I noticed a large number of ERROR_BAD_MATRIX entries on and off in the Sniffer log. What is going on?

There's nothing I can think of that would cause a file to become corrupted, so most likely it's a bad download - especially since the problem goes away after a while and since the BAD_MATRIX errors are clumped together.

SNFServer will reject a bad rulebase and keep running with the old one. So, if somehow a bad rulebase shows up then SNFServer won't crash... it will keep trying to get a new rulebase with the getRulebase script until it is successful. By default it will try about once every 3 minutes if it's not initially successful.

However, once SNFServer is down for any reason, it will refuse to start without a good rulebase file to work with.

The SNFClient utility can only attempt to ask SNFServer to scan a message -- it can't do it by itself. If SNFClient is not able to contact SNFServer and get a good answer then it will create SNFClient.exe.err to explain the problem and will return 0 to the calling program -- It returns 0 as a fail-safe so that the messages will go through. Better to allow all messages through than to block any good messages by mistake. This would explain the extra spam getting through.

On a well functioning system, there should [almost] never be an SNFClient.exe.err file. I say [almost] because things happen from time to time on every system.

However, if you see a .err message, check it out. If they persist - something is wrong.

If you try to start SNFServer and it is unhappy, then download a fresh rulebase first (http://www.sortmonster.net/Sniffer/Updates/<Your SNF License id>.snf). It's usually a good quick-fix.

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