Problem w/ Socket Spy, Win 98 SE

Estimated PortExplorer Author/Team !

I've been silently evaluating your PE (demo, 1.700) & was thinking of registering and buying it (which, in itself, is evidence of how good it is - I very rarely buy any software ...)

However I had problems with the socket-spy function - hence I came to your forum (excellent, again... this is my compliments' day

I find that the Socket Spy doesn't work for me - I'm on Windows 98 SE.
Either it locks up something, or is excrutiatingly slow and I loose patience, didn't find out which is which. I love Win 9x (much more than the NT series), though I am aware the IP stack inhere is less robust and potent than Win 2k's one. Is there a recognized problem ? Any advice or workaround ?

BTW, P.E. unrelated : I think I read that Win ME has a better IP stack than older 9x. Is that true ? I don't want ME of course, but can I somehow upgrade the TCP/IP stack of the 98 SE to ME's ?

Last but not least : just seen there's a newer PE version . Will it repair the problem I explaiined above ? May I install it over 1.700 and still benefit from my remaining demo time (only 12 executions left ?

TIA

--
Czerno <czernobyl AT mail DOT ru>

hint : Mail.ru offering FREE, UNLIMITED storage for your files\\\\ uh, mail

 

Hello there!
I'm on win98se myself and have no problems at all with the socketspy.
It can take a few moments before you see something happening (refresh) as the other side first must send something before it is displayed, it does not display packets sent before you enabled spying.
Then you seen them al at once almost.

Also a little warning here: the capture.bin (= the datafile of the capturing) grows fast! So after several minutes of intensive data exchange look in the Port Explorer directory at it's size! You might like to either stop spying, clean out the datapackets or save it away with another name capture300604.bin for instance so you can look at it again at another moment while you continue with a clean one. Port Explorer creates them when needed.

I wonder where did you get the older version 1700 from? Can you tell this so DiamondCS can have this corrected? Everywhere on every mirror should be 1800 now. Normally it is not advised to install over the exiting version, and if i remember well the new install will uninstall the current version. As it is only 10 days more, why bother the trouble and the risk of losing remaining trial days --i don't think you would lose them, but just in case-- and not do that with the next full version which is 1800 as you're intending to buy it anyway.
Did you see it going quicker on a ME system?
I don't remember that myself, impression is it was the same during beta-testing.

 

Yes installing over the older version will still give you however much time you have left in your trial. So you can do that without any problems.

v1.800 of Port Explorer was released a long time ago, and as I remember there was a lot fixed between 1.700 and 1.800, so it would be worth your while to test the newer one.

 

Thanks for the corrections Jason, thought it uninstalled, but ok, might be in the full version only then.

Running 1800 so long now, don't really remember the changes -- one get's used to that , but wonder where the older 1700 came from!
Hm mjah, for the socketspy part were some nice changes, you will be very pleased with.
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=13621

* Now fully compatible with Windows 2003.
* Many dialogs will now auto-close and reopen when you want to view information about another process/socket.
* Process List utility added, with added ability to use it in conjuction with socket spy.
* The Process Viewer window now also shows the full commandline (NT/2K/XP/2003 systems), using the same trick that the DiamondCS CmdLine utility uses.
* Socket Spy data format changed to be faster and make the capture.bin file more compact.
* Bug fixed in Socket Spy when corrupted headers are detected.
* Socket Spy now remembers column widths and orders.
* Added optional path for the logfile in registry (read helpfile "Tips and Tricks" for more details).
* Fixed a rare bug that was caused by looping parent and child processes.
* Lots of misc. small additions, tweaks and speedups.


I have it up all time and in addition to other tools (DiamondCS of course). One can do so much with it!

 

Thank you, Jason & Jooske for the prompt response, I really did not expect such reactivity !

Re : the PEDemo version. I had this file lying on my "downloaded" folder but never used it while I was on dialup ... Now I freshly got ADSL & able to try nice things ... Looking in Explorer I see my Port Explorer folder's date is jul 28, 2003 :=) that will be around the time I took it down, but honnestly I can't tell where I had found the link (was this version the current one by then?)

I'll be downloading the newer PEDemo and install it over the old one; hope it'll not break anything. Should I not uninstall PEDemo 1.700 first ?

Also I'll try again the port-spying on the new demo as per your indications

Regards

--
Czerno

 

Yes, it was the current one by then; most probably all mirrors were updated long since!
And now you're using it you see you missed it a lot all that time
Jason describes you can install over the other. If it would give any problems, you know what caused it and can still close and uninstall and do it again.
Maybe the installation process does the uninstalling for you. At least close Port Explorer before installing the newer one over it.
Now i see the list of new features i remember with beta testing we were really happy surprised and how could we have done without We are but spoiled a bit i guess. It's very hard to know which functions in the evaluation version are disabled, to have a real proper idea of everything.
Of course we win98se users have a little less functionallity then the NT/2000//2003/XP users, but one learns to live with that, ...... hardly

Oh, and while spying on a port with active packets (Internet Explorer, email client grow fast!) don't block them at the same time for sending/receiving for then nothing comes in your socketspy log. Also throttling the data of such is not a good idea either as then you can wait really long for a packet to slip in finally.

For registered versions are also several color schemes available, to help us with our creativity in that field, and a tool to edit and save our own.

 

Re: Win ME / Win 98 SE

About the (OT) question of the Win ME TCP/IP versus preceding versions :

I can't be sure (I never run ME myself, nor would I want it since it is said to carry a lot of, to me annoying, 'features') , - but - the one thing positive I read about it is that it incorporated a better TCP/IP stack implementation than 98's.

I think I remeber the saying was long the lines : Win ME got the TCP/IP stack of Win 2k.

Is there any truth in there ? Since the PortExplorer guys obviously must know the minute details of the Windows IP iimplementations, I think I may ask this here ... Also, if it is worth the trying, do you think it is practical to try to upgrade the Win 98 SE internet stack to Win ME's (would replacing files work...? which precise files under the windows system would you look at if you were to examine the possibility ?)

Regards

--
Czerno <czernobyl AT mail DOT ru>

 

Must really leave that question to the techies!
How is the current version 1800 going?

 

> How is the current version 1800 going?

Just installed over the old version. Too early to tell the difference(s), but the install went smoothly (reboot was needed and done). I shall try the socket inspection thing.

One regret is I don't get fresh quotas for evaluating ... and since I reboot this box often, the 10 remaining executions and some 9 days (rather, nights...) will be tight. Oh well it's a fact of life, time is always too short (and in my experience, it's flowing faster and faster

--
Czerno

 

I love the utilities in it, one of the best whois-es i know, very automatic.