" was selected.
  • Updated about-box to new weblinks.
Please note:
A lot of changes have been made since the v1.16 release. I would suggest a fresh installation. You can keep your old host list-files which will be automatically updated to the new enhancements introduced with v1.17. Please note that they will NOT be backwards-compatible to v1.16.

Version 1.16 - build 42 (Service Release)
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Fixed: Removed debugging-message window (true/false) in options - file-logging. (This occurred only, if the file-logging option was activated.) Normally a script handles such stuff for me but due to a spelling mistake the script could not find this entry.
  • Fixed: Removed confusing "Importing settings" message on application startup. (This occurred only if the option "Run pinging on application startup" was activated.)

Version 1.16 - build 41
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Standard "Save" entry in menu for saving an already loaded host list (quickly).
  • Added: Ability to run an external application on specified host's status (by request).
  • Added: Ability to load/save configuration files.
  • Added: Comment-field for every host which will also be saved in the host list (by request).
  • Added: Support for statistics which mean response time and number of successful pings (by request).
  • Added: MHA now remembers the width of the columns in the host list (by request).
  • Added: Support for CSS files for file-logging (by request). An example CSS-file is available for download here.
  • Added: MHA now shows a splash screen on startup that informs about the initialisation.
  • Improved: Error handling now also catches (external) Win32-errors when calling Win32-API functions.
  • Improved: Changed display of ping results (more logical).
  • Improved: Rewrite of detecting another instance in memory. MHA now creates an system-wide individual mutex on startup.
  • Improved: Changing color-settings for logging-file will now affect the whole file.
  • Improved: Application startup (especially on slow machines).
  • Improved: Minor cosmetic changes on interface and menus, and some other internal improvements.
  • Internal improvement: "Assertion failure" handling.
  • Fixed bug that appeared when trying to remove hosts from a host list with more than 100 entries.
  • Fixed bug with "another application is present" message.
  • Fixed "Fatal internal error" when trying to add a host and changing a host at the same time.
  • Fixed minor bug with SMTP-Auth feature unter WinNT+.
  • Fixed a logical bug with Email-report. Sometimes an Email-report was sent if it shouldn't due to settings.
  • Fixed uninstalling problems under Win9x, NT4.
  • Fixed a possible bug with sudden reinitilisations.
  • Fixed a few minor issues.
Please note:
The bad news: The (quite a lot requested) feature to see IP-address and/or hostname/alias in logging-file/Email report has been re-scheduled for the v1.17 release (next to the "append to file" feature).
The good news: This is because I've plans to make the design of the logging file even more flexible. When finished the user will be able to freely select the content of the table cells.
Please understand.

Version 1.15 - build 38
Added / improved / fixed:

  • -Mortens HostAlive- is now free for commercial use as well (with a single minor restriction).
  • Added: Support for "report on status change" (by request).
  • Added: Support for a lot more email-functions, e.g. authentification via POP3-login (by request). BTW: major parts of the email-handling have been rewritten.
  • Added: Ability to set the color for broken hosts and the header in the logging-file (by request).
  • Added: Possibility to send a support request from within -Mortens HostAlive-.
  • Added: Possibility to reset a single options dialog only.
  • Added: Mortens HostAlive will show a warning message if multiple instances are detected.
  • Improved: Using another (and hopefully better) installer by Nullsoft (NSIS).
  • Improved: Increased number of hosts to observe to 512 (by request).
  • Improved: Decreased time-limit for ping to one second (by request).
  • Improved: -Mortens HostAlive- now does change the icon and mouse-cursor to indicate when pinging (busy).
  • Improved: -Mortens HostAlive- should now be fully compatible with Windows XP.
  • Improved: More detailed and resizable email status-log (by request).
  • Improved: "Suppress MHA" now also suppresses the META-description-tag (by request).
  • Improved: Using the "X" in MHA does no longer exits the application. It acts like show/hide instead. Note: You now must use the "Quit"-menu to exit.
  • Improved: Application is now fully "english-only"; no more german messages.
  • Improved: (Internal) File accessibility check.
  • Improved: (Internal) Application status handling.
  • Improved: (Internal) VB.NET compatibility.
  • Fixed: Bug in internal password handling.
  • Fixed: Bug that it was possible to load only one less than the maximum of hosts in a host list-file.
  • Fixed: Spelling a little - any help is appreciated.

Version 1.14 - build 34
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: A label that shows how many host elements are currently in the host list (by request).
  • Added: "Append to host list" feature. Now it is possible to append hosts from a host list-file to an existing host list.
  • Added: If host list-file is dropped to the host list-table, this this file will be imported. (This also works with multiple files.)
  • Added: Email protocol logging window. A new option is available that will show you information you about all interactions taken with your Email server.
    If the Email feature does not work for you properly (there have been problems reported when using an Exchange Email server) please (!) email a complete logging report to me to help resolving such problems. Thank you.
  • Added: Ability to turn off any warning messages on program exit (by request).
  • Improved: Increased number of logging-file entries to (up to) 10000 (by request).
  • Fixed 2 (really!) minor bugs that could occur when importing configuration data.

Version 1.13 - build 31
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Ability to add multiple entries to logging file (by request).
  • Added: Ability to disable(/enable) pinging on (selected) hosts. This information will also be saved in the host list-file.
  • Improved: -Mortens HostAlive- will show a warning message when trying to quit the application and host list has been changed.
  • Improved: Finally (!) setup is now in english language.
  • Improved: The "QuickPing" button will become default when you enter a new address (or enabling the "treat as IP" feature).
  • Improved: Separated code-segments for reusing (major internal improvement).
  • Fixed: Bug, that application did not shut down correctly, when an initialisation - error occurred.
  • Fixed: Bug, which caused an error when selecting a time delay > 10 hours.
  • Fixed: Bug, that program could end up in an undefined state where you could neigher run nor stop pinging (was a problem with multi-tasking).

Version 1.12 - build 28
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Ability to sort host list by status or host (by request).
  • Improved: -Mortens HostAlive- now also resizes all controls if program is resized (by request).
  • Fixed major bug (!): When removing any host(s) from host list, parts of the internal host list got corrupt.
  • Fixed major bug (!): Under some circumstances the program did still continue running after pressing stop.
  • Fixed: On some systems the about-box could not be loaded correctly and caused an "internal error".
  • Fixed: A little spelling mistake in logging-file.

Please note: This release mainly addresses two major bugs. I strongly recommend upgrading to this version if you are using version 1.11.
I apologise for any inconvenience and thank those who reported bugs.

Version 1.11 - build 27
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Ability to load host list-file on startup (by request).
  • Added: Ability to start pinging on startup (by request).
  • Added: Label that shows time of last ping (by request).
  • Added: PopUp-menu to host list that lets you (dis)enable reporting features for all hosts. (Try right mouse-click in host list.)
  • Added: Ability to easily (un)select all reporting features in "new/change host"-dialog.
  • Added: Ability to change ping-timeout settings (by request).
  • Added: Ability to to use username and password for login to Email-server. This functionality is in BETA stage. Please report any bugs. Thanks.
  • Improved: Format of config-file. I've developed a so-called "General Data Format" (GDF) that will be compatible with ALL future version(s) of -Mortens HostAlive-. (Please read this note if you want to figure out, how it works.) My last attempt wasn't working as wanted, but this one will (big sorry for that).
    Due to this you have to create a new config-file on next startup.
  • Improved: Format of host list-file. the host list-file now also followes the General Data Format (see above).
    A host list-file converter is available for download to convert the old format into the new one.
  • Fixed: Swapped labels of fore- and background-color.
  • Fixed: Bug that in very rare cases config file could not be read.
  • Fixed: Bug that window was too tiny on startup (This occurred, if -Mortens HostAlive- was in system-tray when exiting the application in the previous session.)

Version 1.10 - build 24 ("nearly new major release" ;-)
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Ability to send an email report about hosts that are broken and/or alive. This component is in beta phase and still needs some testing. Please disable this feature If you are worried about that. Otherwise please (!) send reports how it works...
    FYI: I tried to encapsulate this code from the rest of the program not to influence any other parts of -Mortens HostAlive-.
  • Added: -Mortens HostAlive- will now save it's window-settings (by request).
  • Added: Ability to turn off "Generated by..." - message in logging-file (by request).
  • Added: Ability to choose, when taskbar-icon shall change to an exclamation mark.
  • Improved: Changed style of textfield for ping-text to multiline (by request).
  • Improved: Slightly changed layout due to (many) new features.
  • Improved: (Data-)File import. Extremely crunched code segments.
  • Improved: IP- and Email-address validation.
  • Improved: Format of config file. This should be the last time to do so since I have added enough room for upcoming features.
    Please note: Due to this you will get a message that the old config-file will be ignored the first time you start after upgrading.
  • Fixed: Error when trying to show/hide main window from popup-menu and other form were opened.
  • Fixed: Wrong message that -Mortens HostAlive- is still running on exit of application. (This was really stupid... sorry!)
  • Fixed (hopefully?): Bug on Matrox DualHead graphics card where window wasn't shown correctly. Please report.
  • Added: Ability to change size of main window. This is only a work-around, if my routine to fix the Matrox problem does not work.

Version 1.09 - build 21
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Ability to enable/disable file logging for every host separately.
  • Improved: Status field now informs you about which host is currently in progress (pinged).
  • Improved: STRG+A will select all hosts in host list, furthermore pressing the del-key will now also remove all selected hosts from host list (as well as F8 does).
  • Improved: Early detection of invalid IP-address provided in QuickPing field.
  • Improved: Status field of -Mortens HostAlive- is now also updated when using the QuickPing feature.
  • Fixed: Show/Hide menu label was sometimes not correctly updated.
  • Fixed: Cleaned up some strange code (internal improvement).
  • Added: Something else that you have to find out yourself... ;-)

Version 1.08 - build 20
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Logging file option. Now it is possible to log the network status to a HTML file! This allows you to control the network status via HTTP (alias the Internet ;-).
  • Added: Ability to change layout of HTML (logging-)file.
  • Improved: File error handling. (Some device-not-ready errors were not handled.)
  • Fixed: Minor bug in icon-handler.
  • Please note: The config-file of -Mortens HostAlive- had to be changed due all this new features. If you upgrade from an older version you might get an error message that the (old) config file is not valid. This is not really an error and will appear once only.

Version 1.07 - build 18
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Improved: Providing a full internet address (with http:// etc. in front) would have caused no ping result. This is now handled.
  • Improved: Shortcuts to the main functions are now Windows (and especially Norton Commander :-) conform.
  • Added: "QuickPing" feature. On the bottom of -Mortens HostAlive- a "QuickPing" field has been added. Check a single net-host there quickly.
  • Fixed: Error when trying to show popup-window and another frame was was opened (e.g. options - dialog).

Version 1.06 - build 17
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Improved design of -Mortens HostAlive- by replacing status-field by a status-bar. In my opinion this looks much better.
  • Fixed minor bug that task-icon menu was sometimes not correctly updated.
  • Fixed minor bug with error-messages. Sometimes wrong errors messages would have been shown. By the way: There have never been reported any fatal error-messages in -Mortens HostAlive-. So I had to strangely manipulate the source code to see my routines in action... Of course these changes have been completely (!) removed! ;-)

Version 1.05 - build 16
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Improved: Layout has been totally redesigned to be more Windows standard-like. (These many) buttons have been removed and a "normal" menu has been added.
  • Improved: host list now indicates broken hosts by color.
  • Added: Global key-shortcuts to all main functions.
  • Added: Possibility to select for each single host, whether to include in messaging or not. Unfortunately due to this I had to change the format of the host list-file once again. Old host list-files can no longer be used. I am really sorry for that.
  • Added new command to quick-menu of taskbar icon (show-hide).

Version 1.04 - build 14
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: -Mortens HostAlive- now remembers it's configuration settings. Please note: Therefore a file called "HostAlive.cfg" will be created in your application directory.
  • Added: Multi-ping feature that allows you to ping hosts more than one time. This feature has been requested.
  • Added: Possibility to force ping anytime when -Mortens HostAlive- is running.
  • Added option to choose between informing when host are online OR offline (accoustic and/or by popup-message).
  • Improved: Selecting a host in host list and pressing enter is now an alternative way to open "Change host" dialog.
  • Improved: Context-menu in taskbar now gives access to most important functions (start, stop (pinging), options and quit).
  • Improved: Internal host list and online-status handling.
  • Cosmetic improvement: Rearranged some controls to make dialogs consistent (and "looking better" ;-).
  • Fixed: Bug that symbol in taskbar was not resetted when removing all hosts.

Version 1.03 - build 12
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added ability to change hosts in host list (by double-clicking on them).
  • Added new feature: -Mortens HostAlive- is now shown as tray-icon. The tray-icon also identicates the current status of (observed) hosts.
  • Added button in popup-window to easily open -Mortens HostAlive- main window to see more details about broken hosts.
  • Fixed overflow bug, when loading hoslist-file with more than 100 hosts.
    Please note: I have limited -Mortens HostAlive- to 100 hosts on purpose. If you really (why?) need more - feel free to contact me for support.

Version 1.02 - build 10
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Added: Instead of IP-addresses or hostnames aliases can be defined and used. Unfortunately due to this I had to change the format of the host list file. Old host list-files can no longer be used. Sorry.
  • Added: Option to beep if broken hosts were detected.
  • Added: Option to popup a message-window with broken hosts (if detected).
  • Cosmetic improvement: Time values with seconds below 10 are now shown with a zero in front of the seconds (e.g. old: 2:2 new: 2:02).
  • Cosmetic improvement: Slightly changed status field, added comment.
  • Improved host selection: If you enter a field the text will be automatically selected in order to quickly delete it (if wanted).

Version 1.01 - build 9
Added / improved / fixed:

  • Improved file-error handling.
  • Fixed bug that when loading a host list-file the access was not released.
  • Moved VB-project to service release 5.

Version 1.00 (release) - build 8
Added / improved / fixed:

  • This is the initial release of -Mortens HostAlive-.

Versions before 1.00
The versions before the initial release were not posted on this webpage.

By the way: You are WELCOME to report bugs or making any suggestions on -Mortens HostAlive-. I will always try to consider this in the next version(s).

 
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