Archive for the ‘Press-releases’ Category

Scan bigger networks - announcing Network Inventory Advisor 3.95

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

Network Inventory Advisor is now officially ready for bigger networks. Several users reported slowdowns when scanning networks of 30000+ nodes; well, it’s surely a lot for a single network, right? But these issues should be gone by now. We rebuilt some algorithms that we used for network scanning, polished the scanning dialog a bit, and it should all be OK now.

And that’s right, there’s another update shipping now: today we are presenting Network Inventory Advisor 3.95, it’s not 4.0 yet, but it’s a huge upgrade for internal scanning engine which will also be smoothly transferred into version 4 once it goes public. Check the list of changes below, and download Network Inventory Advisor 3.95 right away here.

Network Inventory Advisor: waiting for version 4

  • INTRODUCED: better import from Active Directory; even offline nodes are imported to match the correct domain structure so you can scan them later
  • INTRODUCED: separate Software Licenses report section where you will find registration details for Windows, MS Office, Internet Explorer, etc
  • INTRODUCED: node skipping if it cannot be scanned for a long time (configurable in Settings)
  • INTRODUCED: network disk path, last bootup time and node added date as new tabular report fields
  • ENHANCED: software collection if it’s listed only in the registry branch of the current user (HKEY_CURRENT_USER)
  • ENHANCED: detection of hard drive’s serial number
  • ENHANCED: network scanning dialog updates immediately even for very large networks
  • ENHANCED: ranges of IP-addresses are now grouped into collapsible items in the scanning dialog
  • ENHANCED: scanning of a node or IP range can be cancelled through the right-click menu
  • ENHANCED: scanning AD groups that contain unsupported characters in their names
  • ENHANCED: no more possible slowdowns when collecting software or hard drive data from domain nodes
  • ENHANCED: Active Directory Organizational Units now managed better
  • ENHANCED: MS Office 2010 x64 registration details are now displayed and collected correctly
  • ENHANCED: better smart scanning by detecting more network adapters available on the host PC
  • ENHANCED: scanning SNMP nodes (when Linux scanning is enabled) is now faster
  • ENHANCED: alerts when security software is missing are now displayed properly
  • ENHANCED: detection of Broadcomm network adapters
  • FIXED: factsheet report now correctly lists MAC-address of Linux nodes
  • FIXED: custom fields are now available immediately after creating in tabular reports
  • FIXED: domain nodes could enumerate incomplete list of software titles after scanning
  • FIXED: memory leak attempting to scan a very large IP range; now only those nodes that were ping’ed are added to the list
  • FIXED: nodes are correctly scanned with an agent utility now (even if they cannot locate themselves by localhost address)
  • FIXED: “Go to hardware” link in Linux node’s details incorrectly navigated to Software
  • FIXED: several issues in wizard’s interface when importing computer lists from file
  • FIXED: export into HTML now works correctly with IE9 installed
  • FIXED: Post-scan options are now always active when required
  • FIXED: crashes when managing nodes with apostrophe in the name

Well, there are quite a few other changes, enhancements, new features and bug fixes in there as well. Most of them are not that obvious, but they should all add up to a better, simpler, more stable and productive experience!

Stay tuned for more news on version 4, have fun with 3.9x now!

BTW, Windows 8 dev preview is correctly scanned and easily identified as “Windows Developer Preview” by Network Inventory Advisor!

Rolling Network Inventory Advisor 4 BETA soon!

Friday, July 1st, 2011

We keep getting this question over and over again lately. And we are here to deliver the official reply to all Network Inventory Advisor current and future users, so you can keep shopping with us confidently. Your upgrades are covered.

Network Inventory Advisor 4

Here’s the official message from the ClearApps team:

Yes, we are working on Network Inventory Advisor 4 already. The beta version is about to be available. And everyone buying Network Inventory Advisor 3.9 starting July 1, 2011, is getting the free upgrade to version 4 when it goes live.

For the last 6 months we’ve been redesigning and reconsidering Network Inventory Advisor from the core to the UI, and are currently testing the new interface and a number of new features internally. We have already sent the beta version to some clients to deliver minor fixes to known issues asap, and we plan on having a public beta some time soon. Meanwhile we can’t disclose any specific details about the new release, we can only let you know that we are working on:

  • better streamlined user interface
  • improved licensing audit
  • advanced networks management
  • simpler navigation
  • and many more enhancement and new features

If you are already a premium client of ClearApps, stay tuned to be the first to upgrade and learn about new features!

If you are going to become a new client of ClearApps - WELCOME! You are already getting version 4 for free once it’s available within our grace period promise. If you grabbed your copy of Network Inventory Advisor 4 beta by now, report bugs and send your comments here.

Thank you all for your support!

Ebertlang becomes exclusive ClearApps partner

Wednesday, May 18th, 2011

We are extremely glad and proud to announce that we partnered with Ebertlang as our new official and exclusive distributor for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

ClearApps and EbertLang

Since 1995, Ebertlang has focused on software wholesale for IT professionals. Today, they are one of the leading value-added distributors in German-speaking Europe. Both CRN and IT Business have nominated Ebertlang as “Best Value-Added Distributor in Germany” several years in a row.

(more…)

Small and not so small tweaks to Network Inventory Advisor

Thursday, December 23rd, 2010

While Christmas and New Year are that close, and the whole our team cordially sends our congratulations to all our clients, today we are releasing a few minor and major improvements to Network Inventory Advisor.

We added the ability to inventory Linux software. Along with many internal improvements in Linux scanning, this brings Linux machines support to a new level. Now you can scan Linux nodes natively with Network Inventory Advisor. Though, by default the option to include Linux software in network-wide “All software” report is not enabled, as Linux machines are known to have hundreds of software titles different in just minor versions, which leads to multiple inclusions in the report and making it really hard to manage. So unless you really need that, you can keep the option disabled.

Linux software audit

Linux software audit

Second, we added license status and edition details collection for all MS Office versions - another great option for license compliance experts. Additionally, we devoted some time to better Macs scanning, specifically MS Office detection on Mac OS X nodes. Since the latest update Network Inventory Advisor will not only collect MS Office details on Macs, but will also correctly position it in “All software” report for your whole network.

MS Office Editions and License Status

MS Office Editions and License Status

Third, as you know there’s a filter in “All software” report that helps you easily filter out Allowed, Prohibited or Unclassified applications. We were always missing Must-have apps there, though this type of software was always available. Corrected!

Must-have applications filter in "All software" report

Must-have applications filter in "All software" report

#4 - Data on SNMP-devices is also available in Tabular reports. The following fields can now be included in a report: Device Name, Description, Contact, Location, Object ID, Uptime

SNMP-devices now share their data in Tabular reports

SNMP-devices now share their data in Tabular reports

#5 - Node reports on running Services now include “Log on as” data. Convenient to track access rights a specific service has, helps to troubleshoot software issues network-wide.

Services now list the user account they are running under

Services now list the user account they are running under

Sixth, we enhanced network mapped drives audit, especially for Windows 7 nodes. Now, mapped drives are listed for each user logged on in the scanned system.

Finally, we applied the following fixes along with a number of bugs found, isolated, neutralized and wiped off for good:

  • fixed incorrect behavior of post-scan options in the scanning dialog
  • Internet Explorer serial and product keys are now correctly differentiated
  • groups selection and management now works much smoother
  • customizable software reports could not be built, when main ribbon was minimized
  • software changes report now correctly includes all snapshots that match the selected date period
  • some nodes could be erroneously listed with ‘IS~’ prefix
  • We hope you like these simple changes. Follow us on Twitter @clearapps or give us feedback on our ClearApps Forum.

    Happy holidays!

    Network Inventory Advisor 3.9 updated!

    Monday, October 18th, 2010

    We just uploaded a new polishing release of Network Inventory Advisor 3.9.1507. This minor upgrade includes a lot of smaller features we didn’t have time to add in the previous release of version 3.9. It’s always not trivial to select features to concentrate on, since we get about 2-3 new requests and ideas from our community every day. So if you don’t see your desired feature in the following list lets discuss it via email or in the Public Forum. We’ll gladly consider each and every idea that can help you accomplish your network management tasks more effectively or make our software better.

    Network Inventory Advisor 3.9.1507

    What’s new in Network Inventory Advisor 3.9.1507:

    • INTRODUCED: asset tag for DELL nodes is now collected and displayed in the reports
    • INTRODUCED: if there’s Support Information in System Properties of the scanned nodes, it will be collected and displayed in the software report
    • ENHANCED: serial key for MS Office 2010 is now correctly inventoried
    • ENHANCED: software inventory for 64-bit Windows systems in agentless mode
    • ENHANCED: alerts on Linux nodes are now included in the network summary
    • ENHANCED: firewall status is now again correctly collected from Security Center
    • ENHANCED: now you can select multiple IP ranges for deletion in the scanning dialog
    • FIXED: localhost is now correctly scanned if it’s in one of the IP ranges being inventoried
    • FIXED: shortcuts are now removed when uninstalling Network Inventory Advisor in Windows 7
    • FIXED: export of “Software by version” report now polished

    As always, the upgrade is simple: just download the new build, and install it over the copy that you currently have. It’s always a good idea to backup the [information] folder from the installation directory, but it’s not the must. Thank you for staying with ClearApps!