New SocketTools 6.0 Features

If you're a developer who has used previous versions of SocketTools, or you're a new developer who needs to integrate Internet technology in your applications, SocketTools offers everything you need to get started. Here's an overview of what's new when you upgrade to SocketTools 6.0:

  1. New components that implement the SSH protocol. The SocketTools 6.0 Secure Editions introduce new components that implement the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, which can be used to establish a secure, encrypted connection with a server. With an interface that is similar to our Telnet components, you can implement an interactive terminal session, or you can specify that you want a command executed remotely and the output returned to your application. SSH does not require complicated certificate management and is widely supported on most servers today. Of course, the SocketTools Secure Editions continue to also support the SSL and TLS security protocols, providing the widest range of options to developers who require security features for their applications.
  2. Integrated support for file transfers using SFTP. The SocketTools Secure Editions support file transfers using the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, as well as the SSL and TLS protocols. Also commonly referred to as FTP+SSH, the SocketTools file transfer components can be used to connect to an SSH server and upload or download files, obtain directory listings and perform common file management functions. Because support for SFTP is integrated into the existing FTP components, in most cases all you need to do is specify the SSH port number without making any other changes to your code. The same interface is provided for FTP, FTP+SSL and FTP+SSH, making it easy to offer the widest range of options to your users.
  3. Build custom server applications effortlessly. One of the most complex tasks in Internet software development is creating a custom server application that can reliably handle a large number of client connections. SocketTools 6.0 introduces a new Internet Server component to simplify the development of custom servers, providing an easy-to-use framework where the only code you need to write is in response to events that are sent to your application. With a single function call, you can create a scalable, multi-threaded, event-driven server that can be used to accept connections from clients anywhere in the world, or just on your local intranet. All of the networking, thread management, synchronization and messaging are handled internally by the framework, allowing you to focus on writing your own code without worrying about the complex details of the server implementation.
  4. Manage stored mail messages on the local system. Developers who need to create an e-mail application that download and store messages on the local system, the Mail Message (MIME) components and library have been expanded to provide a new storage interface that simplifies the storage, retrieval and management of message. Simply create a new storage file, and begin adding messages to it. When you need to access a stored message, you can reference it by an index number, or you can use functions to search for a particular message that contains a specific header value. For example, you can search the message store for all messages that have been sent by someone with a particular e-mail address. There's even a compatibility mode where you can import message stores from UNIX mail systems, if needed.
  5. Support for file verification and automatic file type detection. The File Transfer Protocol components can automatically verify that the file on the local system is identical to the file on the server using an MD5 hash or CRC-32 checksum, and will automatically set the correct file transfer mode based on the type of file being uploaded or downloaded. Developers can also explicitly verify the contents of a file, and register their own custom file types. 
  6. Fully compatible with both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and is designed to take advantage of new features introduced in Microsoft's latest operating system. Our developers use Windows Vista and Visual Studio 2008 as their primary development platform, so we don't simply test under Vista, we work with the operating system every day and understand how it impacts application development in the real world. Of course, SocketTools is also fully supported under Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000. If your users are upgrading to Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista, then we recommend that you to upgrade to SocketTools 6.0 to ensure compatibility.
  7. Improved performance and reliability. A new internal memory management system improves how large blocks of memory are allocated and managed, both overall and on a per-client basis. In particular, complex multithreaded applications which create multiple client sessions can see increased performance and use fewer resources over the lifetime of the application. The POP3 and IMAP4 components have also been improved so that they are significantly more efficient when used to manage very large mailboxes.
  8. Enhanced security features. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a new encryption standard that is being widely adopted by the United States government and organizations around the world. SocketTools 6.0 supports AES on the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 platforms, enabling your application to take advantage of the latest security features without requiring any changes to your applications.
  9. Improved support for firewalls and proxy servers. New options for the File Transfer Protocol allows you to specify alternate port ranges for active mode transfers, making it simpler to integrate with software and hardware firewalls which limits access to certain ports. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol components have improved proxy support and automatic proxy detection which makes it easier to integrate your applications on a customer's network. Support has also been added for virtual hosting, where an FTP server is configured to support multiple domains using a single external IP address.
  10. Improved support for non-standard e-mail messages. The Mail Message components have been updated so that it will automatically attempt to correct problems with malformed messages, or messages which do not strictly conform the standard message formats as outlined in RFC 822 and RFC 2045. This allows applications to process messages that might otherwise be rejected because the sender's mail client did not format the message correctly.
  11. Target multiple frameworks with the SocketTools .NET Edition. Assemblies for the 1.1, 2.0 and 3.5 .NET Frameworks are included in the same product, enabling developers to specifically target which framework they are using to deploy their application. Although most new development today is using Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008, we realize there are still a large number of developers who are creating applications using Visual Studio .NET 2003, and we will continue to provide support for the older versions of Visual Studio. Regardless of which version of .NET you're using, the SocketTools classes have identical interfaces and are completely source-compatible with one another.
  12. Better control over resource utilization. The SocketTools File Transfer and Hypertext Transfer components support session priority, improving performance and giving your application finer control over the resources allocated for data transfers. Each client session can have its own priority, which ranges from very low resource utilization for background operations that have minimal impact on the system, to critical transfers which allocate more memory, processor time and network bandwidth to the client session.
  13. Backwards compatibility with previous versions of SocketTools. If you are currently using version 4.0 or 5.0, the components in version 6.0 have a compatible interface and will require few, if any changes to your existing code. While new features have been added, the existing class interfaces and APIs remain substantially the same. In most cases, all you will need to do is remove the old version of the control, class or library, replace it with the new version and recompile your application. Because the 6.0 components are designed to work side-by-side with previous versions, it also means that you can deploy new versions of your software without worrying about DLL conflicts or other version incompatibilities.
  14. Expanded technical reference documentation. The reference material for SocketTools is extensive, and in version 6.0 we've worked to make it both easy to understand and comprehensive. Available in HTML Help format, the SocketTools documentation includes a Developer's Guide to get you up and running quickly, and a Technical Reference that provides extensive documentation for every API function, class method, property and event. As an example, the documentation for the SocketTools .NET classes is over 3,200 pages and the SocketTools API is over 2,000 pages.
  15. Expanded and updated example code, including examples for Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio .NET 2003. We've reorganized many of the examples included with SocketTools to make them easier to find, easier to understand and extend for your own use. In addition to new examples for the current version of Visual Studio, we've also retained and updated the examples for Visual Basic 6.0 and Visual C++ 6.0 because we realize that some developers continue to use the older development tools. Additional examples for third-party languages like PowerBASIC and RealBasic have also been included based on customer feedback.

For more information, please review the SocketTools FAQ in the support section of our website. We also encourage you to download a free evaluation copy of the SocketTools 6.0 Edition that interests you. The evaluation license is valid for a single development system for 30 days, it is completely functional and can be safely installed side-by-side with earlier versions of SocketTools.

If you're interested in placing an order, you can use our secure online order form. We offer electronic delivery as an option, so if you place your order during normal business hours, you can be building and redistributing your application the very same day.

If you have any further questions about SocketTools, please be sure to contact us. We'll do our very best to respond promptly and thoroughly. We also recommend you visit our technical support forums and register there, where you can ask questions and participate in discussions with Catalyst technical support staff and other SocketTools developers.

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