THE BIG BROTHER SYSTEM AND NETWORK MONITOR
==========================================
Version 1.4b
Mar 09th, 2000

This program is Copyright (c) 1997-2000
The MacLawran Group Inc.
All Rights Reserved

      Questions? Contact:
      Sean MacGuire
      The MacLawran Group Inc.
      E-mail: info@bb4.com
      Tel: +1 (514) 996-INET


Please read the LICENSE agreement before using this package.


For installation instructions please refer to the README.INSTALL file.


For documentation, consult the install/README file, better yet the
complete documentation is available in HTML format
in www/help/bb-man.html, www/help/bb-faq.html & www/help/bb-info.html
or point your browser at http://bb4.com/ and hit the "HELP" button

If you're new to BB, we suggest that you subscribe to the
BB mailing list.  To do so, follow these instructions:

Send an e-mail to MajorDomo@bb4.com
In the body of the e-mail message (not the Subject line),        
place the statement:        

    subscribe bb            

We have searchable archives of the mailing list available
at http://support.bb4.com.  Thanks to Nick Silberstein 
for initially creating and housing it.

When you have finished installing BB on all of your
monitored hosts, you might want to check out the FTP archive
that contains many contributed scripts.  Adam Goryachev
house them at ftp://ftp.deadcat.net/pub/BB


Changes (for more details see the README.CHANGES file)
=======
new in 1.4b
	fixes to 1.4, 1.4a
new in 1.4a
	fixes to 1.4
new in 1.4
	Clean 64-bit networking code
	enable/disable of paging
	messages now can be valid for a predetermined amount of time
	basic support for skins (different looks)
	Added 'data' & 'notes' message types
	Added Caldera support
	Self-correcting installation procedure
	Event logs by host and install (all hosts)
new in 1.3a
	HTML status logs can be created dynamically. Many
	OS specific changes.  Updated the installation
	procedure, again.  bug fixes.  Code is more modular
	for the display of status logs.
new in 1.3
	Support for multiple BBDISPLAY and BBPAGERS, totally new
	look and feel, much of it user configurable.
new in 1.2b
	Partial support for https, multiple http tests for same 
	host, logs of notification & recovery msgs, added brief option
	for specific recipients, group of hosts and recipients to simplify
	notification rules setup.  Specific fix in bbnet for Linux users.
	Usual tidying up of code and fixing up minor bugs and annoyances.
new in 1.2a
	Fixed subpages bugs: subpage don't required groups and
	don't repeat the last line of the last subpage in the
	main page.  runbb.sh output should always go to
	$BBHOME/BBOUT.  Also fixed bb-network.sh which didn't
	always send back the proper status.
new in 1.2
	Escalation & initial delay for notification. Notification
	on recovery of problem. Option to create display subpages.
	Added new exclude rule in bbwarnrules.cfg. Certain messages
	can be ignored in system messages file check.
	BBDISPLAY/BBPAGER can be on DHCP systems ! External
	programs easily integrated now. Startup is now much simpler
	and flexible (start/restart/stop).  It's even more lynx
	friendly.  Minor cosmetic changes.
New in 1.09d
	Fixed security problem
New in 1.09c
	Addes dgux support, some cosmetic changes, changed the color
	of the text from white to FFFFCC to be printer-friendly.  Also
	fixed buglet with alarm timeouts in bbnet.
New in 1.09b
	HTMLized history.  bbnet less prone to false alarms.
	Added options to touchtime. Fixed bugs: buffer overflow,
	summary handling, ...  Added IMAP support, custom service
	checking.  Dynix support.
New in 1.09a
	Oops ! forgot to add anything :)
New in 1.09:
	Status file are HTMLized. Notifications are sent with an
	ticket number of seven digits. Using this number the 
	notification can be acknowledged and won't be repeated for
	a specified amount of time.  Notifications can be sent for
	any level (not just red). Default is now notify on red/purple.
	Mail only notifications can also be sent on a specified alert
	level(s). bbnet can now send an initialization string.

New in 1.08b:
	Official support for BDSI from Matt Simerson <matt@michweb.net>
	BBWARN (notification matrix: see Sept '98 SysAdmin Mag) merged
	in. Added scripts to verify validity of hosts and config files.

New in 1.08a:
	Support for multiple disk partition level monitoring, using the
	etc/bb-dftab file, kermit version 6 numeric pager support, fixes 
	for AIX and some Web display cleanup.

New in 1.08:
	Groups that don't have data for all the columns in a BB display
	can remove those columns by using the keyword "group-compress"
	in the etc/bb-hosts file.  The BB summary display now only
	displays columns that contain non-green data.

New in 1.07c:
	The most significant change in this release is that more info
	is being sent to the BB server - full df output as well as 
	the entire HTTP server responses.  

New in 1.07b:
	Now all internet services are paged on if they fail.  If you don't
	want to be paged, add the service to NONETPAGE in etc/bbdef.sh.
	Thanks to Patrick Hopewell <p.hopewell@utoronto.ca> for pointing
	out this problem.

New in 1.07a:
	Better testing for services in bb-network.sh - no more can't shift errors.
	Less obscure error messages from bb and bbnet

New in 1.07:
	The MacLawran Group Inc now has a proper server on the net.
	All addresses have changed to http://MacLawran.ca/bb-dnld.

	New bb-hosts keyword - "noping" if you want to disable the
	ping test.  DNS failures now mention where from, and the

	Subject line of BB mail has been made more concise.

New in 1.06e:
	No more touch command!  touchtime has been modified to
	create files all by itself.  Fixes bugs created by 1.06d.
	Dialup hosts now generate clear dots when network tests 
	fail and a minor change to bb-local.sh for process paging.

New in 1.06d:
	Bugfix and y2k change to touchtime.c.  Arguments returned
	now include a 2 digit year.  Fix to ping parameters for
	hpux 10.X from Steve Bonds <sbonds@agora.rdrop.com>

New in 1.06c:
	dns server testing from Frank Kujawski <frank@bluegrass.net>
	A DNS server running on a host can be tested by putting the
	keyword 'dns' on the corresponding host line in etc/bb-hosts.

	Corrected a bug where 'dialup' connections paged when they
	shouldn't.  Found by rpeiffer@smacek.com (Rich Peiffer)  .

New in 1.06b:
	NT client now available (not included here)

	Minor change to support Roxen proxy server testing.

	Support for proxy calling in bb-hosts file.  If you're 
	using a proxy server, specify it in the hosts file as 
	follows: http://proxy.com:port/http://check-this-addr.com

	Better security in bbd.c: bounds checking, better handling of 
	etc/security file, better error messages and immediate
	restart on Solaris (SO_REUSEADDR).

	Better support for Redhat, better error messages

New in 1.06a:
	Big Brother now supports display grouping of machines.
	Just put the word "group" on a line in etc/bb-hosts and
	a new table will be created with the contents of that
	line.  i.e. the following line in bb-hosts:

	group <H3><I>Web Servers</I></H3>

	will create a new table called "Web Servers". The table
	will contain every line up until the next group directive
	or summary/dialup lines, that have their own syntax.  These
	lines can contain HTML commands, at your own risk.

	The generated pages are now a little cleaner in terms of
	HTML syntax, and will load *much* faster if grouping is 
	enabled.

Additions for 1.06:
	Copyright clearly asserted just about everywhere.  New
	and clearer license agreement.

Fixes for 1.05a:
	Improved redhat support (finally) and fixed PAGINGLOCK
	call in runbb.sh.  From Martin Richard <martin@europa.collegebdeb.qc.ca>

New Features in 1.05:

	Added security feature to allow bbd to control incoming
	requests.  If the file $BBHOME/etc/security exists, only 
	those systems whose network or IP addresses listed will
	be considered.  Others are ignored.

	Make BB Explorer friendly by adding HEIGHT and WIDTH tags
	notes file can now be .html / .htm / or no extension

	touchtime can now return arbitrary times
	New default minimum time between pages

	Preliminary support for groups within BB
	Support for polling IP addresses only
	Support for devices that aren't always present
	Bugfix in web/mkbb2.sh (Ruediger.Schuetz@Munich.Netsurf.DE)

Have fun.
--
Sean MacGuire					sean@bb4.com
