LANScan Network Monitor Software

Version 1.61e(Versions 1.61f and 1.61g correct minor software problems)

Readme File

Owensville Systems is pleased to release Version 1.61e of LANScan Network Monitor and LANScan Traffic VIew. This version solves some existing software problems and adds significant new functionality to the products.

LICENSING NOTE:

If you are running LANScan Version 1.60 or later, Version 1.61e will operate with your current License code. If you are running an older version, you MUST CONTACT US to receive a new License code. Be sure to include your Invoice Number.

New Features:

DATA LOGGING
LANScan Network Monitor now features Network Data Logging via Comma Separated Variable(CSV) files. Now LANScan can be used to generate a permanent record of network activity. CSV files are easy to use in most any Windows application, including Microsoft Access and Excel.

LANScan logs Event information and Network Summary, Protocol and Conversation data at a configurable frequency. Files are accessible at any time by third party applications - LANScan does not lock the files.

Detailed information of enabling CSV Logging and the file contents is available in the online help as well as on our web site at:

http://www.owensville.com/support/csvlogging.htm

CONFIGURABLE REPORT:
LANScan reports can now include or exclude the graphics portion of the view. See the 'Settings' dialog for the view - a check box has been added to enable/disable graphics printing.

IMPROVED MULTI-TRENDS:
Previously, the Trend View for Network and Device objects could work in two ways: collect all data into a single trend(Bytes in/bytes out pair for devices), or generate a plot for each individual host(Multi Trend).

Multi Trend is a very useful feature for reporting host versus host network activity, but can quickly be overwhelmed by large numbers of hosts - this is especially true on larger network where many users are browsing the web.

Version 1.61e introduces two enhancements.

Automatically LANScan now eliminates inactive hosts. If a host has had no traffic to/from it during the time period of the trend graph, it is removed from the list and the plotted line is deleted from the trend. This helps eliminated the clutter from the view. Information on this host is not gone! It is still available in summary form on the Conversation view.

On the 'Settings' dialog, you can now limit the maximum number of trends displayed on the chart. By default, LANScan will display all hosts(On Windows 95/98 there is a limit of 12 - see below).

If you change the Max Plots field on the Settings dialog, LANScan will display at most only the number of plots specified. LANScan chooses the hosts to plot according to their total traffic for the time perior of the trend. All hosts will remain in the list and the legend displayed next to the host name will only show a colored block if the host is on the graph.

You can adjust the number of plots without losing data. The maximum number requested is stored with the LANScan profile and will be restored when the view is accessed again.

Problems Corrected

LOSS OF GRAPHICS ON WIN95/98 PCs

Occasionally LANScan can lose the ability to display graphics on Windows 95 and 98 based PCs. This is due to limitations in the operating system relating to the availability of system resources for drawing graphics. All programs share a limited resource, and when there is not enough available, LANScan graphics stop working.

In order to avoid problems, we have introduced a limit on the number of trend lines displayable in a single view in LANScan. On Windows 95 and 98 ONLY, the trend view will be limited to 12 plots. LANScan will automatically choose the 12 hosts to graph according to their activity over the trend life.

You can reduce the number of plots further using the 'Max Plots' field on the Settings dialog.

DEVICE NAMES

A problem relating the long device names has been corrected. LANScan now limits device and class names to 32 characters.

SYSTEM SETTINGS (NETWORK MONITOR)

Previously the default setting for new LANScan databases is to reset the monitor every 5 hours. This has now been changed to disable the Monitor reset by default.

HELP FILES

Help has been updated to include more information and to improve its organization.

REGISTRY

Previously LANScan Network Monitor and LANScan Traffic View shared the same registry entries. This could cause database errors when starting one program after running the other. This has been changed to direct each program to use separate registry locations.

NOTE: Workspace settings WILL BE LOST after upgrading to version 1.61e

LICENSING:

The License Manager shipped with previous versions of LANScan is no longer required. If you are no longer running an old version, you can remove the program from your system.

WINDOWS 2000:

LANSCan Version 1.61e is fully supported on all versions of Windows 2000

WINDOWS 95:

LANScan could crash in certain instances under Windows 95. A thread management problem has been corrected to reduce the chances of a crash