A few weeks ago, I tried to log on to the Shenandoah Software website (shenware.com) and received a message that they were looking for a new provider to host the web site. Today, there’s no site and no message.
Does anyone know if they’ve gone out of business?
Thanks,
Greg
From an old post by Byron, I gather they made way bill generating software.
The message I get when I go to shenware.com is that the site is available for $20 a year from Go Daddy. Do you need to look for a new provider if it costs $20/yr?
I also looked on the Virginia state site for businesses named Shenandoah Software and Shenware. I found none. Maybe it operated without a license, but no help there.
Just for grins, an apparent mirror copy of Waybills 6.5.7 (which was apparently dated early September 2020) is still available here:
https://waybills.software.informer.com/download/#downloading
Do not use any option that involves ‘going to the Shenware web site’ or getting the current version from the company – all those pages are, unsurprisingly, down or not working.
I ran the download, on a Mac which wouldn’t necessarily be affected by malware for an x86 running Windows. Interestingly enough, this did proceed to load a “Microsoft executable file” titled ‘setupwaybills.exe’ of about 8.4MB nominal size to my disk. Someone running a sandboxed VM might try to see if this produces correct output – someone with appropriate malware analytics might check to see if a little something might have been added.
The software was indicated as selling for $49.95; I just have no earthly idea where you’d send the money now.
Thanks. I’m running v8.0.1 right now. I hope this is temorary. But, it still works as of now, so I’m getting waybills cranked out. Hopefully a future release of Windows won’t break it.
They must be located in Florida. The tech support dialog lists St. Augustine. I’m going to try the email, but I’ve heard from other previously that he doesn’t answer them very often. Oh well, the program works, and I’ll use it as long as I can.
Update: there is a discussion over on Groups.io in the Ry-ops-industrialSIG forum. Apparently, the owner may have lost his access to his domain name. So, hopefully this will get sorted out.
That’s what happens when you treat those renewal notices from GoDaddy as spam [:D]
There’s some confusion in previous messages. The domain name may be $20 - but that’s just rights to use that name, that’s not the cost of the web service. I pay $5/mo for my web hosting, but it’s very bare bones and doesn’t offer all the bells and whistles of a fancier provider - but for my simple web page, I don;t need that. I get file storage so I can upload my web pages and images, and it’s linked to my domain name. That’s all I need. Really, that’s all a LOT of people need - it’s not difficult to make a web site. What’s difficult is to make a fancy one, full of creative graphics. I don;t need that - I’m basically blogging about my layout build and use it to host my pictures to post here and some other places. Can’t beat it for $5/mo (and that’s the second tier service from y provider, there is a cheaper option! As well as higher packages that add some of the other features).
Yeah, my web site looks a bit old-fashioned (though when I look at one of the first sites I ever built, for my old employer, available through the Wayback Machine archives, it’s actually pretty good. I’m no graphic artist, but I’m just trying to convey some information, not be as flashy as possible to attract customers to buy something.
–Randy
I tried (6/15/2022)to log on to the Shenandoah Software website (shenware.com) andwas likewise unsuccessful. Searching online, I found out that Peter White was 85 a year or two ago. It also seems that Joe Fugate
(Publisher, Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine) has instructions on downloading
(https://groups.io/g/Ry-ops-industrialSIG/topic/shenware_software_contact/87954714?p=)
I haven’t tried it yet, but I have close to 1000 cars loaded from a few years ago and hope I can still access the data.