June 30th, 2003 - Version 2.41 released

Version 2.41 is a relatively minor update and has the following new features and bug fixes (since 2.40):

New Features

• Because of the recent expiration of the Unisys license that affected GIF files, we now support creation of GIF images, in addition to PNG and BMP.
• PNG Images now default to 256 color, resulting in about a 25% size savings (previously, the only format was 24 bit color on PNGs). An INI switch allows setting back to 24 bit color instead of 8 bit. E-mail to support@pingplotter.com for details on how to use this.
• The auto-save configuration dialog now has buttons for "Save Now", to allow for testing of switches, as well as being able to do an immediate save whenever needed. Note that doing a "Save Now" in no way affects the point at which the next auto-save happens.

Bugs Fixed

• WHOIS Window has a popup error on Windows 95/98/ME. This error was non-critical (clicking it continues fine). FIXED.
• No way to turn off the time graph for a destination that wasn't reachable. With 2.41, right-clicking on the time graph allows you to hide it.
• Right-clicking on "Destination unreachable" line in upper graph now acts like it was the final destination - allowing WhoIs lookups, alert setup, and showing / hiding of timeline graphs.
• Log to file alert writing all data instead of just data when alert conditions are matched. FIXED.
• Ignore first hops settings worked, but wasn't saved between sessions. FIXED.
• Some dual processor machines would go to our license server each time Ping Plotter is run. We don't want to know how often you run Ping Plotter, and this is a bug. FIXED.
• Auto-save frequency wouldn't allow use of "Days" and converted that to seconds instead. Note that the maximum interval is roughly 35 days.
• Certain command line switch combinations indicated that the Pro Version was necessary. FIXED.

March 9th, 2003 - Version 2.4 released

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

• Complete re-write of internal model. Allows some capabilities in this version and lots of cool stuff in the future.
• Annotations can be tied to a point in the time graph to show notes. This gets 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).
• Entering a full URL in the trace address box now interprets correctly and uses only the base address automatically.
• 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 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).
• Route change exclusion masks can be automatically calculated based on history. Makes it easy to exclude route changes for regularly oscillating routers at a hop (right-click on hop - does 255.255.XXX.XXX masking only).
• Final destination time-graph is *always* shown (unless explicitly supressed) - even if it doesn't respond (or gets lost from the route for some reason).
• Major re-write of alert system. Can now notify when a condition starts, when it ends, or as it is happening (as it is happening was only option before). 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.
• Now supports Windows XP display schemes.
• DNS lookups use new Windows XP functionality when available to speed lookups (especially IPs with no names).
• Enabled history scrollbar on the "Address to trace" history when tracing.
• Added ability to multi-select and delete from "Address to trace" history (by multi-selecting and then right-clicking to pop up menu).
• Low latency hops (ie: less than 5 ms) would only average to whole numbers on time-line graphs. Now averages to accuracy of pixel size.
• Double-clicking on a hop number now shows/hides the time graph for that hop.
• Now defaults to "Best Method" of pinging. Uses high performance timers on OSes that need it (ie: NT/2000), standard method on others (ie: 95/98/ME/XP).
• Updated "WhoIs" parsing logic to redirect to the right registrar. Now defaults to whois.crsnic.net instead of whois.networksolutions.com for name lookups.
• Changed "Add Monitor" and "Modify Monitor" options to single "Watch this host (Alerts)..." menu to reduce confusion on setting up alerts.

Misc. changed functionality / bug fixes

• Fixed a bug in route change logic where data would sometimes get lost.
• Whois window greys the "Query" button while query is in effect (previous versions didn't give positive indication of current status).
• Route length oscillation no longer introduces incorrect packet loss in final destination.
• Re-worked logic in the way the "Route Change" list is populated so that frequent changes take a LOT less CPU time (previously, CPU could be at 100% - now at < 1% for same situation).
• Increased display speed on time graphs with big datasets (our test PC regularly runs at the 2 million sample mark - scrolling through old data is *WAY* faster (100X for some operations)).
• Splitters sometimes got lost - this is fixed.
• Clicking on a route now changes display immediately rather than having to triple or quadruple click sometimes (old bug).
• Can do Raw Socket ping instead of going through ICMP.DLL. (Note that this capability has no advantages in *most* situations).
• Moved all image logic internally and got rid of LPNG.DLL.
• Time graphs don't flash nearly as much - lots of flashing used to happen on route changes or as you scroll.
• Prompt for save on close now shows program name and destination (previously, lack of program name sometimes added confusion on shutdown of Windows).
• Fixed access violation when invalid hex string entered in packet cargo type / data.
• Disconnecting network card under Windows 98 sometimes didn't show timeouts. Fixed.
• Time graph rounding and cutoff were improved for smoother operation.
• Text Export shouldn't ever export a negative number now.
• (blatant teaser) Added basic support for new functionality in upcoming "Pro" version.

August 18th, 2001 - Ping Plotter 2.30.1 released.

• 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.

May 20th, 2001 - Ping Plotter 2.30 released!

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 donÆt 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 doesnÆt 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 thereÆs 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 youÆre using alerts, or only want to graph performance to the final destination and donÆt want to use the extra bandwidth required to trace the intermediate hops
• Registration codes are now validate against a server database. Details are available at www.pingplotter.com.
• 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).

July 23rd, 2000 - 2.20 released!

The following are changes between version 2.03 and 2.2

Version 2.2 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 arenÆt 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 youÆre 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.

11/15/98 - Version 2.03 released - bug fix

Changes between version 2.0 and 2.03

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

• 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.

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

7/3/98 - Version 2.0 released.

Changes between version 1.00.2 and 2.0

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 me 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?).