ActiveXperts Network Component 6.1 Release Notes

Index

Introduction
What's new in ActiveXperts Network Component 6.1
What's new in ActiveXperts Network Component 5.2
What's new in ActiveXperts Network Component 5.1
What's new in ActiveXperts Network Component 4.6
Installation and Upgrade

Introduction

ActiveXperts Network Component is a Network Communication component for Windows developers. It allows you to seamlessly integrate network functionality in your applications or scripts:

• Easy to use API
• Supporting IPv4 and IPv6
• Supporting all common TCP and UDP protocols
• Single DLL, 64-bit and 32-bit
• Samples available in C#, VB, ASP.NET, HTML, PHP, Javascript, Delphi and more

The product runs on Windows 2022/2019/2016/2012 R2/2012/2008 R2/2008/2003/11/10/8/7/Vista/XP platforms and has native support for both 64-bit and 32-bit Intel compatible processor architecture.
It can be used with various development tools, including Visual Basic .NET, Visual C# .NET, Visual Basic, Visual C++, ASP .NET, ASP, PHP, VBScript, Delphi and JavaScript.

What is new in ActiveXperts Network Component 6.1

- Licensing -

ActiveXperts made the move from perpetual licensing to subscription licensing. The reason for abandoning perpetual licensing is that customers cannot stay on the same version for years, because the landscape of corporate networks is highly dynamic and constantly evolving.

The increasing danger of new cyber security threads, make the underlying operating system subject to changes. As a result, the libraries and APIs that ActiveXperts uses are also changing. ActiveXperts therefore makes regular changes to its software.

Therefore, it is important as a customer to always work with the latest version. ActiveXperts stopped selling perpetual licenses and switched to the subscription model.

Customers with a valid maintenance contract will be converted to a subscription license with the same duration as the maintenance contract.
Customers without a maintenance contract can purchase a subscription license. This price equals the price of a corresponding maintenance contract in the past.

- Secure Libraries -

All ActiveXperts Network Component 6.1 binaries are compiled with recent SSL libraries and recent C++ runtimes.

What is new in ActiveXperts Network Component 5.2

• Upgraded private key file format to PPK3, with improved passphrase hashing and no use of SHA-1
• Support for RSA key algorithms using SHA-2 instead of SHA-1.
• Support for OpenSSH certificates, for user authentication keys and host keys.
• Support for AES-GCM.
• Extended support for Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

What is new in ActiveXperts Network Component 5.1

• The HttpEx object has a new property: AllowTLS13, to support the TLSv1.3 cryptographic protocol.
• The HttpEx 'AllowTLS1' property has been renamed into 'AllowTLS10'. The 'AllowTLS1' property is still available for backward compatibility.
• The HttpEx object now supports the 'PutFile' function to upload a file.
• The HttpEx object could not handle URL's that ended with "#' or "#/". This issue has been fixed in the new version.
• The User Agent string of the HttpEx object is logged by the logging functionality of the HttpEx object.
• The Sftp::PutFile sometimes caused a crash, depending on the file content. This has been fixed.
• The Sftp::PutFile did not work for files without a file extention. This has been fixed.
• The VMware and Xenserver objects did not support passwords containing '<', '>', '&' and '"'. This has been fixed.
• All Visual Studio sample projects are created in Visual Studio 2015. Previous versions of ActiveXperts Network Component included sample projects created in Visual Studio 2008.
• All Visual Studio .NET sample projects are targetted for .NET Framework 4.6. Previous versions of ActiveXperts Network Component included .NET sample projects targetted for .NET Framework 2.0.

What is new in ActiveXperts Network Component 4.6

• The HttpEx object has 3 new properties: AllowTLS1, AllowSSL3 and AllowTLS1. This allows users to allow/disallow certain SSL protocols. In previous versions of ActiveXperts Network Component, all SSL protocols were allowed. However, some web servers refuse HTTP clients that allow SSL2 protocols. You can now control the behaviour of the HttpEx object, where AllowTLS1 and AllowSSL3 are set to True by default, and AllowSSL2 is set to False by default.
• The SnmpMibBrowser object can now load multiple MIB files. This way, you can (reverse) lookup OIDs using multiple MIB files. Call 'AddMibFile' for each MIB file you want to load. This is a new function.
  The 'LoadMibFile' method of the SnmpMibBrowser object is obsolete now, but is still available for backwards compatibility.
• The SnmpMibBrowser object can now perform a reverse lookup, to map a numeric OID into a symbolic OID. Use the new 'ReverseLookup' function for that.
• The SnmpMibBrowser function 'LookupOIDName' has been renamed into 'ForwardLookup'. The old function name can still be used for backward comptibility purposes.
• SnmpManager has improved logging.
• SnmpTrap has object has the ability to set the source IP address for throught its new 'SourceIP' property. This applies to SNMPv1 traps only.
• The VMware object has a new property 'ServerUseSSL'. This allows you to control how a connection is established: secure (SSL) or not secure. Default: secure.
  In previous versions, a connection was always estsblished over SSL and there was no way to connect over an insecure connection.
• The VMware object has a new property 'ServerPort'. This allows you to control the destination IP port. Default: 443. In previous versions, the was no way to select an alternate port.
• The Citrix Xen object has a new property 'ServerUseSSL'. This allows you to control how a connection is established: secure (SSL) or not secure. Default: secure.
  In previous versions, a connection was always estsblished over SSL and there was no way to connect over an insecure connection.
• The Citrix Xen object has a new property 'ServerPort'. This allows you to control the destination IP port. Default: 443. In previous versions, the was no way to select an alternate port.
• There's a new object called 'Verde', to access Virtual Bridges VERDE computers. Virtual Bridges VERDE is a VDI standard, used to virtualize computer workstations.
• Minor fixes or improvements to various sample projects;
• New samples projects for various development platforms included.

Installation and Upgrade

- Installation -

To learn more about installing the product for the first time, please read our manual.

- Upgrade from ActiveXperts Network Component 5.2 -

Upgrade from ActiveXperts Network Component 5.2 to ActiveXperts Network Component 6.1 in the following way:

• Uninstall the ActiveXperts Network Component 5.2 product. Use the 'Add/Remove Programs' applet in the Control Panel to start the Uninstall procedure;
• Download the ActiveXperts Network Component 6.1 Installation file from the ActiveXperts Software download site and start the ActiveXperts Network Component 6.1 Installation. The InstallShield wizard will guide you through the steps of the installation.