PingPlotter version 3.20.1 is available in both Standard and Pro editions, and fixes a few "oddities" and improves a few things.

For more details, see the release notes for PingPlotter Pro 3.20.1p or PingPlotter Standard 3.20.1s.

Download either edition from our download page.

Here is a short list of changes (non-complete):

• Missing or wrong DNS names now use a more friendly "Balloon" popup rather than a full error dialog.
• Fixed right-click popup menu on edit controls.
• DNS Name and Graph columns now get their widths remembered on close/restart.
• Fixed STARTTLS (e.g., Gmail) SMTP alerts.
• More...

These upgrades are free for anyone with a corresponding license (Standard licensees get the Standard edition, Pro licensees get the Pro edition). You can also take this opportunity to upgrade your Standard license(s) to Pro using our upgrade page.

Finally!

It's been a while coming, but 3.20 released today, in both Standard and Pro editions. If you don't care about what's new, but just want the latest, visit the download page now.

Here's a brief list of some of the many features in this release:

• Much better Windows Vista support.
• Can run from a USB drive.
• New UDP packet type can target a specific UDP port (using Echo, UDP DNS and Asterisk VoIP protocols).
• Graphic/UI improvements.
• Alert system improvements.
• Better web interface for Pro - and it works on the iPhone.
• Bug fixes.
• More...

For more details, see the release notes for PingPlotter Pro 3.20s or PingPlotter Standard 3.20s.

These upgrades are free for anyone with a corresponding license (Standard licensees get the Standard edition, Pro licensees get the Pro edition). You can also take this opportunity to upgrade your Standard license(s) to Pro using our upgrade page.

We've just released new beta versions of PingPlotter Standard and PingPlotter Pro - version 3.15 beta 3. Here are a list of some of the features:

Short list of changes since last beta:

• Improved Vista support
• Fixed bug in alert system
• Piles of small tweaks and fixes.
• Code-signed install packages.
• Improvements to remote tracing (Pro only).
• Improvements to web interface (Pro only).
• More, of course.

New features in Standard and Pro since the last full release:

• New port-targeted UDP packet type
• Runs from a USB drive
• Better Windows Vista support
• More ... (of course!)

In addition, the Standard edition has gotten some user interface updates (that already existed in Pro), and the Pro edition has gotten some improvements to the web interface.

More information and download instructions are available in the release notes:

Pro edition: PingPlotter Pro 3.15p beta 3 release notes or ...

Standard edition: PingPlotter Standard 3.15s beta 3 release notes

This beta is open to everyone who has a license for that edition (i.e., Standard license holders can access the Standard version; Pro license holders can access the Pro or Standard version). When released, these upgrades will be free to users with the appropriate license.

We've just released new beta versions of PingPlotter Standard and PingPlotter Pro - version 3.15 beta 1. Here are a list of some of the features:

New features in Standard and Pro:

• New port-targeted UDP packet type
• Runs from a USB drive
• Better Windows Vista support
• More ... (of course!)

In addition, the Standard edition has gotten some user interface updates (that already existed in Pro), and the Pro edition has gotten some improvements to the web interface.

More information and download instructions are available in the release notes:

Pro edition: PingPlotter Pro 3.15p beta 1 release notes or ...

Standard edition: PingPlotter Standard 3.15s beta 1 release notes

This beta is open to everyone who has a license for that edition (i.e., Standard license holders can access the Standard version; Pro license holders can access the Pro version). When released, these upgrades will be free to users with the appropriate license.

Windows Vista is being released tomorrow, and you might be wondering if PingPlotter (Standard and Pro) and MultiPing will work with Vista. The answer to this is "Yes!", but there are a few things that aren't quite perfect. If you're having problems with Vista, or you're just interested in checking compatibility, we've created a knowledge base article that covers this.

We've released a new version of MultiPing, version 2.00.1, which solves a couple of problems found in the 2.00.0 release.

Version 2.00.1 is available from the MultiPing download page. The list of changes can be seen in the release notes.

The MultiPing update can be installed on top of any currently installed version, without uninstalling it first (although you will need to close MultiPing, if it's currently running). All licensed users of MultiPing 1.x or 2.x get a free upgrade to this version, and your existing license key will be used - there is no need to reenter.

We've just released MultiPing version 2.00.0, with a bunch of great new features and changes, including:

• Collected data is now saved with your workspaces. Closing and restarting will now show data that was collected in the previous session.
• Customizable alert email messages (better for pagers and mobile phone alerts).
• Time graphs can now be sorted to match the target list graph.
• New option to prompt or minimize to tray instead of closing if "X" button is hit.
• Can now rename a target that's being monitored.
• Lots more!

For more details, see the MultiPing release notes.

MultiPing 2.00.0 is a free upgrade for a licensed users of MultiPing.

Grab the latest release now from the MultiPing download page.

PingPlotter Pro 3.10.0p, just released, has a great collection of new features and fixes (see the release notes for details). Here's a sampling of changes:

• The remote trace capabilities have been significantly enhanced.
• The web interface can now be set to read only.
• The named configuration in use for a target can now be displayed on the summary screen (and other areas).
• Added some right-click menu options.
• Significantly improved reliability of scripted events and extensions.
• Fixed bug when running web interface under Windows 2003 with IIS (this didn't work with 3.00.2p).
• Lots of other changes and tweaks.

PingPlotter Pro 3.10.0p is a free upgrade for anyone with a PingPlotter Pro 3.x license. It's also available as a 30 day trial, for those interested in checking out its capabilities.

Download 3.10.0p from the download page. There is no need to uninstall your current version.

Current PingPlotter Standard (a.k.a PingPlotter 2.60) and MultiPing users interested in upgrading to PingPlotter Pro can see details on our upgrade page.

We're coming down the home stretch towards PingPlotter Pro version 3.10. Hopefully, this will be the last beta.

We've ironed out a good handful of issues since the last beta. For more details, see the beta page. As usual, this beta requires a valid PingPlotter Pro license key.

We've also added a new "extensions" forum and started a little collection of PingPlotter Pro extensions. Most of these only run on the latest betas (due to some changes in beta 9).

The remote Windows agent hasn't changed since beta 8. If you're using an older beta / agent, though, please update from here:

http://www.pingplotterpro.com/remote_trace.html

We welcome any comments or feedback that you might have.

We had a drive failure tonight on our web server, and our sites (www.nessoft.com, www.pingplotter.com and www.multiping.com) were inaccessible for a couple of hours. Having a reliable backup strategy is a good thing!

Sorry for any inconvenience anyone might have experienced.

One of the basic capabilities of the PingPlotter Pro V3.0 release was the ability to source a traceroute from a different server. The 3.0 release only supported UNIX servers for the remote "agent" machines, though.

We recently released a beta of PingPlotter Pro and a Windows-based agent that allows you to source a PingPlotter trace from either a Windows or a UNIX server. This means you can run PingPlotter Pro on your machine and include traceroutes from one (or more) machines running elsewhere.

We use this here to trace from our FreeBSD server back to us - and at the same time trace from our offices back to our server (hosted externally).

This capability requires the latest PingPlotter Pro beta, available here:

http://www.pingplotterpro.com/beta.html

The remote agent software and instructions are available here:

http://www.pingplotterpro.com/remote_trace.html

This beta also includes a few other changes - see the release notes for full details.

Note: This beta release requires a PingPlotter Pro license!

We recently wrote a guide on how to troubleshoot your Voice over IP connection using PingPlotter. This has a bunch of examples, interpretations of results, plus other guidance (much of which is helpful beyond the VoIP domain). Check it out at http://www.pingplotter.com/tutorial/VoipTroubleshooting.html.

We also added a search engine to our PingPlotter.com and Nessoft.com sites. Each page has a search box for easy availability, or you can access it at http://www.nessoft.com/search.html. The search engine indexes the Nessoft.com site, the PingPlotter.com site, all of our forum posts, knowledge base articles and the Getting Started Guide.

We just released a bugfix for PingPlotter Pro, including the following changes:

• An access violation would occur at startup if using an operating system and CPU that supported DEP (for more information about DEP, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352).
• Trying to remove PingPlotter as a windows service when running as a windows service caused problems. This now shows an appropriate error message.
• If the windows service failed to start, it would sometimes log no errors. Errors are now logged and shown in this situation.
• When resizing the main form, then minimizing or maximizing, the resize wouldn't be saved on close.
• The "Save data on shutdown, reload on startup" switch only disabled saving, not loading. Loading always happened - now switch is honored.
• The summary screen didn't show script-based columns (ie: Jitter, Std Dev, MoS).
• On some computers, CPU use was higher than it should be.
• A couple of other minor updates / fixes.

Download 3.00.2 from the download page. There is no need to uninstall your current version.

We found a problem with the Trial version of PingPlotter Pro recently released, so we've released a new version that addresses only this problem - 3.00.1p. If you're a licensed user, you will notice no differences in this version. If you previously downloaded the 3.00 trial and you're wondering why it doesn't have some of the advertised features, update to this version.

In addition, we're having some reports of people having problems when running a CPU with DEP built in *and* with it enabled in their operating system (Windows XP or Windows 2003 server only). If you're getting access violations when starting PingPlotter Pro, and there's no way to trace to a target, then try adding an exclusion for PingPlotter Pro in your DEP protection settings.

The Microsoft site has more information on DEP here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352

As soon as we determine what's happening here, we'll work on getting a fix out that doesn't require this workaround.

We just released PingPlotter Pro, a version of PingPlotter targeted at network professionals and those who need more than what the standard PingPlotter delivers.

PingPlotter Pro has been in the works for a long time (too long to say!), and we’re really excited about the new capabilities. Here is a summary of a few of the most anticipated features:

• Multiple targets can be traced in a tabbed user interface, all collecting data concurrently.
• Different targets can use different engine settings (ie: TCP ports, packet types, etc).
• Multiple targets are summarized on a “summary screen” that looks similar to MultiPing (sortable, with time graphs available for each).
• Can run as a native Windows service on Windows 2000, XP and 2003.
• Integrated web server can be accessed remotely. Can also use IIS if that works better in your environment.
• Jitter and MOS columns and graphing to enhance Voice over IP troubleshooting.
• Lots and lots of little “tweaks”, user interface enhancements and customization points.
• More, of course!

PingPlotter Pro is available immediately for an introductory price of $149.95 (a $50.00 discount from list price). Existing licensees of PingPlotter or MultiPing are entitled to a discount (details available here).

PingPlotter Pro is not a replacement for PingPlotter standard. We are currently working on a new version 3.0 of PingPlotter standard (the next release of the existing 2.60 version). When that releases, all current owners of PingPlotter 2.x will get a free upgrade to that version.

For more details on this release, see the PingPlotter Pro page and the release notes. A 30 day trial version of PingPlotter Pro is available here.

We're currently in the beta testing phase of a new "Pro" version of PingPlotter (currently called PingPlotter Pro v2.70, but will be PingPlotter Pro v3.0 when released). We're still fine tuning the feature set for the final release, but here are some of the major features it will include:

• Multiple targets in a single instance
• Web interface
• Built in script engine for customization
• Runs as a native Windows service
• Jitter and MoS calculations for VoIP troubleshooting
• Ability to collect trace data from a remote server
• Lots and lots more

If you're a licensed user of PingPlotter or MultiPing and are interested in helping us test this version, please contact us at beta@pingplotter.com. You'll want to let us know how much time and effort you think you'll have to devote to testing, and how you think you'll be able to contribute to making this new version of PingPlotter a better, solid product.

Please understand that applying for this test does not guarantee that you'll be selected for participation.

PingPlotter Pro will be released later this year for an estimated retail price of $199.00 US. Current PingPlotter and MultiPing users will, of course, get a special upgrade price.

We've recently done some updates to our Getting Started Guide. This is a great introduction to the value of PingPlotter, plus hands-on examples of how to use it.

In addition, we've been working on beefing up our searchable support system and knowledge base, adding some topics like What's "Normal" for latency and packet loss and others.

Congratulations to James Gentry Jr., the second and final winner of our customer testimonial contest! James has won himself not just a measly t-shirt, but a fine Polo shirt with the Nessoft logo finely stitched on the front. If that weren't enough, it also has the Nessoft slogan "See the Network, Pinpoint the Problem" on the sleeve. Suitable for any occasion, we're talking one nice shirt here...

Got a story to share about PingPlotter or MultiPing? Send it to us and we'll put it up on our Testimonial page. If it really wows us - you too could win some fine Nessoft swag!

Happy Valentine's day!

We just released version 2.60 of PingPlotter, which includes a number of major features and changes. A sampling of those changes is here:

• PingPlotter can now do a TCP traceroute, in addition to UDP and ICMP, giving you another option to ping that host that's blocking other types.
• Enhanced alert functionality, including editable alert email bodies and additional visual indicators.
• New "Getting Started" splash screen and Getting Started Guide.
• New, easier to use, more powerful options dialog.
• More, of course!

For a full list of changes, see our release notes.
To download 2.60 now, visit our download page.

As usual, this is a free update for all users with PingPlotter licenses.

Update - January 4, 2005
We only had one winner for the testimonial contest, and that was Hans Weilenmann from Netherlands. Congratulations Hans! His shirt goes in the post tomorrow.

Due to the holidays, and most people worried more about shopping than getting an entry in before the deadline, we're extending the contest deadline until late February. So get your entry in before February 20, 2005 and win some fine Nessoft swag!

Instructions on how to enter are below.
_______________________________________________
Share your PingPlotter or MultiPing success story and win a Nessoft polo shirt!

Do you have an amazing success story about a Nessoft product? Have you helped your ISP by sending it a PingPlotter graph showing their support where a problem is? Do you amaze your peers by monitoring all of your servers with MultiPing, generating an alert when a connection to one of those machines is poor and then pinpointing where that connection problem is with PingPlotter? How about single-handedly saving the economy of a small country with either MultiPing or PingPlotter (or both)? Ok, maybe that last one's a stretch...

Send us your story (we're planning to add some of those stories to our testimonials page) and you'll be entered in a drawing where you could win a Nessoft polo shirt! We're not talking a cheapo polo shirt either, but one with the Nessoft logo finely stitched on the front plus the Nessoft slogan "See the Network, Pinpoint the Problem" on the sleeve.

Any MultiPing or PingPlotter user is eligible to enter. We'll be drawing testimonials at random on January 3, 2005, with the winners posted on the nessoft.com news page on January 4th. The deadline to enter is December 31, 2004. Send us your success story to contest@nessoft.com and you could begin the new year sporting your own Nessoft swag.

On an unrelated note, we want to point out something we've had available since this past summer - that being the MaP Bundle, our product bundle that includes both MultiPing and PingPlotter at a discounted price. You can check out all the details on the MaP Bundle by visiting the MaP Bundle page.

All of us here at Nessoft want to wish you Happy Holidays, and thank you for your continued support.

We're incrementally getting the PingPlotter Tutorial and Reference Manual site updated with the new features in Version 2.5x. If you haven't been to our tutorial site lately, you really should check it out. We've specifically added new articles in the Interpreting Results section. In particular, the Recognizing Bandwidth Saturation and Service Provider / Bad Hardware scenarios take you step by step through the use of PingPlotter with two more great examples of how to leverage the powerful diagnostic and troubleshooting capabilities of PingPlotter.

As always, we welcome any feedback you may have in regards to the Tutorial in general, as well as feedback on any specific problems you may have solved using PingPlotter, or it's sister product MultiPing. If you have any specific topics you'd like covered within the Tutorial, please pass them along. Any of the above can be sent to support@nessoft.com with a subject line of "Tutorial Feedback".

We've released a new version of MultiPing, which fixes several bugs.

Version 1.01.2 is available from the MultiPing download page. The list of changes can be seen in the release notes.

The MultiPing update can be installed on top of any currently installed version (no need to uninstall). All licensed users get a free upgrade to the latest versions, and your existing license key will be used - there is no need to reenter.

We've released new versions of both our PingPlotter and MultiPing products, primarily consisting of bug fixes.

Version 2.51.1 of PingPlotter is available from the PingPlotter download page. The changes can be seen in the release notes.

Version 1.01.1 of MultiPing is available from the MultiPing download page. The changes can be seen in the release notes.

The updates for either program can be installed on top of any currently installed version (no need to uninstall). All licensed users get a free upgrade to the latest versions, and your existing license key will be used - there is no need to reenter.

Version 2.51 of PingPlotter is complete and available to download for all licensed users, and those wanting to evaluate it.

This release adds support for sending alerts to an email server secured by SMTP AUTH, route change logic improvements, and a variety of other features and bug fixes. For full details of what's included in this release, see the release notes.

To download version 2.51, visit the download page.

If you already have a previous version of PingPlotter installed, there is no need to uninstall it first, you can just install this on top of that version. If you've licened PingPlotter, your existing license key will be used - there is no need to reenter.

PingPlotter 2.50 is now available for both licensed users, and as an evaluation. Licensed users, as always, can update to this version at no cost.

To download version 2.50, visit the PingPlotter download page.

There are a few interesting features and changes in this release. One of the primary new features is the ability to do a traceroute using UDP, rather than ICMP. Some ISPs have started blocking (or limiting) ICMP packets, and UDP packets work in some of these situations.

Another interesting change in this release is an integration between MultiPing (version 1.01 and higher) and PingPlotter. From MultiPing, you can right-click on a target and send the data to PingPlotter for analysis, or you can open PingPlotter and start tracing right from MultiPing.

For a full list of changes, see the revision history.

MultiPing 1.01 offers a number of improvements and fixes based on customer feedback over the last couple of months. We'd like to thank everyone who helped us track down some of these problems and who offered helpful suggestions.

This is a free upgrade for anyone with a MultiPing license, and will upgrade any previous versions of MultiPing.

For a list of changes to this release, see the revision history.

To download this latest release, visit the MultiPing download page.

We just rolled out a new graphic design for the PingPlotter.com site. We also took this opportunity to clean up a number of old graphics and html pages that have been cluttering the place up.

We do have a few changes left to make, but everything should work and should look good in the new format.

If you find any problems (ie: broken links, poorly displayed pages, etc.), or if you have any comments about the new design (either good or bad), please email webmaster@pingplotter.com.

Thank you!

We've had several people complain of not getting emails from us over the last few days. If you're not receiving a response to your email to us, there are several likely reasons for this, including:

• Spam / virus filtering on your email system.
  
• Load on the internet email system due to recent virus activity causing slow delivery.
  

One of the real challenges here is that you may not be getting email from us because something is blocking these emails - and this gives us no way to communicate with you to try and troubleshoot the problem.

Something important to note is that all of the Nessoft sales and support email addresses get logged in an automated system which confirms receipt of initial emails. This means that whenever you send us an email about a new topic (as opposed to replying to an email from us that you already received), our system will email you immediately with a confirmation. If you're not getting that confirmation, then you're likely not going to get our replies either. If you want to make sure we're getting your email, you can try submitting a new ticket via our online support system.

If our email to you is blocked from some reason, make sure you check your spam filter. With spam becoming more and more prevelant, spam filtering is becoming more aggressive. Sometimes, spam filters will incorrectly categorize an email and file it as spam. It's possible that *any* emails may be subject to this problem, including emails from us. If you're not getting emails from us, please check your spam filters.

If you don't receive a confirmation email from us in a reasonable period of time (we send it immediately, but it may take a bit of time to make it back to your system), you might also try contacting us via an alternate email account. Another option is to post your problem on our public forums and we can communicate that way.

Happy New Year!

PingPlotter 2.45 beta 1 is now available. This introduces a number of features, one of the primary ones being UDP ping support. For more details about this beta, please visit our beta page.

Please note that you need a PingPlotter license key to run this version.

If you were previously participating in our UDP test versions, thanks for all the help! This beta version includes everything in that release, plus more.

MultiPing version 1.0 has been released! Visit the MultiPing site for details on this new product, or go directly to the download page if you participated in our beta program.

We would like to thank all of our beta testers and everyone who gave us feedback that made MultiPing what it is today. In particular, we want to thank Larry Marchman for his suggestions from day one, and all his great bug reporting over the development cycle of MultiPing. Larry was really key in the development of MultiPing. Thank you!

As this is a 1.0 release, we expect to do continued development based on your feedback. Send your feedback to support@multiping.com.

We've created a new "corporate" site at www.nessoft.com. This is partly due to the recent beta release of a new product, MultiPing. Let us know what you think by emailing us at comments@nessoft.com.

The Ping Plotter tutorial has been updated to reflect all the changes in the latest version of the trialware product - Version 2.41. Because we're all about service here at Nessoft, we've also updated the PDF version. The tutorial is continually being updated and has some good information, so we suggest you check it out. A direct link is located off of the support section of our site, along with a link to the message boards (which are also a great source of information). As always, if you see any errors or suggestions please pass them along.

Ping Plotter 2.41 now supports saving of graphs in GIF format.

The patent Unisys had on the LZW compression algorithm, and subsequently the GIF graphic format, expired on June 20th, 2003 (yup, just over a week ago folks). Being the proactive folks we are, Ping Plotter now supports the saving of graphs as GIF images, as well as the previously available formats - PNG (which we recommend you use) and BMP.

If you're interested in the list of changes that made it into this release, check the revision history.

Download this version from our download area.

Effective July 1, 2003 there will be a new pricing structure for PingPlotter (see below). Since the first release of PingPlotter shareware almost 5 years ago, PingPlotter's price has remained constant at an insanely low $15.00 US. The features and capabilities of the tool have grown considerably, but the price has stayed the same. Additionally, PingPlotter has always been a bit too cheap, which has sometimes created the perception that PingPlotter is a lower end tool. Current users of PingPlotter know that not to be true. With all of this in mind, we've decided to do a small price increase, partly to offset growing costs (support, marketing, etc.), and partly to finance future development. We are excited about the great products we're planning for the future, some of which are still in the embryonic stage, and others nearing the end of their development cycle.

We pride ourselves in that PingPlotter's unique combination of features - great long-term monitoring graphs, route change detection, and the ability to zoom in on any time period to determine the problem - is a solid value at any price point, let alone our new, extremely inexpensive price of $24.95. As always, we're committed to making sure PingPlotter is a solid value for the money and, of course, we also stay committed to giving our current, and future user base free upgrades to the latest versions as they become available.

New Pricing:
Single Copy	$ 24.95
2 to 4	$ 22.50
5 to 9	$ 19.50
10 to 19	$ 18.00
20 to 49	$ 16.00
50 to 99	$ 15.00
100 and up	$ 12.50
Single Site License(1)	$1,000.00
Multi-Site License(2)	$1,500.00

(1) Covers a single company for unlimited usage within a single location.
(2) Covers a single company for unlimited usage for all locations.

A new version of Ping Plotter has left beta testing and is now available to everyone. We'd like to thank all of our great beta testers for their comments, feedback, and suggestions.

Here is a really short list of some of the new things in this release. See the revision history for a more complete list.

Version 2.40 has these following new features and bug fixes (since 2.30.1):

• Complete re-write of internal engines. Allows some capabilities in this version and lots of cool stuff in the future. Big performance and reliability benefits in the 2.40 release.
  
• Major re-write of alert system. Can now notify when a condition starts, when it ends, or as it is happening. Added the ability to launch an EXE when a condition occurs, and can also change the tray icon or show a message in the tray.
  
• Annotations can be tied to a point in the time graph to show notes. These get saved in all images.
  
• Save files format was changed and now takes up only 5-15% of what it used to (much of this is due to new internal compression).
  
• Can now "Copy as summary text" - shows packet loss % / min/max, etc instead of only showing all the raw data.
  
• Can do some annotation of an IP address in the history window so you can recognize what an IP was for (ie: enter an address of "10.0.0.1 My_Router" will auto-resolve 10.0.0.1 to "My_Router" even if not in a hosts table).
  
• Double-clicking on a hop number now shows/hides the time graph for that hop.
  
• Lots more ... See the the revision history for more details, or go download it now.
  

The online documentation hasn't all been updated yet - we'll be working to get this done over the next few days. If you have questions or problems, please post them over at the support forums.

We're preparing for our 2.40 version release, and are planning to do a mailing to all our licensed users to announce that release. Before doing so, it seemed appropriate to share our privacy policy. Please feel free to contact us with any questions.

Ping Plotter got an Honorable Mention in the December 2002 edition of Microsoft Certified Professional magazine in their "Tools We Can't Live Without" feature. You can read the article here.

The Tutorial and FAQ have been updated. Of particular interest to some may be the information located in the FAQ on diagnosing problems with asynchronous routes. As always, if you see any errors or suggestions please pass them along.

Totally not networking related but... For the past couple of years we've helped sponsor a local stock car here in Boise, Idaho. The end of the season was 9/21/02, and the PingPlotter car (though we're not the sole sponsor...it's the PingPlotter car anyway *grin*) took 9th out of 25 total cars in the class. Congratulations Scott! To check out the Murri Racing site, and see some pictures of the car, you can go to the Murri Racing home page.

The tutorial has been converted into a PDF file for those of you that would like to print a copy. You can grab that file here. The web version is being updated constantly, so please check there first with any questions. There will always be a little lag between the web version and the updating of the Acrobat version, but we'll be doing our best to keep both versions in sync.

We've cleaned up the FAQ. If you've been in there before looking something up, unfortunately it was quite unwieldy (uh, in short it was a mess). As always, if you have comments, suggestions or gripes please drop us a line.

We've been seeing some notable press mentions for the shareware version of Ping Plotter lately. We were in Lockernome last month, University of Oregon's Computing News for Fall 2001, the September edition of Law Technology News and the December edition of Windows 2000 Magazine. Pretty cool stuff.

Since the release of the shareware version of Ping Plotter (in 1998), we've not done any updates for the freeware version. This has now changed, however, with the release of Ping Plotter version 1.10 Freeware.

The new freeware version sports a significant re-engineer of its internals, bringing it up to date with the shareware version. There have also been a few handy new features added.

If you're interested in new features in the latest freeware version, check out the release notes. If you're interested in seeing the differences between the freeware and shareware versions, check out the feature comparison. If you're looking to download the latest version of either the shareware or freeware versions, go to the download page.

Version 2.30.1 (available in the download section) has the following new features:

This is primarily a bug fix, including the following:

• Slow load times when running Norton Antivirus Auto-Protect fixed.
  
• Some routes (mostly when the next to the last hop wasn't responding, but the last hop was) would cause Ping Plotter to blue-screen under Windows 95/98/ME.
  
• Alerts sometimes didn't fire correctly if the visible graph was selecting a route that wasn't the current route.
  
• Alert e-mails had a date of 1899 instead of current date.
  
• Alert e-mails were being introduced to the SMTP server without a from line, so a very select few SMTP servers would reject.
  
• If the final destination wasn't in the route because of a route lengthening (and the final destination stopped responding at the same time), alerts on that hop wouldn't always fire.
  
• /save command line option didn't work correctly.
  
• The focus rectangle sometimes didn't draw on the lower graph when focused on a non-current period. This is now corrected.
  
• List index out of bound error when doing a text export under certain conditions.
  
• This version has been tested with Windows XP RC2. Since that operating system isn't released yet, we can't promise that everything will work well, but our preliminary tests look good.

Ping Plotter 2.30 has received a 10 Gearteeth out of 10, plus commendation, in Network World Magazine's Gearhead column! Check out the article here.

The next release of Ping Plotter is now available. Download the shareware version, or update your registered version at the Ping Plotter Download Site.

Version 2.30 has the following new features and bug fixes (since 2.20):

• The timeline graphs now show packet loss percentages. This adds information to time periods greater than a few hours (where it used to just show that there was at least one packet lost), and can help show trending quite a bit better. If you prefer the old style graphs, hold down the shift key while right clicking on a timeline graph and enable "Old style timeline graphs".
  
• Packet loss percentages can now be shown on the upper graph.
  
• Added ability to turn on/off min/max lines on the upper graph. This can help during long term monitoring where a single bad response could change the scale of the entire graph.
  
• The lower timeline graphs can now be scrolled using ALT-LEFT, ALT-RIGHT, ALT-HOME, ALT-END, ALT-PGUP, ALT-PGDN. These keys work when the upper graph is selected (because the lower graphs don't actually accept focus). Clicking on the lower graph will focus the upper graph.
  
• The lower timeline graphs now resize based on their current size when adding a new graph - rather than resizing to 65 pixels always.
  
• Added an option to use high performance timers when tracing. This increases the accuracy when using Windows NT/2000 - where the best accuracy reported by ICMP.DLL is 10 ms.
  
• Added ARIN Block IP lookups to see who owns an IP address. This works even if the IP doesn't resolve to a name.
  
• All Open/Save dialogs have been updated to have the "Places" bar for Windows 2000/ME users.
  
• Added automatic version checking. Ping Plotter will now check to see if there's an update available and let you know if there is.
  
• Added support for multiple INI files. This is useful when you automatically start multiple instances of Ping Plotter and want the output to be different between instances.
  
• Added "zooming" logic so when you decrease the time shown in the timeline graph it tries to keep your selected time period in focus. This can be useful to focus in on a period in the 48 hour graph, and then zoom down to the 30 minute (or similar) graph to see the period in more detail.
  
• Changed the alert system to no longer use averages. Averages were hard to understand in the context of lost packets, and in all cases we reviewed, the alternate method was superior.
  
• Added ability to change the Subject line in alert e-mail messages. $host can be included to show the final destination.
  
• Exporting to text files was substantially improved.
  
• Can ping only the final destination (rather than tracing all hops between you and the final destination). While this turns off some of the core functionality of Ping Plotter, it can be handy if you're using alerts, or only want to graph performance to the final destination and don’t want to use the extra bandwidth required to trace the intermediate hops
  
• Registration codes are now validate against a server database. See here for more details on this.
  
• Changing packet cargo options now take affect immediately.
  
• Stability improvements (as always). Several access violations fixed; a problem with save files was fixed; Improved alert reliability; minor graph overdraw no longer happens; PNG files now come out with better color; WhoIs processing cleaned up a bit; Minimizing to the tray works more reliably (including improved tray "click" behavior).

John Gillett posted a really good article about Ping and Trace Route for Speedcorp.net. It has some great theory - and talks about Ping Plotter as well. It's a pretty good read - so if you're curious about how Ping, Trace Route, and Ping Plotter do their thing, you might check out that article!

Note added December, 2003: Speedcorp.net seems to be defunct now. Planetquake republished the article, which is what is linked above.

Version 2.2 (available in the download section) has the following new features:

• Route changes are now handled, and all history is stored with the route that it was recorded on. This means you can see that your ISP (or someone in the route) changed the route to correct a problem (or make things worse!). Ping Plotter keeps track of all the routes for as long as you like. Additionally, certain route changes can be excluded so normal changes aren’t flagged or logged.
  
• You're now able to specify the maximum number of samples you want to keep in memory. This will allow tracing sessions of unlimited length (you'll no longer run out of memory after 2 weeks of hard non-stop tracing).
  
• You can now "Save as Image" (instead of having to copy it to the clipboard and use another application to make the image). Supported file formats are .PNG and .BMP. (Before you ask: JPG is way too lossy for concise text/line based graphics, and GIF is owned by Unisys and requires a license to deploy).
  
• You can now schedule your data to be automatically saved (at interval). The file name can include any portion of the date/time plus the host name so you can keep nice history files (use this with the maximum in-memory sample count to keep data around forever)
  
• You can now schedule an image to be automatically saved (at interval). You might use this to keep an intranet page current, just keep nice images of history. These can be saved in PNG or BMP format.
  
• Double clicking an entry in the history list now automatically starts tracing to that address.
  
• Trace name/address now shows on taskbar title to distinguish multiple running copies.
  
• The .PPS file extension has been retired in favor of .PP2. Microsoft PowerPoint used the PPS extension, and in cases like this, they win. This extension can be overridden manually in your .INI file as well if you find that .PP2 interferes with some application youlre using.
  
• Re-associating with the .PP2 extension now prompts before happening if it's already associated with something else.
  
• Changed WhoIS parsing to better parse new Internic output. Also updated to better work under Windows 2000.
  
• Changed lower "time line graph" so that dropped packets don't automatically make the bar full height - if some good samples are included in that single-pixel time period, then the bar is the correct height for the good samples.
  
• Entering an IP address (as opposed to a name) now starts tracing immediately (before the IP is resolved into a name). The name shows as (resolving) until the request is complete.
  
• Misc. bug fixes including Alert system e-mail fix, high rate data loss, some settings not saving on exit, registration routines work better on NT if you don't have admin access, restoring from tray refreshes the timeline graph.
  
• Free upgrade to all registered users.
  

After some problems with CIHost, we've moved to a new home at the Pair networks. So far, their staff has been very helpful - and there's a whole bunch of documentation on how to set things up. Two thumbs up for Pair so far.

If you notice any problems (broken links, etc), please send them to webmaster@nessoft.com.

Also, www.pingplotter.com is working well now. Most links will be updated to point directly there as we update
documentation, etc. over the next few months.

In an attempt to improve on areas where help is needed, I've contracted with someone (Jeff Murri) to help out in a few areas, namely: marketing, sales, and web design. He's just getting started, so don't expect to see any drastic changes too soon, but this will hopefully get some good stuff going on here. He's also making sure we get a new release out soon. You can contact him at jeff@nessoft.com. Welcome aboard, Jeff!

There are now public support forums open to ask questions or post suggestions. Messages posted here are automatically sent to support, so response times should be the same as with directly e-mailing support.

Hopefully, this will enable some information sharing - and allow people to have their questions answered before they even ask .

Visit the forums now!

This version is *mostly* a bug fix version. It includes the following changes:

Bugs Fixed

Fixed case sensitivity on registration code bug.
Fixed occasional access violation when tracing
Fixed occasional lockup under Win95
Fixed so DNS name doesn't ever return your own computer's name when a hop times out.
Fixed so DNS lookups always happens - even if the first hop times out.
Fixed the alert system so it works correctly now. Alert system is much more reliable.
Fixed the alert system so more than one alert can be tied to any IP address
Fixed problem where saving a sample set would sometimes not work (when there was no DNS name).
Minor changes to registration code system.
Fixed "Sample Index too High" error when exporting to text file.

New Features

Export to text file now allows exporting with the samples in rows rather than columns (to overcome Excel's 255 column limit).

Version 2.0 of Ping Plotter introduces a bunch of great new features. Among them are:

• Will graph single hops (from one to all) from your trace over time - and display them on a graph. This graph can be resized, rescaled, zoomed, dragged and manipulated to give you exactly the information you need to find the problem.
  
• New "Alert" system. This will allow you to set parameters where you want to be notified of the condition. If the conditions fire an alert, you can log that data to a text file, play a wave file, or send yourself e-mail with the pertinent information included.
  
• You can save and load sample sets - and then resume (right-click the trace button when you have existing data and you're not tracing) the trace. This way you can have multiple sessions of data in the same graph.
  
• Exporting to comma delimited text file for use with external programs (Excel) is supported.
  
• You can now "Fix" the graph scale to a specific size so that bad hops don't cause all valid points to be resized into a tiny graph.
  
• The icon can be moved from the taskbar to the tool tray for long-term monitoring projects.
  
• You can ignore 1-5 of the first hops in your trace (as opposed to the 1 that version 1.00.2 supported).
  
• Round Trip time is now shown below the last hop. This time is exactly the same as the last hop, but many people asked what the round trip time was, so I included it to make things easier for people to understand.
  
• All columns of the graph are now resizable.
  
• The numbers for min and max time are now displayable on the upper graph (right-click the graph).
  
• An option has been added so that Ping Plotter works better under NT 3.51 (under Advanced options, "Use non-threaded name lookups"). This is automatically turned on when installed under NT 3.51.
  
• Timeout time and "attack rates" (time Ping Plotter waits between sending out requests for each hop - this was 25ms in 1.00.2, but really bad connections might need to make this longer) can be customized.
  
• Ping Plotter 2.0 uses significantly fewer resources while tracing.
  
• Limited whois functionality is included. Right now, it only queries the Internic server - a future release may expand on this based on requests.
  
• The "Copy as Image" feature includes more information and looks nicer.
  
• This version will be shareware - and will cost $15.00 to register. The unregistered version will allow you to use all these features to evaluate, but will include "reminder" notices to encourage people to register. The current freeware version will remain freeware and will remain available to those that prefer it.
  
• More (what feature list would be complete without the ubiquitous "More" feature?).