November 17, 2009 - One user noticed that the initial IPRedir release didn't
support operation on NDISWANIP. Supporting WAN was on my "to-do" list but
didn't quite make it into the initial release.

In addition, there was a bug in the console application chooser that made
the sample applications exit prematurely in some cases.

If you have downloaded the initial IPRedir sample applications and noticed
either of these issues please revisit the download page and fetch IPRedir
V4.00.07.02.

Thanks for your patience.

Thomas F. Divine

Current PCASIM NDIS IM Licensees can be provided with the new
NDIS 5 & NDIS 6 samples.

1.) If your PCASIM subscription is current, then you can received the new IP
Redirector samples without additional cost.

2.) If you have licensed the PCASIM samples in the past, then you can
purchase a subscription to the new IP Redirector samples at the renewal
price.

In either case you must contact me and provide your current PCASIM Serial
Number.

Warm regards,

Thomas F. Divine

November 15, 2009 - Finally back from a fairly long stint of consulting.
It's time to be "out with the old and in with the new".

The New - IP Redirector NDIS 5 & NDIS 6 Filter Driver Samples
-------------------------------------------------------------
Today I am releasing the first of a series of new NDIS 5/6 filter driver
samples.

The new series of NDIS filter samples include both NDIS 5 Intermediate (IM)
and NDIS 6 Lightweight (LWF) filters. The drivers are designed to have a
common API so a common Win32 application can operate on platforms ranging
from Windows XP (NDIS 5 driver) through Windows 7 (NDIS 6 driver).

The first of these new samples is the "IP Redirector".

This set of NDIS 5 & NDIS 6 filter drivers redirect incoming and outgoing
IPv4 and ARP packets to a Win32 user-mode application. This allows packet
filtering to be performed in the user-mode environment. Complete Ethernet
packets are represented as ordinary byte arrays and packet I/O is performed
using Win32 ReadFile and WriteFile APIs.

This is a simple and flexible approach can be useful in applications that
are filtering lower-bandwidth connections (Satellite, 4G, DSL speeds), but
is not appropriate on high-performance adapters.

The older NDIS IM-only version of the IP Redirector was fairly popular. This
release extends it to include support for Vista and later platforms.

IP Redirector documentation and downloadable sample executables can be found
at this URL:

http://www.pcausa.com/filters/ipredir.htm


The Old - Discontinuing the Advanced TDI and Older NDIS IM Filter Samples
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
These PCAUSA products are being discontinued:

    * Advanced TDI Samples
    * PCASIM NDIS IM Driver Samples

Thanks for your continued interest in PCAUSA products.

Thomas F. Divine

August 25, 2009 - Two updated version of Rawether for Windows are available
for Rawether customers who have unexpired Rawether for Windows
subscriptions:

    Rawether V5.6 - For developers using Visual Studio 2005 for application
development.
    Rawether V5.7 - For developers using Visual Studio 2008 for application
development.

Both of these have been in use by selected customers since June of this
year. These versions support Windows platforms from Windows XP through
Windows 7 including x64 Editions.

The primary work done in these Rawether updates is to revise the
installation strategy to better accommodate the least user privilege
philosophy implemented in the Vista and Windows 7 platforms. The improved
installation procedures seem to work pretty well. After installation by an
administrator a non-Admin authenticated user can access the Rawether NDIS
protocol drivers without a problem (unless the IT folks have gone crazy with
policies...).

This release does NOT include NDIS 6 protocol drivers. Frankly, few
customers have provided compelling reasons for needing NDIS 6 protocol
drivers for Ethernet monitoring.

(A separate and unrelated suite of NDIS 6 products are under development,
however...)

Sample Rawether V5.6 executables are available as a Windows Installer
Package from these URLs:

    Windows x86 Platforms: www.rawether.net/_downloads/v5_6/Rawether_x86.msi
    Windows x64 Platforms: www.rawether.net/_downloads/v5_6/Rawether_x64.msi

If you have an unexpired Rawether for Windows subscription and have an
interest in using the Rawether RC2 updates for Vista and Windows 7, please
let me know. Your Rawether product serial number or other customer
identification will be needed to be given access to the updated Rawether
kits.

Thanks to all for continued interest in Rawether for Windows.

Thomas F. Divine

I am hoping that there are 802.11 adapter vendors on this list that might
consider working with PCAUSA on a few "Special Projects".

Basically I am looking for vendors who might consider licensing proprietary
information and perhaps miniport source code that would allow PCAUSA to
provide its customers with USB, PCMCIA and mini-PCI 802.11 solutions not
easily supported by the Windows WLAN API.

If you represent such a company and are willing to consider working with
PCAUSA in special projects, please contact me off-list at tdivine at
pcausa.com.

Thanks in advance.

Thomas F. Divine

October 29, 2007 - PCAUSA is in the process (finally...) of updating various
NDIS and TDI filter samples to span the range of Windows platforms from
Windows 2000 through Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

One of the first items to be completed is a set of Transport Data Interface
(TDI) and Windows Filtering Platform (WFP) drivers that work with a common
port-monitoring application. Both the TDI and WFP drivers are either new or
extensively revised. Both are based on the Kernel Mode Driver Framework
(KMDF). The drivers also provide support for Windows 64-Bit Editions.

Transport-level filtering is performed in the kernel but above or within the
TCP/IP protocol driver. At this level you can monitor TCP stream data -
including data exchanged between client and server on the same host.

The IpPortMon tool may be useful for TCP data stream monitoring to some of
you. If you are interested in this tool and the companion driver suite you
can find more information and downloadable sample at the following URL:

http://www.pcausa.com/filters/transport/ipportmonitor/default.htm

This should be considered to "RC" level. If you encounter problems or have
suggestions for enhancements, let me know.

I will provide information about licensing the driver sources in the near
future.

Thomas F. Divine
tdivine@...
(Remove "NO" and "SPAM" form the address above)

The latest release of the Microsoft Hardware Newsletter mentions that the
promised update to the WDK documentation is available at this URL:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/DevTools/WDK/WDKdocs.mspx

They also say that they will be providing monthly updates to the WDK
documentation.

You can subscribe to the Microsoft Hardware Newsletter and other newsletters
of interest to driver developers at the URL:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/newsreq.mspx

Thomas F. Divine

I will give blogging one more try. I like the idea of having a "soapbox",
and blogging seems like one way to do it. The other is to use continue to
update sites like NDIS.com.

I'll probably do a little of both as I get the time.

I will be using NDIS Musings space to record information about Windows
kernel-mode networking topics from time-to-time. I expect the content to
range from editorial to tutorial, and will include notes to myself as I
research, develop and test different things.

You are welcome to read along.

The URL is:

http://ndis.blogspot.com/

Thomas F. Divine

P.S. Since I don't care for SPAM, blog comments will be moderated.

January 13, 2007 - I have made some improvements to the SniffUSB 2.0 MFC
application.

The original V1.8 application made an incorrect device "Present" indication,
and the display refresh scheme made the application almost unusable on
systems with a lot of USB devices.

The purpose of working with this application has been to investigate the
influence of USB device serial numbers on the loading of multiple
USB-Ethernet adapters concurrently.

When I get time I will post some notes concerning difficulties in installing
multiple USB-Ethernet adapters when their USB serial numbers are bogus.

I know this is a little off-topic, but perhaps it is of interest to a few
members of this list.

SniffUSB 2.0 information can be found at the URL:

	 http://www.pcausa.com/Utilities/UsbSnoop/default.htm

Thomas F. Divine

December 27, 2006 - During some work on USB-Ethernet adapter (actually,
NDIS-WDM drivers.) installation I took some time to update Benoit
Papillault's SniffUSB V1.8 to allow it to be built using currently available
development tools.

SniffUSB 2.0 does not offer any new functionality beyond that provided in
Benoit Papillault's prior V1.8 - although it may work on Windows x64
Editions and Windows Vista platforms.

The SniffUSB 2.0 application can be built using Visual Studio 2005 and the
companion UsbSnoop 2.0 driver can be built using WDK 6000.

If you are interested in USB bus snooping then you are welcome to take a
look at SniffUSB 2.0.

I know this is a little off-topic, but perhaps it is of interest to a few
members of this list.

SniffUSB information can be found at the URL:

	 http://www.pcausa.com/Utilities/UsbSnoop/default.htm


Happy New Year!

Thomas F. Divine

December 3, 2006 - Rawether for Windows Build 1805 has finally been
released.

The primary objective of this release is migration of existing Rawether
applications to Windows Vista.

Goals - The development goals for this release included:
=======================================================

* Simple install of Rawether drivers on Windows Vista.
* Meeting driver signing requirements for Windows Vista x64 Edition.
* Support for Rawether applications when user upgrades from Windows XP to
Windows Vista.
* Primary support for development of Rawether applications using Visual
	 Studio 2003.
* Secondary support for development of Rawether applications using Visual
	 Studio 2005.

PCAUSA understands that some customers are still using Visual Studio 2003
for application development. Visual Studio 2003 is not the most desirable
environment for developing applications for Windows Vista.

This is the last Rawether release that will provide sample applications as
Visual Studio 2003 projects

Non-Goals - These areas are not goals for this release:
======================================================

* Support for new Vista NDIS 6 functionality.
* New Rawether functionality.
* Primary support for development of Rawether applications using
	 Visual Studio 2005.

Rawether for Windows V6.0 will address the goals which were not addressed in
this release.

If you are a PCAUSA customer entitled to download a product or update from
the site, please contact me at the address at the end of this message.
Please include your Product Serial Number with your request for the
developer-only site password.

Thomas F. Divine

============
Send developer-only password requests, including current Product Serial
Number, to:

    tdivine@...

NOTE: Remove the "NO" and "SPAM" anti-spam strings from the email address to
obtain a valid mailing address.

December 3, 2006 - Rawether for Windows Build 1805 has finally been
released.



Objectives for Rawether Build 1805



The primary objective of this release is migration of existing Rawether
applications to Windows Vista.





Goals



The development goals for this release included:



* Simple install of Rawether drivers on Windows Vista.
* Meeting driver signing requirements for Windows Vista x64 Edition.
* Support for Rawether applications when user upgrades from Windows XP
to Windows Vista.
* Primary support for development of Rawether applications using
Visual Studio 2003.
* Secondary support for development of Rawether applications using
Visual Studio 2005.



PCAUSA understands that some customers are still using Visual Studio 2003
for application development. Visual Studio 2003 is not the most desirable
environment for developing applications for Windows Vista.



This is the last Rawether release that will provide sample applications as
Visual Studio 2003 projects





Non-Goals



These areas are not goals for this release:



* Support for new Vista NDIS 6 functionality.
* New Rawether functionality.
* Primary support for development of Rawether applications using
Visual Studio 2005.





Rawether for Windows V6.0 will address the goals which were not addressed in
this release.



If you are a PCAUSA customer entitled to download a product or update from
the site, please contact me at the address at the end of this message.
Please include your Product Serial Number with your request for the
developer-only site password.



Thomas F. Divine





============

Send developer-only password requests, including current Product Serial
Number, to:



    tdivine@...



NOTE: Remove the "NO" and "SPAM" anti-spam strings from the email address to
obtain a valid mailing address.

December 1, 2006 - The password for the PCAUSA developer-only product
download site was changed on December 1, 2006.



If you are a PCAUSA customer entitled to download a product or update from
the site, please contact me at the address at the end of this message.
Please include your Product Serial Number with your request for the
developer-only site password.



This change was made in preparation for the upcoming release of Rawether for
Windows Vista. HOWEVER, the Vista release is not yet posted on the site. An
announcement will be mailed when Rawether for Windows Vista Build 1805 is
released.



Thomas F. Divine



============

Send developer-only password requests, including current Product Serial
Number, to:



    tdivine@...



NOTE: Remove the "NO" and "SPAM" anti-spam strings from the email address to
obtain a valid mailing address.

November 23, 2006 – On November 15 I published a short article about signing
NDIS protocol driver executables on the Rawether.net website.

Although this topic is of specific interest to PCAUSA’s Rawether for Windows
customers, it also is of broader interest to any developer working with NDIS
protocol driver.

So, I moved the article from Rawether.net to NDIS.com...

I also added two additional short articles about other aspects of NDIS
protocol driver signing and installation.

The articles on NDIS.com in this area can be found in the “White Papers”
section at this bookmark:

        http://www.ndis.com/papers/default.htm#Installing_NDIS_Drivers


The individual articles are:

1.) Self-Signing NDIS Protocol Drivers
	 http://www.ndis.com/papers/ndisinstall/self-signdriver.htm


Describes the minimum steps needed to self-sign a NDIS protocol driver for
Windows Vista x64 edition.


2.) Making and Signing Driver Packages for NDIS Protocol Drivers
	 http://www.ndis.com/papers/ndisinstall/makeandsigncat.htm

Describes how to make and self-sign a driver package for installing the WDK
NDIS 6.0 NDISPROT driver on Windows Vista x64 edition.
 

3.) Programmatically Installing NDIS Protocol Drivers
	 http://www.ndis.com/papers/ndisinstall/programinstall.htm

Describes how to programmatically install a NDIS protocol driver using the
INetCfg API.


Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

November 15, 2006 - On x64-based versions of Windows Vista NDIS protocol
drivers simply will not be loaded unless they are digitally signed.
Fortunately, signing NDIS protocol drivers is the simplest of all Vista
driver signing tasks.



I have put together a short article describes how to self-sign NDIS protocol
drivers for Windows Vista. The information in this article can be used to
sign the Rawether V5.5.18.04 x64 drivers so they can be loaded on Windows
Vista.



http://www.rawether.net/support/KB11150601.htm



Thomas F. Divine

November 14, 2006 - Several customers have been inquiring about Rawether
support for Windows Vista. It is in the works, and more information will be
provided about Rawether release dates as soon as possible.



In the mean time, some customers have been asking how to fit the current
Rawether release (V5.5.18.04) into Windows Vista. I have added a Rawether
Knowledge Base article on this subject at:



       http://www.rawether.net/support/KB11140601.htm



I hope this information is helpful.



Thomas F. Divine

September 26, 2006 - A recent message mentioned "PCAGizmo", a NDIS filter
driver that is designed to log NDIS OIDs exchanged between Windows system
components and the lower-level miniports. The message can be found at the
PCAUSA Newsletter at:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/pcausa/message/124


For those interested in using this _EXPERIMENTAL_ driver to learn the way
Windows uses various OIDs, the executables are temporarily available for
download at:

http://www.pcausa.com/Utilities/PCAGizmo/PCAGizmo.htm

The installer installs a NDIS 5 Intermediate (IM) filter driver on pre-Vista
Windows versions and a NDIS 6 Lightweight Filter (LWF) monitoring driver on
Vista.

Do be careful with PCAGizmo. Use at your own risk.

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

September 12, 2006 - Some of you may be familiar with "PCAGizmo", a NDIS
filtering driver that is designed to log NDIS OIDs exchanged between Windows
system components and the lower-level miniports.

In the past the information logged by PCAGizmo has been particularly useful
to developers interested observing OID_802_11_XYZ transactions to better
understand how the system interacts with 802.11 adapters.

The previous PCAGizmo tool installed a NDIS 5 Intermediate (IM) driver to
filter and log NDIS OID and status operations.

PCAUSA has (finally...) added support for Windows Vista.

On Windows Vista PCAGizmo installs a NDIS 6 Lightweight Filter (LWF)
monitoring driver. A NDIS 6 LWF driver can be installed both above and below
other NDIS filter drivers. Of particular interest, the PCAGizmo LWF can be
installed below the Vista system Native Wi-Fi LAN Emulation IM driver. In
this position PCAGizmo can log the OID_DOT11_XYZ transactions associated
with the new Vista Native Wi-Fi facility.

As a historical note, PCAGizmo was initially developed in 2003 as an NDIS 6
experimental driver. It initially breathed life and was partially debugged
at DevCon 2003, and was probably one of the first NDIS 6 LWF drivers
developed outside of Microsoft. Of course, the earliest versions of PCAGizmo
didn't actually do much because the earliest NDIS 6 components didn't do
much either...

Sample logs from the new PCAGizmo NDIS OID tracing tool can be found at the
URL:

http://ndis.com/papers/802_11_logs/PCAGizmo_Wireless_OID_Logs.htm

I may post a link to download the new PCAGizmo executables in the near
future if there is interest.

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

July 27, 2006 - I still haven't mastered all the details of application and
driver installation on Windows Vista.

However, I have put together a new Rawether for Windows sample installation
package that is not too complex. Information about this test package can be
found at the URL:

http://www.rawether.net/RawetherV5_5/VistaInstallNotes.htm

The install involves these steps:


1.) Download ZIP file from
http://www.rawether.net/_downloads/vista/Setup-5384.zip.

2.) Extract files to local folder.

3.) Either login as Administrator or use the Vista "Run as administrator"
facility to run the Setup application.


The installer installs the PCAUSA NDIS protocol drivers as well as the
NDIScope sample applications.


I hope to simplify this install when I get the courage...

Thomas F. Divine

May 28, 2006 - PCAUSA has released V5.5.18.05 of the PCAUSA NDIS Tools.

The primary feature included in this release is enhancement of the OIDScope
application to be aware of the Windows Vista Beta 2 (Build 5384) NDIS Object
Identifiers (OIDs).

For those not familiar with OIDScope, it is an application that allows you
to make NDIS queries on an adapter without installing a NDIS driver.

The NDIS Tools also include a simple utility that allows you to lookup NDIS
OIDs based on OID numeric value or defined name.

V5.5.18.05 can be used to make queries on the new Native Wi-Fi OID_DOT11_XYZ
OIDs. However, Native Wi-Fi adapters do NOT respond to the OID_802_11_XYZ
OIDs used on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Consequently the OIDScope
802.11 tabs are not displayed on Native Wi-Fi adapters on Vista.

For those interested in Vista Native Wi-Fi, the Vista WDK includes sample
Native Wi-Fi drivers based on the RealTek RTL8185 chipset. This chipset is
included in the CompUSA "54 Mbps Wireless C PCI Adapter", SKU 333618. In
addition to the WDK driver samples using this chipset/adapter, Vista 5384
includes in-box Native Wi-Fi driver for this adapter.

In addition, the IntelR 3945 mini-PCI Express adapter has an in-box Vista
Native Wi-Fi driver. The Intel 3945 seems to be pretty common in newer
notebooks that use the Intel CoreT Duo processor.

This release of NDIS Tools Windows MSI installer file and the executables
are digitally signed. It can be downloaded from:

    http://www.pcausa.com/Utilities/ndistools.htm

If anyone encounters peculiarities installing NDIS Tools V5.5.18.05 on
Vista, please let me know.

Warm regards,

Thomas F. Divine

April 24, 2006 - I initially posted a message about this topic on April 19,
2006. Since then I have taken the time to perform some additional tests to
understand the interaction between Windows Defender and the PCAUSA Rawether
NDIS protocol drivers.

After having taken a look at this I have certainly changed my opinion of
Defender. Contrary to my original thoughts, Defender provides very
reasonable notices to the user when system settings change. In fact, the
behavior of Defender on Windows XP is very similar to the new security
notices that are built in to Windows Vista.

There still are some issues that PCAUSA OEMs should consider. In particular,
the Defender notices describe the driver publisher as "Printing
Communications Assoc., Inc." and the product as "Rawether for Windows". It
is likely that your customers will not associate PCAUSA or Rawether with
your company or product.

If you are a PCAUSA OEM customer, then you should probably consider having a
private-labeled (OEM version) of Rawether instead of the stock PCAUSA
drivers. Yes, it will cost a little, but your customers will not get
confused.

I have updated the web page on this topic. It is at the URL:

    http://www.rawether.net/support/KB04190601.htm

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

April 198, 2006 - It appears that the Microsoft Windows Defender product has
joined the ranks of the SyGate and Symantec firewall products in making
simple-minded reports of potential malware for dynamically-installed NDIS
protocol drivers.

The problem is that their error reporting scheme simply does not provide the
user with any useful information that could be used to make an intelligent
decision about the report.

I have attempted to contact the Windows Defender team about this, but it is
fairly clear that they do not have the time or interest in making any
improvements to this erroneous reporting mechanism.

I have a short note on this Defender bug at:

    http://www.rawether.net/support/KB04190601.htm

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

March 19, 2006 - Stephan Wolf, a DDK MVP, has written a whitepaper "Getting
Trace from NETCFG.DLL" and has allowed it to be published on NDIS.com. It
should be helpful to anyone who is working with NDIS driver installation
issues.

The paper can be found at:

    http://www.ndis.com/papers/default.htm

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

March 6, 2006 - As you may know, it appears possible to Authenticode-sign
drivers on Windows Server 2003. After some failed attempts to sign a NDIS IM
driver here at PCAUSA, I have received confirmation that it is actually not
possible to Authenticode-sign NDIS IM drivers for Windows Server 2003.

The DDK is fairly confusing about using Authenticode to sign drivers on
Windows Server 2003 - but leads one to think that it is actually possible.
In the "Summary of Driver Signing Requirements and Related Installation
Actions" DDK topic is says this for Windows Server 2003:

"WHQL-class drivers can be installed in quiet-install mode. A WHQL signature
or Authenticode signature is required. (See Note 5.)"


This is certainly not true for NDIS miniport or NDIS IM drivers.


It really should say this for Windows Server 2003 (My words):

"If there is a WHQL test for the driver then it cannot be Authenticode
signed.".

Or put more succinctly:

"If you don't need a signature for your driver, then you can
Authenticode-sign it".


So, don't waste your time trying to Authenticode-sign a NDIS Intermediate
driver. It's a dead-end.

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

November 22, 2005 - I have put together a page on Rawether.NET that
describes how to install Rawether Build 1804 on Windows Vista Beta 1 (Build
5242). See the URL:

	 http://www.rawether.net/RawetherV5_5/VistaInstallNotes.htm

The install procedure has a few manual steps that must be performed as
Administrator.

When done, the Rawether 'C' and C++/MCF applications should work for
Administrator and non-Administrator users.

At this point we have not sorted out all of the install/security issues
associated with the .NET Framework on Vista. The Rawether C# (.NET 1.1)
applications work correctly when run as Administrator, but fail when run by
non-Admin users.

Please let us know if this 1.) works for your or 2.) does not work for you.

Finally, if you are developing Vista NDIS miniports it would be helpful to
let PCAUSA know. We would like to test with as many Vista miniports as
practical.

Warm regards,

Thomas F. Divine

November 17, 2005 - PCAUSA has released Rawether for Windows V5.5.18.04, a
maintenance release that also includes some enhancements.

The initial motivation for this release was distribute fixes to two problems
that had been reported by PCAUSA customers as well as some fixes that had
been identified in-house over the past few months. We also took this
opportunity to release some enhancements - especially in the Rawether .NET
C# framework.

This release also supports use of Visual Studio 2005 for 32-bit and 64-bit
user-mode development.


Base Runtime Component Bug Fixes and Enhancements
=================================================
The bug fixes incorporated into this release were initially reported by
PCAUSA customers. There were two loosely related problems:

1.) A crash that could occur when exiting an application that has multiple
reads pending on the PcaSp50 NDIS protocol driver.

2.) A crash that could occur when entering Standby.

In addition to providing fixes to these problems, a systematic review of the
Rawether driver memory reference counting logic was made. This review
identified the possibility of a few additional similar problems. At this
point it was decided that the existing Rawether reference counting logic
should be systematically revised.

The Rawether reference counting logic was replaced with components from the
PCAUSA "Network Driver Framework" (NDF). The NDF reference-counted memory
logic loosely parallels memory management functions provided in the
Microsoft "Windows Driver Framework" (WDF).

Fallouts from the task of integrating the NDF into the two Rawether drivers
included using newer NDIS lookaside lists for managing user-mode handle
contexts.

It is believed that this effort has improved the stability and reliability
of the Rawether NDIS protocol drivers.



User-Mode Application Enhancements
==================================
One key enhancement provided in this release is support for building
user-mode Rawether components using Visual Studio 2005. VS 2005 can be used
to build both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of key Rawether components
including NDIScope, MPRead, HookPeek and the W32N55/W64N55 support DLL.

The Rawether .NET C# sample applications and the Rawether .NET class library
can also be built using VS 2005.

Although VS 2005 can be used to build the Rawether user-mode samples, they
will actually  continue to be maintained primarily in the Visual Studio .NET
2003 environment for mid-term (next year or so). The VS 2005 projects
actually link to the base VS 2003 projects.

In the case of the C# applications, functions which are deprecated in VS
2005 have not yet been replaced; this means that builds of the C#
applications will generate warnings for deprecated functions.

This release includes some bug fixes and enhancements to Rawether .NET class
library. Among other, the IPHelper class has been extended to include IPv6
support.



Detailed Release Notes
======================
Detailed release for Rawether for Windows V5.5.18.04 can be found at the URL
http://rawether.net/product/RELEASE.TXT.


Sample Rawether V5.5.18.04 executables and documentation have been posted on
the Rawether .NET website. The V5.5.18.04 SDK and Professional sources will
be available later this week.

If you are a currant Rawether customer (with unexpired support and update
privileges...) and need to download the V5.5.18.04 SDK or Professional
version, please send an email to me.

Warm regards,

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

July 27, 2005 - As most of you know by now, Microsoft has (finally...)
released Beta 1 of Windows Vista (a.k.a. "Longhorn). Windows Vista Beta 1
(Build 5112) is available for download for MSDN Subscribers.

There are a lot of changes in Windows Vista that need to be evaluated and
accommodated during the Beta. However, PCAUSA has been working with early
Longhorn releases and has been making initial preparations for Longhorn for
about a year.

Although we aren't ready to release NDIS 6 versions of the Rawether NDIS
protocol drivers, Rawether V5.5 can be used on Windows Vista today by
following these simple steps:

1.) Copy the PcaSp50.sys driver to a new file named PcaSp60.sys.
2.) Copy the PcaMp50.sys driver to a new file named PcaMp60.sys.
3.) Copy the new PcaSp60.sys and PcaMp60.sys drivers to the
Windows\System32\Drivers folder.

By doing this, your existing Rawether V5.5 applications will (should...) run
on Windows Vista without requiring modification.

This renaming process allows the current Rawether NDIS 5 protocol drivers to
be used as interim substitutes for the NDIS 6 drivers We will let you know
when the Rawether NDIS 6 drivers are completed, tested and digitally signed
under the new "Driver Quality Signature" program.

I will be adding a new NDIS 6 section to the NDIS.com website when I get a
chance.

Good news is that the PCAUSA "OIDScope" application (which can make NDIS
queries without using a driver...) continues to work on Windows Vista Build
5112. OIDScope can be found at the URL:

    http://www.pcausa.com/Utilities/ndistools.htm

(I suspect that OIDscope will not work in some future release, however...)

The only bad news is that the NDIScope .NET (C# application) does not run on
Build 5112. It did work on the prior Build 5098 release, so it is hopefully
a small problem.

I would be interested in hearing from those of you who are developing NDIS 6
miniport drivers - including 802.3 and 802.whatever... At present I am lucky
because I have some spare Intel PRO/100 adapters around and the Windows
Vista driver development kit (the "WDK") includes a NDIS 6 miniport sample
for that adapter.

I would like to test Rawether and other PCAUSA products on a variety of NDIS
6 adapters - and I am sure others would as well.

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

April 5, 2005 - Windows XP 64-Bit Edition has finally been released.

PCAUSA has been planning for Windows XP x64 Edition for almost a year.
Rawether V5.5.17.00 (May 17, 2004) introduced preliminary AMD64 support for
the "Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems Customer Preview
Program" release using the AMD Build Environment of the Windows Server 2003
DDK.

At this time we are pleased to release Rawether for Windows V5.5.18.03 which
includes support for Windows x64 Edition (AMD64).

Release notes are at:

    Summary: http://www.rawether.net/support/re-releasenotes.htm
    Detailed: http://www.rawether.net/RawetherV5_5/RELEASE.TXT

The Rawether for Windows 64-bit drivers support both 32-bit and 64-bit
user-mode applications. Existing Rawether V5.5 32-bit applications will run
unmodified on Windows XP 64-Bit Edition until you have time to build your
own 64-bit target applications.

If you are a current PCAUSA Rawether customer with an interest in supporting
Windows XP x64 Edition, please contact me for information about obtaining
this new Rawether release.

In addition, we have put together downloadable sample executables for
Rawether .NET. The download includes a C# application that is similar to the
standard MFC NDIScope sample application as well as the Rawether .NET C#
Class Library and other standard Rawether Win32 runtime components. Rawether
.NET provides a uniform managed application programming interface using .NET
Framework 1.1 on Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server
2003 - as well as the newly released x64 (AMD64) Editions.

Rawether .NET sample executables can be downloaded from a link on the page:

    http://www.rawether.net/DotNet/default.htm

Note that the InstallShield installer is not quite up to the task of
installing mixed 32-bit and 64-bit components on a x64 Edition system. There
is an "Install 64-Bit Drivers" item in the PCAUSA / Rawether program group
that must be manually activated to copy the 64-bit drivers to the correct
folder.

There is also a known problem when installing the .NET Framework 1.1 on x64
systems. The Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 installer provides instructions
for dealing with this problem.

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

March 25, 2005 - In 1999 PCAUSA provided a simple port of the Unix Text TCP
(TTCP) utility to Windows Sockets. The PCATTCP utility has been used fairly
widely for TCP benchmarking - even in some University research and teaching
situations.

This update adds a new "-L ##" transmitter command-line option. The -L
option allows the user to specify a desired data transmit rate in bytes per
second. The PCATTCP TCP or UDP transmitters deliver message and datagram
data to the network at the specified bytes rate.

This transmit rate-limiting feature is of most use when testing using UDP.

Executables and source are available for download.

For more information visit:

    http://www.pcausa.com/Utilities/pcattcp.htm

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine

March 18, 2005 - Windows XP 64-Bit Edition is finally nearing release.
Unconfirmed rumors are that Microsoft may RTM it as early as March 28, 2004.

As mentioned in an earlier posting
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcausa/message/107), PCAUSA has been planning
for Windows XP x64 Edition for almost a year. Rawether V5.5.17.00 (May 17,
2004) introduced preliminary AMD64 support for the "Windows XP 64-Bit
Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems Customer Preview Program" release using
the AMD Build Environment of the Windows Server 2003 DDK.

In anticipation of the actual release of Windows XP x64 Edition PCAUSA has
put together a pre-release of Rawether for Windows x64. Rawether V5.5.18.03
pre-release components are built using the latest Microsoft x64 DDK that is
available (Build 3790.1433).

If you are a current PCAUSA Rawether customer with an interest in supporting
Windows XP x64 Edition, please contact me for information about testing this
new Rawether release.

PCAUSA is planning to release Rawether for Windows V5.5.18.03 with AMD x64
support shortly after Microsoft goes RTM on Windows XP 64-Bit Edition.

Regards,

Thomas F. Divine