Shicks! - History

Version 2.0

Released May 14,2002. Major update.

Security: A HELO/EHLO with an invalid domain name (i.e. a domain name that does not resolve to a valid IP address) will result in an ACCESS DENIED.
Security: A HELO/EHLO without a domain name is no longer accepted and will result in ACCESS DENIED.
Source cleanup: Major code rearranging done.
Documentation: The manual has been updated.
Database cleanup: I've decided to remove "hastype". Its ignored anyway. The difference between a user and a mailing list is, that a mailing list is a user that has a bunch of forwarding emails.
Database cleanup: I've decided to remove "Friendlyname". It cannot be set anyway. It is used only for EXPN, which nobody is using anyway.
Database cleanup: I've decided to throw away the "alias" list in the database. It was not supported by the admin script, and it was not used in the server code besides the as-of-yet unsupported "expand" command. Since you can configure multiple email addresses for each user account, it is no longer required.
Database cleanup: I've decided to remove the table "relayrules" and the associated configuration entry "RefreshRelayRules". It wasn't supported anyway.
Database cleanup: I've decided to remove the table "mailinglists". It wasn't used since version 0.5 or something like that.

Version 0.9

Released May 14,2002. Major update.

Security: A HELO/EHLO with an invalid domain name (i.e. a domain name that does not resolve to a valid IP address) will result in an ACCESS DENIED.
Security: A HELO/EHLO without a domain name is no longer accepted and will result in ACCESS DENIED.
Source cleanup: Major code rearranging done.
Documentation: The manual has been updated.
Database cleanup: I've decided to remove "hastype". Its ignored anyway. The difference between a user and a mailing list is, that a mailing list is a user that has a bunch of forwarding emails.
Database cleanup: I've decided to remove "Friendlyname". It cannot be set anyway. It is used only for EXPN, which nobody is using anyway.
Database cleanup: I've decided to throw away the "alias" list in the database. It was not supported by the admin script, and it was not used in the server code besides the as-of-yet unsupported "expand" command. Since you can configure multiple email addresses for each user account, it is no longer required.
Database cleanup: I've decided to remove the table "relayrules" and the associated configuration entry "RefreshRelayRules". It wasn't supported anyway.
Database cleanup: I've decided to remove the table "mailinglists". It wasn't used since version 0.5 or something like that.

Version 0.8

Released May 14,2002. Several new features and some minor bugfixes

The most important change: shicks! now sends mail directly to the mail servers via MX lookup, rather than relying on a relay server. This means you no longer need a relay server (although you can still configure Shicks! to use the relay server if you so desire). See the updated manual for a more detailed (and hopefully more comprehensible) explanation.
CATCH-ALL can now be configured, and thus disabled.
Better error messages - when a 550 ACCESS DENIED is sent, the other side will get a "reason" for access denied (such as being blacklisted by one of the DNSBLs).
Better logging
You can configure POP3Server.py to physically delete the messages. This disables some of the functionality of the admin script, but allows you to save disk space.
Some minor bug fixes too numerous to mention here ;)
The admin script now is english-language only. (The old version did contain some german language strings).
The admin script has many more settings to configure.
The admin script now uses the configured relay server and is not fixed to "darkstar"

Version 0.7

Released May 12,2002. Bugfixes galore, plus updated admin script

Much improved version of shicks-adminy.py: Can now display messages (with stripped HTML tags, of course); Can resend messages to other users; Can delete messages; Bugfixes galore; Create default address along with user; Many more options in the "Settings" Dialog; Spam detection with delete-files option;
Bugfix: When responding with ACCESS DENIED, immediately close connection.

Version 0.6

Released April 27,2002. Whole lotta updates

Now checks DNSBL (DNS-based blacklists for known spammer IP-addresses) such as relays.osirusoft.com et al and refuses incoming connections from those
Per-user configuration: strip incoming HTML mails to plaintext. Yipee!
Support for SMTP AUTH.
Support for relay rules as specified in The Anti-Spam RFC.
Support for the full SMTP RFC 2821, which is an updated version of the now officially deprecated RFC 821.

Version 0.5

Released April 8,2002. Just a license change: shicks! is now BSD-licensed.

Version 0.4

Released January 1,2002. Has lots of new features:

SMTP-Server supports EHLO command.
SMTP-Server now adds "Received:" tags to mail headers.
POP3-Server bug fixed in LIST command, shicks! now works with Eudora, too.
If a mail comes from a sender that is encoded in the addresses table, the mail is not checked for [SPAM]. You can add "known good senders" in the addresses table by using a UID -1.
Mail display is sorted by date.
A new config parameter "StrictRelayTest" (default=1). If enabled, either the Sender or ALL receivers must be local addresses. If disabled, either the Sender or AT LEAST ONE OF the receivers must be a local address.
There is a new parameter "LocalIpRange", which specifies the IP ranges for local accounts. Local accounts are not checked for spam and can send to anybody. If "LocalIpRange" is specified, senders with local addresses must come from a known local IP.
Improved configuration in the shicks admin.

Version 0.3

Released December 28,2001. New Features:

Spam detection! See manual for more details.
For Windows NT/2000/XP, you can now install the POP3/SMTP server as a NT service. This means that the Shicks! service can be started automatically when booting - no need to be logged on to the machine to start the server.
For Linux, you can start the POP3/SMTP servers as daemon processes (even though this is not recommended yet).

Fixed Bugs:

POP3 server logs must not show mailbox passwords.
Trace made threadsafe, better readable (I hope).
Plus many small bug fixes too numerous to mention

Version 0.2

first public alpha release. POP3 and SMTP seems to work fine. Message Lists seem to work fine. Administrative tool now at least semi-usefull. A readable Manual!

Version 0.1

first public pre-alpha release.