About WhatRoute

History
WhatRoute was originally developed in 1996, to run under MacOS 7.5.3 using the (at the time) newly released Open Transport TCP/IP stack. There was no other software for the Macintosh that could perform Traceroute or Ping, although the functionality was provided on both Windows 95 and Unix platforms. How embarassing was that? WhatRoute was the first piece of software to bring these networking utilities to the Macintosh

In 2001, Apple released MacOS 9 and included WhatRoute with that release of the operating system.

With the Unix based MacOS X, Apple released a native application, Network Utility, that could perform most of the functions provided by Whatroute.

However, following requests from many users, the software has once more been updated and is now available as a Universal Binary Application. Intel x86 is the 3rd major hardware architecture that WhatRoute has supported (previously Motorola 68K and Power PC) and of course there has also been a major change in the software environment from MacOS Classic to the current Unix based macOS Sierra.

About Bryan Christianson

Biography
Bryan Christianson has been a software developer since 1981, although he first learned to program some 10 years earlier while studying Engineering at the University of Auckland, New Zealand

He acquired his first Macintosh computer in 1986 (Mac Plus) and began to learn what it was like to work on a personal computer, all his previous experience having been with Burroughs (now Unisys) mainframe machines.

He became interested in the networking issues associated with computers when the company for whom he was working in the late 1980's deployed a largish (1000+ nodes) private network. This led to attempts to develop ping software for the Mac and sometime later he realized the need for traceroute functionality. Fortunately Apple had included a TCP/IP stack in MacOS 7.5 that was capable of sending raw packets through its network interfaces and so WhatRoute was born.

During the late 1990's and early parts of the new millenium, Bryan worked for an ISP in New Zealand, developing software for the encapsulation of IP packets within MPEG2 frames for transmission via geo-stationary satellites - bringing affordable high speed internet to New Zealand.

In addition to his skills as a software engineer, Bryan is an accomplished 5 string banjo player. He plays banjo for, and has recorded an album with, the New Zealand based Bluegrass group, Wires and Wood. He has also produced and released his own album entitled Beyond Dark Hollow. He also plays banjo for bluegrasscountryswing band The Remarkables and features on 5 string banjo with Beverley and the Clench Mountain Boys.