NetFoss 1.26beta6 Update - May 24, 2023
============================================

After taking a long break since the 1.25 NetFoss release, development has somewhat
resumed in 2023.

Beta 6 changes:  
* Fixed 1.25 bug that caused the Freshwater Fishing door to fail to recieve input.

Beta 5 changes:

* Fixed compatibility issue with the Shadow Board door, which is not compatible
  with X00 compatible fossil drivers. X00 fossil mode is now disabled by default.
  Reported by Marty Kazmaier.

Beta 4 changes: 

* NetFoss.DLL was reduced in size a bit.

* Fixed an issue that could cause some BBS software to detect a carrier drop at startup
  under certain conditions.

* No changes to NetCom, which is still at beta 1.


Beta 3 changes:

* A rude guy that had posted negative comments about using NetFoss running in "COM port mode"
 along with NetSerial several months ago (and who ignored my public request for details of
 how to reproduce the issue) has finally responded and informed me that the a Fido-technology
 mailer that he's merging with his Legacy/X BBS failed to launch when using NetFoss/NetSerial
 together. Using his debug log I found a minor bug in NetFoss's COM port mode, but it turned
 out that was not causing the issue he reported, and eventually I discovered he was still
 using a very old beta version of NetSerial from several years ago, and the bug had been
 resolved long ago.

* Beta 3 also has some slight enhancements to the NetFos64 DLL, which is still identifies
  as NetFos64 1.26.b2 due to the .com file not being updated.


Beta 2 changes:

* Some minor optimimizations were made to NFU and NetCom in January, which was only given
  to a few people.


Beta 1 changes:

* NetFoss version 1.25's time slice releasing routine was not sending the proper return code,
  to the calling application, causing some applications to assume that timeslice releasing
  was not supported.  Reported by Mike Dietrich

* NFU was not providing the current directory when launching DOOR32 programs, preventing a
  door called Wordle from running from a DOS BBS. Reported by Tom Swartz.

* In 2021, Antonio Rico reported some issues when NetFoss64 is running in COM port mode.
  They were resolved at the time but were not made available to the public until recently.
  Since then NetFoss64 1.26 beta 1,2 and 3 added a few optimizations. The above time slice
  return fix to has now been added to NetFoss64. 

Net2BBS is still at version 1.26beta2 (released September 2021), which fixes an intermitant
issue in 1.25 that could cause it to crash. A major update to Net2BBS was started last year
but due to time constrates it has not been released yet. I hope to get around to cleaning
it up and releasing it soon.


Important: This BETA package is INCOMPLETE. It is provided as an upgrade to version 1.25,
so it is missing inportant files including NET2BBS.INI, NF.BAT, and various documentation
files.

The documentation For NetFoss can be found at https://pcmicro.com/netfoss/guide/

Compatibility with previous versions:

If you upgrade to the beta version of NFU, then you must also update to the beta version
of NetCom in order for DOOR32 doors to work from a DOS based BBS software.

If you upgrade to the beta version of NETFOSS.COM, then you must also update to the beta
version of NETFOSS.DLL. Keep in mind that NETFOSS.DLL is often placed in the Windows
System32 folder (C:\windows\system32\), so if you have a previous version of NETFLSS.DLL
there then be sure to update it so that it matches the version of your NETFOSS.COM.

No changes were made to NetSpy or Net2Mon, which are available in the release version
of NetFoss 1.25. These tools are still compatible with the latest beta versions but NetSpy
and NetMon will not run under Windows 10/11 currently.

------


Please keep in mind that beta software is not fully tested and may contain issues. If you
do encounter any issues, then please contact support@pcmicro.com and describe the issue
as best as possible. I strive to fix all issues as quickly as possible.
