diff --git a/WHATSNEW b/WHATSNEW
index 89a3e7b37..dd88af060 100644
--- a/WHATSNEW
+++ b/WHATSNEW
@@ -17,10 +17,11 @@ Changes that could break older environments:
    should instead be changed to use resource collections like:
 
    <delete>
-   	 <fileset dir="/foo/bar/" includes="*.something"/> 
+   	 <fileset dir="/foo/bar/" includes="*.something"/>
    </delete>
 
-
+ * Commons Net 3.6 is binary-code, but not source compatible;
+   see change list of Commons Net 3.0 for details
 
 Fixed bugs:
 -----------
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ Fixed bugs:
    Bugzilla Report 58683
 
  * Improvement to the Zip task for reduced memory usage in certain
-   cases. Thanks to Glen Lewis for reporting the issue and 
+   cases. Thanks to Glen Lewis for reporting the issue and
    suggesting the fix.
    Bugzilla Report 19516
 
@@ -105,11 +106,14 @@ Other changes:
 
  * Updated Maven Ant Tasks, Jakarta Regexp and JUnit 4 to the latest
    stable version (2.1.3, 1.4, and 4.12 respectively); updated
-   Java Mail API, JRuby and Jython to the latest Java 5 compatible
-   version (1.5.6, 1.6.8 and 2.5.3, respectively); added resolve target
-   for AntUnit to facilitate updates.
+   JRuby to the latest Java 5 compatible version (1.6.8); added
+   resolve target for AntUnit to facilitate updates.
    Github Pull Request #50
 
+ * Updated Java Mail API, Jython, Rhino and Commons Net to the latest
+   stable version (1.6.0, 2.7.0, 1.7.7.2 and 3.6, respectively).
+   Github Pull Request #53
+
 Changes from Ant 1.10.0 TO Ant 1.10.1
 =====================================
 
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index c2e630eec..a2ff45dcf 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -449,15 +449,9 @@
     <available property="bcel.present"
                classname="org.apache.bcel.Constants"
                classpathref="classpath" ignoresystemclasses="${ignoresystemclasses}"/>
-
-    <condition property="javamail.complete">
-      <and>
-        <available classname="javax.activation.DataHandler"
-          classpathref="classpath"/>
-        <available classname="javax.mail.Transport"
-          classpathref="classpath" ignoresystemclasses="${ignoresystemclasses}"/>
-      </and>
-    </condition>
+    <available property="javamail.present"
+               classname="javax.mail.Transport"
+               classpathref="classpath" ignoresystemclasses="${ignoresystemclasses}"/>
 
     <condition property="tests.and.ant.share.classloader">
       <or>
@@ -582,7 +576,7 @@
             <selector refid="needs.apache-log4j" unless="log4j.present"/>
             <selector refid="needs.commons-logging" unless="commons.logging.present"/>
             <selector refid="needs.apache-bsf" unless="bsf.present"/>
-            <selector refid="needs.javamail" unless="javamail.complete"/>
+            <selector refid="needs.javamail" unless="javamail.present"/>
             <selector refid="needs.netrexx" unless="netrexx.present"/>
             <selector refid="needs.commons-net" unless="commons.net.present"/>
             <selector refid="needs.antlr" unless="antlr.present"/>
diff --git a/lib/libraries.properties b/lib/libraries.properties
index 131d140ab..3d8cdef69 100644
--- a/lib/libraries.properties
+++ b/lib/libraries.properties
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ bcel.version=6.2
 bsf.version=2.4.0
 bsh.version=2.0b4
 bsh-core.version=${bsh.version}
-commons-net.version=1.4.1
+commons-net.version=3.6
 commons-logging.version=1.1
 commons-logging-api.version=${commons-logging.version}
 hamcrest-core.version=1.3
@@ -48,16 +48,13 @@ jakarta-regexp.version=1.4
 # Later versions of Tomcat provide a jspc task
 jasper-compiler.version=4.1.36
 jasper-runtime.version=${jasper-compiler.version}
-# Later versions are built with Java 7
-javax.mail-api.version=1.5.6
+javax.mail-api.version=1.6.0
 jdepend.version=2.9.1
-# Later versions are built with Java 7
 jruby.version=1.6.8
 junit.version=4.12
-# Later versions are built with Java 6
-rhino.version=1.7R5
+rhino.version=1.7.7.2
 jsch.version=0.1.54
-jython.version=2.5.3
+jython.version=2.7.0
 # log4j 1.2.15 requires JMS and a few other Sun jars that are not in the m2 repo
 log4j.version=1.2.14
 oro.version=2.0.8
diff --git a/src/etc/poms/ant-commons-net/pom.xml b/src/etc/poms/ant-commons-net/pom.xml
index 7e0100585..b8f9470f5 100644
--- a/src/etc/poms/ant-commons-net/pom.xml
+++ b/src/etc/poms/ant-commons-net/pom.xml
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/ma
     <dependency>
       <groupId>commons-net</groupId>
       <artifactId>commons-net</artifactId>
-      <version>1.4.1</version>
+      <version>3.6</version>
       <scope>compile</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
diff --git a/src/etc/poms/ant-javamail/pom.xml b/src/etc/poms/ant-javamail/pom.xml
index 0164fbadd..d782bd1b8 100644
--- a/src/etc/poms/ant-javamail/pom.xml
+++ b/src/etc/poms/ant-javamail/pom.xml
@@ -47,13 +47,7 @@ xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/ma
     <dependency>
       <groupId>javax.mail</groupId>
       <artifactId>javax.mail-api</artifactId>
-      <version>1.5.6</version>
-      <scope>compile</scope>
-    </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <groupId>javax.activation</groupId>
-      <artifactId>activation</artifactId>
-      <version>1.1</version>
+      <version>1.6.0</version>
       <scope>compile</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies> 
diff --git a/src/etc/poms/ant-jdepend/pom.xml b/src/etc/poms/ant-jdepend/pom.xml
index bb7199724..47b03e515 100644
--- a/src/etc/poms/ant-jdepend/pom.xml
+++ b/src/etc/poms/ant-jdepend/pom.xml
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>jdepend</groupId>
       <artifactId>jdepend</artifactId>
-      <version>2.7</version>
+      <version>2.9.1</version>
       <scope>compile</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
diff --git a/src/etc/poms/ant-launcher/pom.xml b/src/etc/poms/ant-launcher/pom.xml
index 36e2a6ff5..fcce5a60a 100644
--- a/src/etc/poms/ant-launcher/pom.xml
+++ b/src/etc/poms/ant-launcher/pom.xml
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@
           <includes>
             <include>org/apache/tools/ant/launch/*.java</include>
           </includes>
-
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
     </plugins>