Old News

Made a quick correction to the link to Cedomir's client. Otherwise no news sorry!  Though I did get my new computer...

July 2, 1998

Yes - I lied.
No - It is not released yet.
Yes - I am working on it.
No - You cannot download it yet.
Yes - I know how much you want a free secure shell client for Windows 95/NT.
Yes - I know there is no free client out there for windows that is as cool as the screen shots below suggest that FiSSH might be.
No - It is not vaporware - as amusing as that would be.  I'm waiting for a new computer.
Yes - Buffy the Vampire Slayer summer reruns on Mondays and Tuesdays on WB!
Maybe - Compatible with Windows 98, I see no reason why not but neither have I tested it.
Yes - Southpark can now finally be seen in the Bay Area! (That's Silicon Valley for you international folk).  TCI is finally carrying Comedy Central.

May 21, 1998
I will be releasing FiSSH sometime over this Memorial Day Weekend (setting a date so I don't flake).  If you wish to beta-test it though you'll have to find a copy of the beta 1217 version of Peter Gutmann's crypto source and compile it into a DLL for the program to run.  Unfortunately I'm unable to release that portion of the code due to US Export restrictions.  More news soon.  Yes - I have been getting everyone's mail.  No - I'm not ignoring them; just haven't had time to reply.  I'm also in the process of setting up a mailing list and those of you who have mailed will get put onto it.  As soon as I do I will try to answer all your various queries (though the predominant FAQ has been - where is it?) <grin>.

I've been busy watching the season finales to Seinfeld, Ally Mcbeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Dawson's Creek.  Felt like catching up on my television watching.

April 22, 1998
Pacific Bell has finally gotten off their butts and installed ISDN at my house - analog modem just wasn't cutting it as it took way too long for me to get anything done.  Anyway onwards we go.  I've been motivated by all the "hurry up and finish FiSSH already!" emails/notes that I've been getting.

March 31, 1998
This page is generating enough hits that I feel slighly guilt bound to write a short update.  I'm impressed with the page stats and we don't even have a product being distriubuted yet!  Thanks to all of you who took time to email us.

I (Tim) just graduated this past quarter and spent all of Spring Break moving back to the bay area in California to start my job at Taos Mountain as a web consultant this past Monday.  Doug was helping me move and just went back down to San Diego to start his last quarter of school.  As a result the rest of the updates will probably be done by me with the free time I have left.  Here's the todo list -

• The last update that Doug and I did was to get the dynamic screen updating working (auto-resize).  Somehow it worked on Doug's end but something biffed on my end after he checked-in and I updated.  Window redrawing thus is currently a mess for apps such as pine, and elm.  This needs to be fixed.
• I suddenly realized that IDEA, while free for non-commercial usage, cannot be used in a commercial setting.  Thus I need to get 3DES to work and compile a version without IDEA for use in a commercial site..
• Documentation currently sucks.  I wanted to document the source a tad bit more before release.
• Currently the program needs Peter Gutmann's beta 1217 version DLL.  I was going to poke FiSSH bit so that it would work with the 2.0 version since that is more readily available and/or make it work with Eric Young's SSLeay.

March 19, 1998
We've been generating a lot of hits from various search engines and other interested parties. Currently we're juggling Winter Quarter Finals and finishing up the app so we'll make it available as quickly as possible. To tease you though we've put up screen shots of our latest build.

March 15, 1998
We've just released an alpha binary release to a small set of testers here in the United States.  There are some user features that need to be cleaned up.  Currently stable telnet and secure shell connections can be made.  The ssh portion currently only IDEA and DES ciphers available for usage (haven't gotten all the other ones to work) and supports only password authentication.  We'll need to generate a public distribution key and finish up the licensing text before we'll be ready for broad distribution on the net.  The binaries and source will be freely available but due to US export restrictions we probably won't be able to include the cryptographic DLLs in the distribution (in particular Peter Gutmann's DLL is readily available on other sites anyway).

March 12, 1998
Yes we're still here and coding away.  One week to go before the quarter is up and the project is due.  At this stage we're primed for an "alpha release".  Telnet is working and SSH is entering the interactive session succesfully but munging some of the data.  IDEA and DES are working but for some reason I'm having issues with the 3DES routines in Peter Gutmann's library (beta 1217 version).  Currently all the crypto stuff is dynamically linked so we'll be distributing our executable but not the crypto dlls to avoid any US export issues.  Hello to Thomas Koenig (we presume it is you <grin>)!  We're working as fast as we can.  Cheers!

February 26th, 1998
Three weeks to go till end of quarter..  Anyway it looks like that Java Team has died - Kevin as it's great leader, has taken off to the ski slopes instead this quarter.  Somehow I think he may have gotten the better deal.  Regardless the Windows team has been hard at work and the way things look we might have something ready to test out on this website by early next week and from there hope to push to a broader distribution by notifying the ssh newsgroup.  We'll take one step at a time.  I'm also going to start archiving the Meeting Notes here.

February 10, 1998
Middle of Quarter report.  The Windows group is having regular meetings every week and we are making good progress with the client port.  Currently the Java group is trying to regain momentum in their own efforts but time is a scarce commodity these days.  The Windows group is hoping to have a slightly usable client ("pre-alpha") stage in two to three weeks.  As the end of the quarter rapidly approaches we intend to increase our work pace.

January 15, 1998
A belated happy new year to everyone.  Despite all appearances and a rather slow update time, we are indeed back at work as UCSD starts Winter Quarter.  Some interesting news over the break. Yoshi Kohno of the University of Colorado evidently undertook the Windows 95/NT port himself, but it is in a pre-alpha stage.  In his message he also detailed a similar Java-SSH effort.

Despite this latest revelation both groups are going to push on. The more clients out for people to choose the more likely secure shell usage will be more common.

Currently the Windows group has slightly more of an incentive as we have the CSE199 pushing us ahead.  We've had one meeting so far to set up the pace of the project for this quarter.  Our plans of tackling some of the project over Christmas break were a bit too over-zealous and we'll need to tweak the timeline accordingly.  At present we are meeting every week twice - once privately (just the students) and the second time with Professor Yee to update him on our progress.

December 6, 1997
Decided on a codename more for convenience than secrecy; typing UCSD ACM SSH Project is a real pain in the ass.  Feel free to refer to the projects now as either Java Sshit or Windows Sshit.  Mike Ayre's suggestion was just too good to not use.  A more final name will probably be needed later.

December 5, 1997

• I've cleaned up the mailing list so that only team members are on it.  Bobby and Ben have asked to be kept on, so I've put them under the "advisors" list.
• Team sizes have dropped dramatically now that we're starting "real work".  Funny how that happens. Each team now has three members in each.  The Java Group has also chosen not to pursue a 199.
• Met with Professor Yee regarding the proposal.   Professor Yee had excellent suggestions which I've included here:
• To test the security of our products once both teams have stable code, each should try to attack other team's client to insure no unintentional side effects  (from things like buffer overruns and other net mishaps).
• Windows group should consider implementing core functions that can be used on any platform to ease the development of future ports.
• Gave clarifications on various aspects of cryptography exportation from the United States.  We thus can distirbute our source minus the cryto-library we use, someone outside the United States can then link it together again.
• The Java and Windows team will be meeting with Professor Yee today (Friday) at 4:15pm in AP&M 5141 to discuss the project.  If you are free, come and join us!  I've also finished our project proposal for next quarter.  Let me know if you find any errors or have suggestions.

The Java Group will be meeting today (Sunday) at 5:30pm @ Round Table Pizza in the Price Center.  Please go if you are interested in the project; it's not too late!

November 21, 1997
I have the skeleton of the proposal available now.  Still needs to be fleshed out of course.  You can see it under Project Proposal below.

November 16, 1997
Kevin has agreed to take over leadership of the Java SSH effort.

November 12, 1997
Mike and I went to go dicuss the project with Professor Burkhard.  He's very receptive and suggested also approaching Professor Yee for possible sponsorship.  We promised him a proposal before Thanksgiving.

November 10, 1997
Brief meeting at the ACM Meeting, convinced Mike Ayres to hop on board to the Windows Group.  Emailing Profs on status updates and such.  Jason admitted to some security knowledge and has agreed to serve as one of the security advisors.

November 9, 1997
Jambi surfaced from the dead and we can switch to his web server if we wish.  This web page will still be maintained though.

Maintainer: Timothy Chen  babyduck@massconfusion.com