My anti-virus
software says EZNEC
is infected with a virus. Is it?
No.
The number of false positive virus reports has been steadily increasing
for various files in all versions of EZNEC,
including ones which have been in use and unchanged for many years. Web
research shows that this is also affecting many other programs.
(Search, for example, "false positive virus", without the quotation
marks, with Google.) The cause is that anti-virus programs now include
"heuristic" detection methods which use proprietary routines that
attempt to detect unknown viruses rather than identifying known
malevolent code. There also seems to be an effort in this competitive
market to have a product "find" more "viruses" than competing products.
The result is a large and increasing number of false positive virus
warnings.
When
false positives began appearing, I was able to
contact the offending anti-virus companies to have them correct their
routines to remove the false indications. Some were very responsive,
some were not. Such a large number of products and files are now
involved, however, that it's no longer possible to take this approach.
One major program manufacturer didn't bother to respond at all when I
contacted them recently, so apparently the complaints are too numerous
for them to handle.
Extensive efforts are made to keep the
machine used for EZNEC
creation clean and files free from any
possibility of infection. If you feel uneasy about continuing
to use EZNEC
following an anti-virus alert, I recommend that you submit the file in
question to the anti-virus program company for analysis; some
of them, at least, have a mechanism to do this. I would like to know
immediately
if any EZNEC
file is ever confirmed to have a virus infection, and I will give it
immediate action. However, this has never happened in spite of the
rapidly increasing rate of reports. I would encourage those who see
false positive indications to consider whether to believe other
reports, both positive and negative, their anti-virus program is
producing, and perhaps try some other company's offering.
NOTE:
Beginning with EZNEC
v. 5.0.59, the program was
recompiled in a way that greatly reduces the number of false positive
indications. The fact that there is absolutely no difference in the
underlying program content illustrates how poorly implemented many
anti-virus programs are. Although a few of the worst ones still
find imaginary viruses, the problem is greatly reduced -- for the time
being, at least. I highly recommend downloading and installing the
latest update. Non-pro users, see "Support/Updates (Maintenance
Releases)" in the EZNEC manual for instructions. Pro
users,
go to the URL printed on the EZNEC Pro CD label.
How to install EZNEC - Anti-virus programs more commonly interfere with EZNEC installation
than with the program itself, so successfully disabling anti-virus
software during installation usually is all that's needed in order
to use EZNEC. Unfortunately, some anti-virus programs not only flag
non-existent threats, but also don't actually stop working even when
you tell them to and when they say they have. If you're unlucky enough
to have one of those, then the only way to insure that it's stopped is
to start your system in Safe Mode, then install EZNEC while running in
Safe Mode. The steps required to start in Safe Mode changed with
Windows 10, so please consult the Internet for instructions for your
system.
I am sometimes asked for an anti-virus program recommendation. I've
used ESet NOD32 for several years and have found it to be easy to use,
unobtrusive, trouble-free, and relatively free of false positive
alarms. At the other end of the spectrum, McAfee has consistently
been one of the worst at generating false positive indications,
deleting files without notice, and continuing to run even when
supposedly
disabled. I purchased a copy some time ago to test EZNEC
and was surprised sometime later to find that by agreeing to the normal
legalese
license agreement, I had unwittingly also agreed to let them
automatically
charge my credit card each year for a subscription renewal. So that is
a
brand I particularly do not recommend.
I have no control over the anti-virus programs, so can do nothing to
prevent poorly designed ones from falsely identifying EZNEC
files as being infected. All I can do for people who might choose to
believe the anti-virus programs is to offer a full and immediate refund
for the EZNEC
purchase price, which I'm absolutely willing to do.
How do I install EZNEC
on another machine, or reinstall it?
If you purchased a CD, you
simply run its file setup.exe on the new machine. If you didn't, you
need the file you downloaded when you purchased EZNEC.
This file is eznec50.exe (standard program) or eznec50+.exe (EZNEC+).
Copy it to the machine on which you want to install EZNEC,
and run it. If you don't have any way to back up this file, you should
purchase the CD.
Will EZNEC
v. 5.0 run under Windows XP? Vista? 7? 8?
Yes to all. It will run under Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, and
8.
Will EZNEC
v. 5.0 run under 64 bit operating systems?
Yes.
Will EZNEC
v. 5.0 run under Windows 95? NT4.0?
I'm sorry, no. Following
current trends, the compiler used for creating the calculating engines
won't produce Windows 95-compatible code, and at least one of the
third-party components used for advanced functionality won't operate
under Windows 95. Windows NT4.0 requires additional support files so
isn't practical to support given its very small and decreasing current
usage.
Does EZNEC
v. 5.0 use NEC-4 for calculations?
Of the five EZNEC
v. 5.0
program types (demo, standard EZNEC,
EZNEC+,
EZNEC
Pro/2,
and EZNEC
Pro/4)
only EZNEC
Pro/4
uses NEC-4. NEC-2 is the calculating engine used by the other EZNEC
programs.
See the next item, below, for more information.
What are the differences between the
standard, plus and professional programs?
EZNEC+
has all the features of the standard program, plus:
There are two professional (EZNEC Pro) programs, EZNEC Pro/2 and EZNEC Pro/4. They are identical except that EZNEC Pro/4 can use NEC-4 for calculations as well as the NEC-2 used by the other EZNEC program types.
In
addition to the features of
EZNEC+,
the professional programs
include:
The primary advantages of NEC-4 are that buried conductors can be modeled, and NEC-4 is relatively free of the small error produced by NEC-2 when analyzing connected wires of different diameters.
EZNEC
Pro/2
is $500,
EZNEC
Pro/4
is $650. Purchasers of EZNEC
Pro/4
must first obtain an
NEC-4
license. At the time of this writing, NEC-4 prices range from $300 for
a
U.S. non-commercial or educational license to $1500 for a non-U.S.
commercial license. However, prices change, so please
consult the LLNL NEC-4 web site
https://ipo.llnl.gov/?q=technologies-software-browse_software-app&s=NEC
for current
information. For more
information about EZNEC
Pro,
see the EZNEC
Pro web page.
Can EZNEC
v. 5.0 use the antenna description files I created with an earlier
version?
Absolutely!
EZNEC
v. 5.0
can even read and translate DOS EZNEC
(.EZ) and
ELNEC (.EN) files -- just include the
extension (.EN) when specifying the name of an ELNEC file to open.
Older
versions of EZNEC
can also read
and use files written by
EZNEC
v. 5.0,
although new
objects not existing in the older versions will be ignored. EZNEC
v. 5.0
uses the same plot
file format as EZNEC
v. 2.0 through 4.0, and can display plots saved by ELNEC or any version
of EZNEC.
If I buy the CD
version, does the CD have to be in place when running the program?
No. All necessary files are
installed on your hard drive. The CD is needed only for
installation. If desired, the CD files can be copied to a hard
drive or other storage medium and the program installed or re-installed
from there.
Where's the manual?
The manual is an
integral part of
the program. With EZNEC
v. 5.0 running, In the EZNEC
v. 5.0
Control Center (the
main window), click Help on the menu bar, then choose Contents to view
the manual. You can also open the manual to the relevant topic from
many places in the program by pressing F1.
Is it possible to get a printed manual?
Yes, if you're willing to print it yourself. If you purchased EZNEC on a CD, you'll find it in the Printable Manual directory on the CD-ROM. Otherwise, you can download it. Clicking here will take you to the page where you can get more information. No pre-printed manual is available.
What are the EZNEC and EZNEC+ v. 5.0 segment limits?
The limit for EZNEC v. 5.0 is the same as for earlier versions, 500 segments maximum. This allows approximately 25 wavelengths of wire, or 50 beam elements. EZNEC+ v. 5.0 allows 1,500 segments, and the professional EZNEC v. 5.0 programs accommodate up to 20,000 segments.
Will EZNEC v. 5.0 overwrite previous versions?
EZNEC v. 5.0 will overwrite and update EZNEC v. 3.0 or 4.0 if installed in the same directory. It will not affect earlier (DOS) versions.
Will installing or uninstalling EZNEC erase or overwrite my existing description or trace files?
Absolutely not!
What's the difference between the upgrade version and full program?
There are no different "upgrade" and "full" or "new" versions, only upgrade prices. There's only one version, and it's a complete, independent program which doesn't require any other program or older version in order to install or function. The only difference between a new purchase and an upgrade purchase is the price; the program is the same.
Is there any difference between the download and CD products?
No. The CD contains the same single executable file you get if you download. The CD also contains the printable manual, but that's available at the web site. You may need to re-install EZNEC in the event of a hard drive failure or change to your computer system, so you should always keep either the CD or a copy of the downloaded file. If you don't have any way to back up the downloaded file on some medium other than your primary hard drive, you should order the CD (with or without the download) to protect against loss of the program in the event of a hard drive failure.
My EZNEC v. 5.0 runs extremely slowly. Why?
Some
versions of McAfee Antivirus sofware,
when running
in the background detection mode, can cause extremely slow operation of
EZNEC
calculations. This
problem can suddenly appear
when the
antivirus software is updated. Apparently, the antivirus software
intercepts and analyzes the communications between the calculating
engine and the main program. These communications are numerous and
frequent, so the rather slow analysis process by the antivirus program
greatly slows EZNEC
operation. The only certain solution is to disable
the background checking feature of the McAfee software while running EZNEC.
So far, this
has been reported only with McAfee version 4, and it appears that
version 6 and later versions might not have this effect on EZNEC.
This
isn't certain,
however. Other virus-detecting software could possibly have a similar
effect, so if you encounter exceptionally slow operation, try disabling
any anti-virus software you have running, and let me know
if it
solves the problem.
What is dwspy36.dll in the EZNEC program directory?
Because of the problems described next, this file and dwsbc36.ocx are no longer used by EZNEC. If they're in the EZNEC directory, they're left over from an earlier version and can safely be deleted. I don't, however, recommend deleting them from the Windows system directory (where some earlier versions of EZNEC installed them) because some other legitimate application might be using them. Some people have expressed concern about dwspy36.dll and wonder what its function is. This file is a "subclassing" control, part of a third-party utility package called SpyWorks, purchased from Desaware, a highly respected company which is well known to the Visual Basic programming community. This package allows functionality beyond that provided by Visual Basic or normal Windows programming but despite its rather sinister name is not "spy" software. When you attempt to reduce the size of graphical windows below a certain point, EZNEC limits the minimum size. This size limiting isn't possible with Visual Basic (except with "bounce-back" type operation), so a technique called "subclassing" is used. EZNEC intercepts the normal Windows message sent when a window is resized and directs it to code that limits the window size. The SpyWorks control (dwsbc36.ocx, which uses dwspy36.dll) allows this functionality. (It's apparently so named because of its ability to "spy on" -- intercept -- messages sent to and from the Windows operating system by applications during normal operation.) Some versions of EZNEC installed dwsbc36.ocx and dwspy36.dll in the EZNEC program directory; other versions installed them in the Windows system directory instead. An increasing number of spyware removal programs misidentify dwspy36.dll as spyware and delete it, which caused EZNEC to crash. Because of this problem, EZNEC was modified early in v. 4.0 to use a different dll, rather than dwsbc36.ocx and dwspy36.dll. No version of EZNEC does keystroke logging or any other type of user activity recording, reporting, or Internet connection. For more information about the SpyWorks package, see http://desaware.com/products/universalcom/spyworks/index.aspx.
What language is EZNEC v. 5.0 written in?
The
interface portion
of the
program was written in
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. It consists of more than 70,000 lines of
source
code, not counting comments. I wrote every line, and it took about two
years of essentially full time work to develop the first Windows
version. The
calculating engine is a modified version of the public domain NEC-2
program. It's written in Fortran, and incorporated as a separate
executable file.
Where can I get more EZNEC models?
The
CD included with the 20th and later
editions of the
ARRL
Antenna Book
has several
hundred EZNEC
models of a wide variety of antennas. While specially created to work
with the EZNEC
ARRL
program which also comes with the Antenna
Book, they're also standard EZNEC
files
which work normally with EZNEC
v. 5.0, EZNEC+
v. 5.0, and EZNEC
Pro. Even
without the EZNEC
files, the ARRL
Antenna
Book
is a bargain, but the files make it even more so. Also, check http://www.cebik.com
for models and
other good information.