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PingPlotter Pro version 3.20.1p release notes
PingPlotter Pro V3.20.1p - December 12th, 2007
Click here to visit the 3.20.1p download page now.
This release is a minor point release and is free to all licensed users of PingPlotter Pro version 3.x.
Changes
- Fixed non-working right-click menu on edit controls (for copy/paste with the mouse).
- Added balloon callout instead of error message if no target name was entered, or if the entered name was invalid.
- Enhanced scripting functionality slightly to give access to more internal variables.
- Fixed problem "remembering" non-standard whois servers.
- Invalid characters in target names would cause problems when trying to save data / images (for example, a colon or a slash). These characters are now stripped from the default filename before opening the save dialog.
- DNS Name and Graph column widths are now correctly reloaded after close / restart.
- Sending data or an image in an email through Outlook Express (File -> Send Email...) would sometimes block PingPlotter from collecting data while the email was being authored. This is now launched in a non-blocking way.
- Fixed a problem sending STARTTLS alert emails (i.e., gmail).
- Misc other minor tweaks, fixes and adjustments.
To upgrade, download run the installation. There is no need to uninstall the old version first. Your settings should be kept / migrated as needed.
PingPlotter Pro V3.20p - November 16th, 2007
This release has a number of new features and bug fixes. This is a free upgrade for all licensed PingPlotter Pro users.
New Features
- PingPlotter can now be run from a USB drive and license information (and other data) is stored on the USB drive instead of the system registry. See the installed help file (Help -> Contents) section "Advanced Features", "Running from a USB drive" for more details.
- Better support for Windows Vista. Some caveats still apply.
- Summary time graphs can be sorted to match the summary target list.
- Can now "Copy Summary Graph as image" and "Save Summary image..." from the summary screen.
- New UDP packet type can target a specific UDP port rather than using "unix-style" ports 33434 and up. This allows tracing directly to a UDP server (certain UDP servers only). For this release, we've included 3 types - Echo, UDP DNS, and IAX (Asterisk VoIP) ping. If you need other server types supported, please contact us.
- New alert option to not show the alert indicator on the main graph (for logging alerts that always log).
- Time graphs now show the unit of measure for latency (milliseconds) and packet loss (%), along with a bit better labels.
- EMail alerts can use SMTP STARTTLS secure connections - this allows use of GMail SMTP servers. See our knowledge base article on configuring this for instructions.
- PingPlotter Pro can now use up to 3GB of RAM, if your system is configured to allow that (either a 32 bit system with the /3GB switch in boot.ini, or a 64 bit system). PingPlotter is a 32 bit application, so the memory limit is still constrained by the 32 bit address space.
- Improvements to the web interface:
- The summary screen is now accessible from the web interface.
- If you're using multiple named configurations, the web interface now shows which one, and lets you select a different configuration for a target.
- The refresh interval for the web interface can now be easily set by the user.
- Ajax web interface required right-clicking, which isn't available on the iPhone. Now detects the iPhone and clicking the hop column now brings up the menu.
- Several other "tweaks" and improvements to make the experience and user interface better.
Fixes, Tweaks, Etc.
- Install is now code-signed, so running the installer correctly shows "Nessoft, LLC" instead of "Unknown Publisher".
- Changed trace queue logic to increase performance (actually, remove artificial limitation) when tracing to lots of targets in Pro, especially when tracing to a remote server.
- "Tweaked" error reporting logic to better send error message information without creating long text emails. Also, submitted error reports come in over HTTP instead of SMTP. If HTTP doesn't work, then error report is opened in email client.
- When upgrading the Pro version, the install wasn't stopping the service. Also, uninstalling would leave the service in place. Both fixed.
- If ICMP.DLL wasn't available on the system, PingPlotter would crash with a cryptic message on startup.
- Auto-save service filenames could have invalid characters, which would block saving.
- Starting hop wasn't loaded correctly when restarting.
- Updated "Trace from remote server" core components to fix a problem where communication between PingPlotter and the remote agent would start timing out and never recover, or the time graph would seem to "freeze" and stop updating.
- Fixed some queueing issues with the remote agent where tracing to a combination of targets including remote agent targets and other (not remote agent targets) would cause all targets to be traced less frequently than specified.
- Updated remote agent (downloaded separately).
- When running as a service, the default save file path for files and images was c:\Windows\System32. Ouch! This has been updated to the current install path instead (the same as when running as an application).
- Improved route change handling so you can work with routes in history even though current route is changing. Previously, the current route would override the selected one.
- The "Maximum samples in memory" setting now defaults to 250,000 instead of unlimited.
- If no MAPI default client was set in HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE, an error (a nonsensical one!) occured when using File -> Send Email... Should now send email more reliably.
- Improved Windows Vista compatibility:
- With 64 bit Vista, you no longer need to disable DEP for PingPlotter.
- Now tells Windows Vista that it knows about Vista, which makes directory handling better (especially of the \Program Files directory, which is read-only under Vista). The downside of this change is that you may need to re-enter your license key, but your current license key will work just fine. If you can't remember your key, go to our support page and have it mailed to you.
- Uses new Windows Open / Save dialogs.
- Tooltip (F1) hints work.
- Uses Vista font type / sizes.
- Fixed a problem when installing under Vista where Vista would sometimes report that the install wasn't succesful, even though it was.
- Note: The UDP packet type still does not work completely under Vista. Also, running as a service still has the limitations listed here in our knowledge base article on this topic.
- Other changes and improvements to the web interface (that aren't listed as features, above):
- Some performance enhancements, especially when using IIS as the web server.
- Some errors (especially errors where the web browser can't contact the server) show more descriptive messages.
- Previous versions required a newer MS XML control which wasn't always installed on the server machine. The web interface now uses 3.0, which should be available on all machines.
- XML Encoding wasn't specified on the AJAX web server, which would cause errors in some web browsers / configurations.
- XML parsing not as robust as necessary on the AJAX server. Also, the error handler didn't always show the full error.
- Long DNS names would make the left pane on the web interface pretty messy, now it scrolls.
- In IE 6, the web interface buttons would sometimes show up in the wrong spot.
- Fixed a good handful of bugs (how many bugs are in a handful?).
- Systems using large fonts now work better.
- Version checking didn't use your proxy server settings.
- Upgraded to latest component versions for a number of third party components, plus the latest compiler version.
- Uses a new installer - more reliable, faster, better (of course!).
For a list of changes to versions before 3.20.0p, see the 3.10 release notes.
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