Hi all,

Here's my quarterly update to let you know the status of the recent SIB
items.  As an overall note, most of these SIB patches are available on
6.5, 7.0 and 7.5 yet we still have insufficient beta testers to release
the patches as General Release (GR).  Many of you voted for these items
so please consider being part of our beta test (BT) program.


Current Status:

1. The Network Printing (voted #1 in '04) SIB patches are completed for
6.5, 7.0, and 7.5. This enhancement introduces two new NPCONFIG file
options which allow many non-HP printers to receive MPE spoolfiles over
the network.

The patch IDs are as follows:
   7.5 MPEMXU1A, General Release (GR)!!
   7.0 MPEMXU1B, Beta Test (BT)
   6.5 MPEMXU1C, BT

Note: there will be an updated version of this patch to correct a
problem with the HP P405 line printer. The issue is that @PJL RESET
strings are displayed on printouts for the above printer. The
work-around is to set PCL_ENABLED=FALSE and FLUSH_LAST_PAGE=TRUE in the
NPCONFIG file if you notice these symptoms after installing MPEMXU1.

Documentation is on Jazz at:
  http://jazz.external.hp.com/papers/Communicator/7.5/NWPrinting.html
 


2. The FTP Security (Phase I, voted #2 in '04) SIB patches are completed
for 6.5, 7.0, and 7.5. This enhancement allows a system manager to
enforce some important FPT security rules. For example, users connecting
via FTP can be excluded by name (ftpusers file), files can be prevented
from being transferred (ftpacces file), and all FTP commands and
transfer activities can be logged.

The patch IDs are as follows:
   7.5 FTPHDE8A, BT
   7.0 FTPHDE9A, BT
   6.5 FTPHDF0A, BT

Documentation is on Jazz at: 
 
http://jazz.external.hp.com/papers/Communicator/7.5/ftp_enhancements-1.h
tml  



3. The Large Disk SIB patches are completed for 7.5 and nearly complete
for 6.5 and 7.0.  This enhancement supports MPE access to disks up to
512 GB in size (up from 300 GB), connections to even larger drives
(though the OS will only see the first 512 GB), and enhances existing
accounting commands (e.g. REPORT) to display and accept disk sector
values greater than 99,999,999 (approx. 24GB).

The patch Ids are as follows: 
   7.5 MPEMXT1, MPEMXT2, MPEMXT3, MPEMXT4, MPEMXT7, MPEMXU3, MPEMXU6,
MPEMXU7, BT
   7.0 MPEMXT3A, MPEMXT4A, ready for BT in Dec/Jan.
   6.5 MPEMXT3C, MPEMXT4C, ready for BT in Dec/Jan.

Documentation is on Jazz at:
  http://jazz.external.hp.com/papers/Communicator/7.5/LargeDisk.txt



4. The CI Functions SIB patches are being tested and are close to BT.
This enhancement provides 3 useful CI functions allowing system managers
to more easily administer their system without resorting to writing more
complex and privileged programs. The functions are: devinfo, spoolinfo,
and volinfo.

The patch Ids are as follows: 
   7.5 MPEMXV0, MPEMXV1, MPEMXV2, expected BT timeframe is Jan '06.  

This patch has not been back-ported to earlier MPE releases and will
initially be available only on 7.5. We are open to making this
enhancement available on 6.5 and 7.0 if there is customer demand. 



5. Mark Bixby ported a new version of BIND, and per the SIB request,
included the source code along with the MPE diffs.



6. We have provided a FW-SCSI reporting tool on Jazz at:
http://jazz.external.hp.com/src/ 



Regards,
 Jeff Vance, vCSY

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