Now that the Toolbox is on a more stable web host, I’ve turned my eye to that stack of e-mail that’s been piling up. While I still plan on catching up with the e-mails I’ve received, I’ve also been thinking of ways to help alleviate this problem. That’s when I came upon the Snitz Forum. It’s a free, open-source, ASP-based forum tool that was surprisingly rich in features.



I still need to add questions to the FAQ sections I added, but having a forum (and later a FAQ section) should help people find answers to problems that other people have asked and should help me squash Toolbox bugs more effectively. Just go to http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/forum/ or click on the “Toolbox Forum” item on the left navigation bar.

I’m really starting to like SectorLink’s tech support. Unlike my old web host, my e-mails to SectorLink are promptly and politely answered. Here’s hoping they can keep this up.



The problems the E-mail Defense Test (caused by the move) have been resolved. So feel free to go ahead and test your defenses again. The only remaining issue with the Toolbox site is now the domain name. Either the DNS propagation is causing jasons-toolbox.com to give “Cannot find server” messages, or there’s a minor problem with the DNS setup SectorLink has. Either way, I e-mailed their tech support and fully expect Jason’s Toolbox to be 100% operational by the end of the weekend.

Well, after a 6 day outage, Jason’s Toolbox is back up and running. However, there might be temporary outages over the next couple of days as I transfer the domain over completely. In case there is, you can use the temporary URL http://jasons-toolbox.sectorlink.org/. The domain change should be completed within 24 to 48 hours. Thanks to everyone for their patience (and let’s hope this web host is better than the last).



One minor issue remains and that’s fixing the Test Your E-mail Defenses to work with this web host. That should be done tonight, but until then hold off from running that test.

Just a quick update today. Thanks to the folks at the DSL Reports Security forum, I’ve fixed another pesky bug with the Test E-mail Defenses Script. In fact, I revamped the entire script so it reads a different (and more standard) section of the registry. Of course, as always, the script doesn’t change anything or send out any information. I’ve also made a page where you can find out the most common reasons why your system might fail the E-mail Defenses Test as well as what you can do about it. You can take a look at this page at: http://www.jasons-toolbox.com/test-failed.asp

Well, the wedding and honeymoon went off without a hitch. (I actually got back from DisneyWorld last week, but it took me a bit to get settled back in.) Now I just have to dig myself out of the huge pile of e-mail that was waiting in my Inbox.



As my first post-wedding update, I’d like to announce that I’ve posted a fixed version of the “Test Your E-mail Defenses” script. This should fix a problem that some Win2K users were experiencing.



The responses from the E-mail Defense Test have yielded an interesting security hole of sorts when ZoneAlarm and Script Sentry are on the same machine. ZoneAlarm can quarantine VBS scripts using its MailSafe feature. When it does so it gives a prompt that the file is possibly malicious. However, it also gives the file a new .zlv extension (which ZoneAlarm sets up to run with the Windows Scripting Host just like .vbs). Script Sentry doesn’t (yet) recognize .zlv files. I’m going to add that in to a future version. Not something to really worry about. ZoneAlarm’s interception is good. (Although I’m partial to the extra info Script Sentry gives. But then again, I’m biased.



Hopefully, I’ll have time soon to work on some updates to Script Sentry and Cookie Jar. Plus a new program I have in the works. I’ll keep you posted.