TRACE.BAT Timeline of changes and updates Prior to 5 November, no record of developments was kept. The Network Tracer (TRACE.BAT) was first offered for public download around mid-September 1999. 5 November 1999: Fixed a typo which sometimes left a temp file behind Slightly changed console feedback text sequence Removed "debug" type NSLOOKUP; it was done when other lookups failed; but it was too verbose and of very limited value Added a condition that skips an unnecessary ping Fixed CA (Canada) domain support Worked out a nearly-universal template for country domain lookups, to speed the process of adding support. 6 November 1999: Added UK (United Kingdom) domain support Fixed DE (Germany) domain support Added NL (Netherlands) domain support Updated NO (Norway) domain support Updated AU (Australia) domain support Added SE (Sweden) domain support Added CH (Switzerland) domain support Added LI (Liechtenstein) domain support Updated MX (Mexico) domain support Added setnameserver option. 7 November 1999: Updated AT (Austria) domain support Added FR (France) domain support Added IT (Italy) domain support Updated BR (Brazil) domain support Added -s option (silent; no display of report) 8 November 1999: Added EC (Ecuador) domain support Added ZA (Republic of South Africa) domain support Added GR (Greece) domain support 13 November 1999: Switches (-d -s -t -n) are now case insensitive Switches and name/address can now be entered in any order Bugfix: -s (silent) switch now works with -d Added DK (Denmark) domain support Upgraded AM (Armenia) domain support (now does a Web-based lookup) Added BT (Bhutan) domain support 14 November 1999: Added IE (Ireland) domain support Added KZ (Kazakhstan) domain support Added LK (Sri Lanka) domain support Added MM (Myanmar) domain support Added SO (Somalia) domain support Added ST (Sao Tome and Principe) domain support Added TJ (Tajikistan) domain support Added TM (Turkmenistan) domain support Added MO (Macau) domain support Added MN (Mongolia) domain support Added NC (New Caledonia) domain support Added BH (Bahrain) domain support Added CR (Costa Rica) domain support (executes a Web-based lookup) Improved report details and console feedback in shared-TLD domain record lookups. 15 November 1999: Added a parsing step which will extract the hostname/IP address from a URL or an email address; so these can now be used as the subject of a trace. 16 November 1999: Added -x option; averts a trace if formerly done. Added GU (Guam) domain support Added WS (Samoa) domain support (undeveloped domain) Added PF (French Polynesia) domain support (undeveloped domain) Added PG (Papua New Guinea) domain support 18 November 1999: Added MD (Republic of Moldova) domain support (this domain is popular with doctors) Fixed some "copy" commands; which in a DOS window could cause an unnecessary halt for confirmation of file overwrite. Replaced "&" in some string-handling commands with "!" as a step towards NT compatibility. Added about 30 new vendor codes Added IS (Iceland) domain support Added FI (Finland) domain support 19 November 1999: Fixed potential variable storage problems. TRACE.BAT now creates a DOS environment space allocation of ample size. No more "out of environment space" errors! 21 November 1999: Bugfix: Some temporary files were being left behind. They're now deleted. Bugfix: Formerly-done report now displays when -x is used. 23 November 1999: Bugfix: Report was sometimes being displayed twice unnecessarily. 30 November 1999: Console feedback and capture text now show the whole sequence of whois queries for shared-TLD domain records. Improved URL recognition. Now works with https:// and ftp:// 7 December 1999: Corrected UK domain support: AC.UK records are now looked up on the correct server, and responses are now appropriate for AC.UK and GOV.UK names. Added PR (Puerto Rico) domain support Added ZW (Zimbabwe) domain support 16 December 1999: New experience has demonstrated that the NSI Registry database at whois.crsnic.net may be updated prior to that found at whois.networksolutions.com or perhaps other whois databases serving the shared generic domains (.com, .net, .org). Accordingly, when that query is performed its text is now included in the capture file. If a domain-only (-d option) query gets no domain record, the capture file is normally deleted. However, if a positive response is returned by whois.crsnic.net, and even if no domain record is found elsewhere, the capture file is now retained. Some users may prefer a different text editor than Notepad. Trace.bat will now open its capture file using whatever default editor Windows recognizes. For most users, this remains Notepad. Added a check for NT which alerts the uninformed NT user to the fact trace.bat doesn't yet work under NT. 20 December 1999: Qwho/Namesecure (one of the shared-TLD registries) apparently provides no whois server, only a Web lookup. If a domain record is found there, the Tracer now invokes the default browser to find the record. 24 December 1999: Added to all domain lookups: a check is now done for an abuse contact address at whois.abuse.net. If any address other than the default (postmaster@[domain]) is found, it is noted in the capture file and in console feedback. Compuserve's overly-verbose boilerplate is now being removed from their domain records. Updated PT (Portugal) domain support. The whois server at whois.dns.pt has evidently been disabled. Corrected US (United States) domain lookups; I had erroneously believed a whois server wasn't available. Added AR (Argentina) domain support (Web lookup). 29 December 1999: Added AC (Ascension Island) domain support (Web lookup) Added BA (Bosnia and Herzegowina) domain support Added BG (Bulgaria) domain support (Web lookup) Added CC (Cocos [Keeling] Islands) domain support 30 December 1999: Added CK (Cook Islands) domain support 7 February 2000: Fixed error in the environment-space fix that was blanking the help text. 14 February 2000: Added a fix for a rare situation where there's no space whatsoever for variable storage. 4 April 2000: Fixed a string check which failed to recognize domain records fetched from whois.InternetNamesWW.com. 10 June 2000: Minor alteration of the setnameserver routine to make it more robust in the long term. Changed default name server address to 198.17.208.83 NOTE: Users MUST set the name server to their ISP's primary DNS server for best results. 14 June 2000: Added GETDNS.BAT utility to TRACE.ZIP. This batchfile helps set the Tracer's name server to the user's current primary DNS server. 15 June 2000: Modified GETDNS.BAT to improve its performance. Possibly because of Windows' disk caching, file handling fails in some systems unless a brief delay is imposed at an appropriate moment. This file is the only change in TRACE.ZIP since. It can be downloaded alone: http://pc-help.org/trace/getdns.bat 29 July 2000: Corrected a couple of minor syntax errors (thanks, Andras!). One of them could (rarely) cause the Tracer to misidentify a name as forged. The other could prevent correct handling of certain obfuscated URLs. Shell command now uses the %comspec% variable which works across all Windows platforms - a step towards NT/Win2K compatibility. 18 December 2000: Many changes! Added a new command: checkns This checks the currently-set name server for functionality, basically by running the 'setnameserver' routine on that address. Added a check for brackets [] in the command line. A number of users have misconstrued the use of brackets in the syntax explanation, and placed brackets around the IP address in the command line. The Tracer will now spot that error. Added RWHOIS lookups. RWHOIS will sometimes provide data on network assignments that WHOIS lookups don't produce. RWHOIS means "Referral WHOIS". It's a new-ish scheme whereby servers without answers will do their best to direct queries they can't answer to a server that does have the asked-for information. (This utilizes a new executable, NC.EXE. This popular freeware IP communications tool may prove handy to the propellerhead types. An explanatory text by the author is included.) 18 December 2000 More changes! Fixed a problem where WHOIS.CRSNIC.NET would sometimes produce multiple records, which the Tracer couldn't parse. Minor fix of the check-for-brackets, which interpreted the /? switch incorrectly. Added command-line switch "-a" which disables the Abuse.net query. This server is sometimes very slow, making simple domain queries take far too long. 1 February 2002 Various bugfixes, too numerous to detail and besides, I lost track. GETDNS.BAT is now run by default to set the appropriate name server. Added HTTP Server Check. The Tracer looks for a server at the target address and identifies/characterizes it using the HTTP OPTIONS command.