IPNetRouter

Shareware; $100

Current Version: 1.5.4 (March 13, 2001) / 1.6.9 (May 28, 2003) / 1.4 (May 29, 2009)

IPNetRouter is software-based IP router written by Peter Sichel, the author of IPNetMonitor and many other superb Mac OS networking products. IPNetRouter features support of unlimited clients, NAT, DHCP Server, DNS forwarding, Port Mapping, Filtering, and a whole lot more. Although no information is available regarding what's new in version 1.6.9 - the latest release for "Classic" Mac OS - version 1.6.8 added/changed the following:

• Fixed bug which could cause IPNetRouter to crash when manually disconnecting a PPP connection.

See the IPNetRouter release notes for more specific information.

On top of the features of the "Classic" version, the Mac OS X version (known as "IPNetRouterX") adds IP masquerading (Network Address and Port Translation with inbound port mapping) a DHCP Server, and AirPort configuration to the IPNetSentryX firewall foundation. As such, it provides in kernel single address space AVL search trees for best in class NAT performance with the maturity of a next generation design based on IPNetRouter classic.

Apart from being made as a Universal Binary for native performance on Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs, version 1.3 of IPNetRouterX added a number of significant new features and fixes that are detailed in the online release notes.

Version 1.4 specifically adds/changes the following:

• First Run Install: pause after copy phase to allow time for file system to stabilize.
• First Run Install: changed to work the same for non-admin accounts.
• ICMP: self repair ICMP server connection if it dies unexpectedly.
• Fixed obscure memory leaks found using Apple's Clang tool.
• Fixed possible kernel panic when enable transparent proxy to a local server on the gateway.
• DHCP Server: convert log messages to use \r\n instead of \r as line separator for better SMTP compatibility.
• Fix Ethernet bridging to configure promiscous mode correctly.
• Don't load balance packets that have already been redirected using "RouteTo" filter action.
• Allow "Source Aware Active Open" by checking if a previous connection arrived from the same host.
• Application launch - skip asking for upgrade if there is a valid upgrade key in the pasteboard.
• Upgrade - ask user to authenticate to remove old key if necessary when upgrading, so upgrade will override any previous key even if not writable by the currently logged in user.
• Fix checking for idle time to handle equal comparisons correctly.
• DHCP Server: fix to recognize messages from Relay Agent that match a Lease Options record.
• DHCP Server: do not stop server when application quits since it might be running from another instance.
• Avoid repeated first run install alerts by not trying to install admin only tools when run from non-admin account.
• Fix possible bug in updating Security Log save to disk interval.
• Reorganized demo startup to be more consistent and support paid upgrades.
• Fix possible timing conflict when replacing and authorizing helper tools.
• DHCP Server: fix to recognize DHCP Requests to a static config address whose lease binding has expired.
• DHCP Server: fix to accept DHCP Requests from a host that already has the requested IP address when the server has no previous record of that lease binding.
• Restructure project files to use Subversion based revision control.
• System Requirements are now 10.4 or later.
• Note this version may require a paid upgrade.