KIT - Keep In Touch, ver 1.53b ============================== HI! This utility can be used to monitor connection to remote Internet/Intranet servers using PING, and to alert the network administrator using email or external program about online status changes. To use KIT, simply add each host name and IP to the list, and configure other parameters for your needs. KIT is FreeWare. You may use it and copy it to your friends. Tips and more info ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Host name can be a real one (FQDN or NetBIOS) but you may also type any other descriptive text instead. Pressing ENTER while in the "New Host" editor, resolves it's IP and moves focus to the "IP" editor. Pressing ENTER while in the "IP" editor, adds the Name+IP pair to the list. Starting from version 1.40 you may check for open TCP ports on your servers. KIT can use a small HTTP/FTP/SMTP/POP3 client for application layer tests, but the recommended (faster) test is to choose TCP from "Services" and type the Port. When using SMTP mail, it's recommended to use IP address instead of FQDN in the SMTP server input, for better performance. When PING fails to a specific host, KIT will send an alert only on the first fail after a previous OK status. This is to avoid flooding your mailbox. Some cellular phone companies, have a service for sending email messages as SMS to your mobile phone. Check it out at the web-site of your cellular company. KIT saves its data in a default KIT.INI file, created automatically in the same folder where KIT.EXE is. See (and edit) KIT.INI for advanced configuration, like packet size, TTL, and timeout. KIT saves it's configuration on exit, so make manual changes only when the file is not used. Version History and future updates: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ KIT is part of my NUTS (Network UTilities Set) collection of programs. You may download NUTS from my site (http://yizhar.mvps.org). Future updates and fixes will be based on users comments and requests. Version 1.53b, March 2005 - Only minor changes with references to my new web site http://yizhar.mvps.org Version 1.53, September 2004 - Added: "Sort by IP Address" Added: "Export to Text" - from the "List" menu. The file is exported in Tab separated text format that can be imported to Excel or other applications. Version 1.52, December 2003 - Another fix in the tray icon behavior. Version 1.51, November 2003 - Minor fix - some settings not loaded when using: File - Open KIT file. Version 1.50, November 2003 - Changed the tray icon behavior for faster loading of the program. Added more details in SMTP window error messages for troubleshooting email. Version 1.46, December 2002 - Minor fix - fixed a display issue on some computers that caused the "options/actions" window to be partialy hidden. Version 1.45, July 2002 - Added symbols to messages that "Include Current Status" for better readability. Added 2 options to File menu: "Save On Exit" and "Save Now". Fixed some minor spelling mistakes in this document... Version 1.44, July 2002 - Added 2 options to the email alert configuration: "Keep Alive" messages, and "Include Current Status". Version 1.43, June 2002 - Fix - TCPing was not closing properly after fail which caused false fail messages on tcp test. This has been corrected in this version. Fix - With some servers, HTTP test would fail even if getting a HTTP response. However I recommend the layer 4 TCP test instead of the slower application layer whenever applicable. The http and other application level tests were NOT tested on a variety of servers, so if you find additional problems please let me know with details. Added a 'Verbose' INI setting - if you set it to 1, you'll get the more info on the display when using application layer tests. Version 1.42, November 2001 - Fix - In previous versions, KIT sometimes accepted destination unreachable messages with 0 bytes as success indication for PING. This has been corrected and now identified as FAIL. Version 1.41, October 2001 - Added minimize to tray button, and tray icon. The command line parameter /TRAY will cause KIT to start up minimized to the tray. The tray icon turns yellow when a ping status changes while KIT is running in the background. This is to gently notify the administrator to check out. Thanks to Antony Pranata for his tray icon for Delphi. Version 1.40, August 2001 - NEW: Added support for TCP,HTTP,FTP,SMTP,POP3 tests. With these protocol/application layer tests you can check that the specific services are running and accessible to clients, and also this is a way to test servers which are behind a firewall that blocks ICMP. Please note that testing at application layer is normally slower then PING or TCP test. Edit LOG file name, and Open LOG button. Abort button for stopping a long test. New menu options: File-New, Options-Advanced. New INI/KIT setting: PingRetryOnFirstFail, TCPRetryOnFirstFail... - When set to 1 then after a test Fails, KIT will try a 2nd time to make sure. And a few other minor changes. Version 1.3, October 2000 - Added support for data files with KIT or INI extension. The file name can be passed as command line parameter. (NUTS setup will associate *.KIT files with KIT program). KIT will now remember its position and size on screen. Version 1.23, September 2000 - Technical changes in the SMTP functions. Version 1.22, September 2000 - BugFix: Starting KIT minimized did not send startup email in previous versions. Version 1.21, July 2000 - Allow resizing of main window. Added TTL information in the "Current Activity" window. Version 1.2, June 2000 - Added this ReadMe text. Version 1.1, June 2000 - First release. Thanks: ======= The ICMP (PING), SMTP, WinSock, HTTP, FTP, POP3 implementation for Delphi was written by: Francois PIETTE - http://www.overbyte.be francois.piette@rtfm.be Thanks Francois! The Tray Icon implementation for Delphi was written by: Antony Pranata, 1999 antonypr@poboxes.com Contact me: =========== Yizhar Hurwitz Kibbutz Gaaton, Israel. http://yizhar.mvps.org yizhar@mail.com