ComCap Changelog

What's new in ComCap 4.10

Oct 7, 2011

Fixed a bug introduced in release 4.8 that meant the date and time added to a captured line with the 'Time Stamp Each Line' setting was the time the previous line was captured, or blank for the first line. This bug did not effect the date and time added by the more versatile option 'Add Custom Text to Captured Lines'. This bug unfortunately also effected database time stamps.
Fixed a bug introduced in release 4.8 when changing Common Settings while capture is still running, such that disabling Background Service mode did not always stop the ComCap service first. If Channel Settings are changed while a channel is paused with the service version, the new settings are correctly used. This previously only worked if the channel was stopped or running, not paused.
Fixed a database bug introduced in release 4.9 that sometimes caused an error to appear after successfully adding a database row using the 'Insert into Table' option, which then caused a second attempt to add the same row, causing further duplicate key errors.
Fixed a possible database issue introduced in release 4.9 that may have caused excessive CPU use and/or large log files when repeatedly trying and failing to add bad records to a database. Retries are now slowed down with a maximum of about 1,000 attempts before a record is abandoned. Note the 'Ignore Records That Cause Error' always stopped these retries.
Fixed a long term issue with the service version putting two meaningless entries in the Windows Event Log each time ComCap started.
Fixed a bug with TCP Client that meant retry attempts could stop after certain unexpected socket connection errors, so capture stopped.
In Capture Settings, Files, a new Log Name Format of 'Prompt on Start' has been added which allows a specific file name to be specified each time capture is started. Setting this option automatically sets 'Fixed File Name', and can only be done if ComCap is not specified for Auto Start or to run as a Background Service, since ComCap would never actually start. This feature is intended for applications where data is being captured from a single device for a specific purpose, such as a laboratory test. The 'Add Comment to Log' right menu option might also be useful to add information to the capture log.
Added a new setting to improve performance when capturing high speed TCP and UDP traffic. In Capture Settings, Network, a new Network Performance box has 'Capture TCP/UDP Buffer Size (KB)' and 'Echo TCP/UDP Buffer Size (KB)', both which default to 8 which means 8KB (8,192 bytes). These buffers are where TCP/UDP temporarily saves received or sent data before ComCap is able to process it. With TCP, if data is not extracted from the buffer, the speed at which data is received will slow down, but with UDP received data is simply lost since there are no handshaking packets to confirm data needs to be delayed or resent. It should only be necessary to increase the capture buffer size if a lot of data is being received each second, maybe 16K/sec or more, or if the PC is very slow or has other CPU intensive applications so that ComCap can not get the CPU it needs. Note these new settings only appear for channels actually listening or sending data, not filter or merge channels.
If using the 'Email Capture Log on Rotation' feature, there are now four new tick boxes to specify which title lines are added to the email body, to potentially keep the email simple. These four titles are 'Title and Date', 'From PC Name', 'Capture Name' and 'Log File Name'.
Increased the maximum data loss checking period from 999 to 9,999 minutes, to allow for data arriving once a day (1,440 minutes), such as a new date in a telephone log. The logs now show the data loss period in hours or days, after one hour. Note that the period starts from when ComCap capture was last started, if later than the actual last line.
When ComCap starts, it now checks the program's digital signing certificate to ensure the program file has not become corrupted in such a way that it might behave unpredictably, and instead gives a warning and refuses to start. If this happens, please inform Magenta Systems Ltd so the corruption cause can be identified. The Windows and ADO versions are now logged when ComCap starts, to ease problem finding.
In the main Window, the 'Scroll Tabs' feature is now only automatically enabled if there are more than 100 capture channels, rather than 32 at present. This allows simpler single click tab channel selection for more channels, if the capture window is sufficiently large to display all the desired tabs.
Fixed a possible issue with Windows 7 where dates may have been formatted in default USA format, when a different locale was specified during initial Windows installation and not changed subsequently.
It is no longer possible to email capture logs larger than 10 megs in size. If the SMTP mail server gives an error with the email being too large, retry attempts are now skipped to avoid continual failures. Restored mail queue logging, lost in release 4.8.

New in ComCap 4.9 (Oct 7, 2011)

The unlimited version of ComCap now supports a maximum of 999 capture channels. This resolves an issue with PCs with more than 500 serial COM ports. For those wondering how any one PC can support so many COM ports when most how have just one, the answer is a rack of ethernet Serial Device Servers and hundreds of virtual COM ports.
Merge Channels have been added as a way of combining or consolidating captured data from multiple Network and Serial channels. It is effectively a new form of capture data Echo. This will benefit applications capturing data from multiple sources, allowing all data to be displayed in a single window, written to a single log file, and added to a database using a single connection instead of one for each channel. One record at a time is merged, which may be one or more lines depending on the capture channel 'Line or Record End' setting (there is no record setting for merge channels).
Most channel settings apply equally to capture and merge channels, but generally should not be duplicated. Some effort may be needed to avoid duplicate data being merged from different channels. With 'Add Custom Text to Captured Lines', the network or serial channel setting should be used to add a channel name, remote IP address, or device id, while the merge channel could add date and time and serial number so they are unique for the channel. Note that currently if a merge channel is paused, the capture channels continue but data is not merged.
Merge Channels are set-up on the new 'Merging' tab in Common Settings, with a unique channel name, then a 'Merge From' name that is partially matched against Network or Serial Channel names, ie the partial name 'Weather' would match channel names 'Weather 1', 'Weather 2', 'Weather 3', etc. The 'Total' column shows how many channel's data will be merged.
A 'New Log Interval' of Each Record/Line has been added, which will create lots of short log files each with a single line or record. This is really intended for capturing multiple line data such as remote alarm reports rather than high speed tabular type data. One disadvantage of this option is that when changing capture tabs to view previously captured data, only the data from the last file will be restored, which means just one record.
A new 'Custom Log Name Mask' of \# will add the current serial number to the mask, which may be used instead of date and time for unique sequential file names. Previously custom masks had to include yy or yyyy for year, but this check has now been removed to allow more flexible file naming. Beware that sensible masks should still be used, to avoid duplicate file names.
A new 'Line or Record End' of Timeout/Disconnect has been added. Previously the same effect could be achieved by specifying a special character that was never expected. This is intended for capturing multiple line data such as remote alarm reports, which arrive as a burst of data, separated by a gap from the next report or by serial lines dropping or TCP channel disconnecting.
The main File menu has a new option 'Disable Alert Sound'. with a similar tick box in the Alert Window, which may be used to temporarily stop audible alerts driving you mad with repeated errors being reported. Fixed a long term problem that meant audible alerts from the service version of ComCap did not automatically repeat (if so specified).
Totally rewrote the database code to avoid a serious SQL database memory leak issue introduced with Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 2008 R2 SP1, and not yet fixed by Microsoft. ComCap now performs all database processing in a new thread, to avoid using the Microsoft event that leaks memory. This has other performance benefits, since the Microsoft event started and stopped a thread for each row written, now there is one thread running continually. Separating the database code into a thread also avoids lock-up problems that have rarely been reported, since the thread is monitored and can be restarted if it stops responding after two minutes. Also, the maximum number of database rows that can be written each second will be increased, typically at least 50 rows per second (ie 20ms per row), but less if the stored procedure does a lot of processing or if ComCap is updated the database with more than a few thousand buffered rows when buffer processing slows down updates.
When capturing to a database, there is a new 'Save/Restore Buffered Rows to Disk' tick box. Previously, ComCap only buffered rows that could not written to a database due to network errors in memory, and they were lost forever if ComCap was stopped before the database connection was successfully restored. With this new option, the buffered rows are saved to a file (in the same directory as the config files) when capture is stopped (but not paused) and restored to the buffer when capture is started again. The actual file name is reported in the info log file. Beware this may cause a problem if the database format is changed so the buffered rows are no longer valid, so just delete the file.
The com0com serial port null modem emulation included with ComCap has been updated to version 2.2.2.0, and there is now a second signed version that may be installed on 64-bit versions of Windows. Note com0com is an open source project and has not been tested by Microsoft WHQL, so skip the security alerts that appear during 64-bit installation. Previously com0com could not be used on Windows 7 and 2008 R2 64-bit due to not having it's driver signed.

New in ComCap 4.8 (Jan 17, 2011)

It is now possible to change ComCap settings without first stopping capture. If settings are actually changed, the user is prompted to restart capture for a single channel or all channels, depending on what was changed, but this may be skipped and capture restarted later. Previously, settings tabs without any active settings were hidden until their features were enabled by various tick boxes (such as Save to Database, Check for Data Loss, etc). To make these setting more obvious, the tabs always appear but instead the options on them are disabled until needed.
Email support has been improved to better ensure that alert emails are not lost due to internet problems or ComCap being stopped. A mail queue has been introduced, with extended retries potentially over 24 hours or more, so email alerts will not be lost if ComCap stops for any reason. The implication of the new mail queue is the use of temporary files to hold queued email, the root directory for which needs to be specified in Common Settings, Email. The previous simple retry attempts setting has been replaced by a comma list of 'Minutes Between Queue Attempts', ie 2,3,5,5,10,etc, which means retry attempts will take place 2, 5, 10, 15 and 25 minutes from when the email was queued, with one attempt for each of the two SMTP Servers, if both specified. Note that some email servers support grey listing and reject the first email attempt from a new sender but allow a retry 10 or 15 minutes later, something that is very effective in blocking spam emails (since they don't usually retry). Also note the email queue is only running while ComCap is running, but if ComCap is stopped it will make one attempt to send any pending emails (such as logs emailed on close, see below) within 30 seconds (but not for longer since Windows might be closing ComCap to reboot).
Email support has further been improved by allowing separate authentication details to be specified for the two SMTP servers, which might be different ISPs, with new Authentication options such as NTLM, and by supporting secure email using SSL/TLS which is required by services such as Gogglemail. 'SSL/TLS Connection' should be used with SMTP Port 465 and forces an implicit TLS connection to this port. 'SSL/TLS Authentication' normally uses port 25, but will check if the server returns a STARTTLS response to indicate it supports SSL/TLS authentication at which point a secure connection is established instead. Note that the SMTP server SSL certificate is not currently checked. To support SSL/TLS, two new files are included with ComCap, libeay32.dll and ssleay32.dll.
Many ComCap users further process capture logs, sometimes with difficulty due to the files being continually updated, so set short new log interval or rotations so new files are created regularly. To assist this, ComCap now has a new Capture Setting on the Files tab, 'Archive Capture Log on Rotation' which causes a closed log file to be moved to a specified archive directory on the same disk drive. This will potentially avoid conflicts since the other processing application will only find completed capture logs, and not those still open. A further option 'Archive/Email Capture Log on Stop Capture' causes the log to be archived even if the rotation time has not yet arrived when ComCap is stopped. If ComCap is restarted before the next rotation time, a new log with the previous name will be created, but when it is finally archived it will be renamed by the addition of -1, -2, etc, to the file name to avoid a conflict with previously archived log file names, if any. To FTP a capture log, use our DUN Manager application which offers various Scheduled Tasks including FTP Upload which will automatically FTP any files it finds in a specified directory and then move them elsewhere so they are not sent again.
Capture logs may now be automatically emailed when closed and rotated. There is a new tab Capture Setting, Email, with 'Email Capture Log on Rotation' as 'Email as Body' or 'Email as Attachment, depending on the requirement. An 'Email Subject', 'From:' and multiple 'To': addresses may be specified. On the Files tab, 'Archive/Email Capture Log on Stop Capture' causes the log to be emailed even if the rotation time has not yet arrived when ComCap is stopped.
The maximum captured line length has been increased from 2,048 to 20,000 characters, while the default length has been reduced to 256 characters. The Maximum Line Length is that beyond which a line is forcibly wrapped to the next line. There is also a Maximum Validated Line Length, which is used to ignore line which are too long, but without wrapping them.
A new feature 'Ignore Too Many Lines' has been added, which may be used to reduce the amount of data captured from devices sending continuous streams, such as GPS locators or environmental sensors. A 'Line Time Gap' in fractions of a second may be specified during which any new data will be ignored. If the gap is set to 0.50 second, then only a maximum of two lines per second will be captured, or it may be one line every few seconds. The number of lines ignored are still counted and reported. This feature may be used to slow down database updates by ignoring data arriving too fast.
When adding custom text to captured lines, a new escape \T has been added which gives a long time with milliseconds to three decimal places, ie 10:22:56:586. Beware Windows is not millisecond accurate, due to multi-tasking.
The 'Info Messages in Capture Log' preference has been removed, due to recent testing showing potential sharing and reentrancy problems where an attempt is made to log error messages about capture logs to the capture log itself.
In Capture Settings, Filters and Alerts, leading and trailing spaces are now removed from the filter phrases.

New in ComCap 4.7 (Aug 12, 2010)

Made some improvements to automatically restart the ComCap service if it stops unexpectedly due to an error or is manually stopped for some reason. When the service version is enabled through Settings, Common, the service properties now have Recovery set as 'Restart the Service' to avoid needing to set this manually. Note this change only happens if the existing service is disabled through Settings, Common, and then re-enabled. Also, provided the user is logged-on and the tray version of ComCap is monitoring the service, if the service is found to have stopped an alert will be sent and it will be automatically restarted after 20 seconds, provided the Stop button is not pressed meanwhile. An alert is now sent on start-up if ComCap is found to have previously stopped without a clean close down. Further ComCap monitoring is planned for a future release to ensure ComCap never stops.
In Common Settings, Alerts, a new option 'Control Serial Port' has been added, which causes the RTS and DTR control lines to be raised on a specified RS232 serial port for one or more seconds, whenever an alert is triggered. If the serial port is wired to a low current relay, this output may be used to sound a bell or alarm to draw attention to ComCap.
In Capture Settings, Filters and Alerts, there is a new option 'Ignore Same Alert for (mins)' which works in conjunction with 'Alert for Lines with Phrases' preventing the same alert being sent again until the specified period in minutes is reached. If more than one alert filter is specified, each filter will still trigger an alert the first time it is detected. This will avoid too many emails or SMS messages being sent when the same alert is continually repeated.
In Capture Settings, Files, a new option 'Delete Empty Capture Log on Rotation' has been added, to avoid empty capture logs remaining on disk. Note this only applies to the main capture log, not the alternate.
In Capture Settings General, there is a new tick box 'Log Only First Command Sent' that prevents repeated logging when the Start Command is sent every few seconds or minutes, filling up the info log.
In Capture Settings, Database, a new option 'Escape Backslash (MySQL)' has been added to avoid a problem with old versions of MySQL that treat the backslash character as the first of an escape sequence (ie \f is form feed). This option sends \ as \\ so MySQL saves it as \ instead of reporting a syntax error.
In Capture Settings, Database, a new option 'No Pause for Full Buffer (Ignore Data)' has been added so that capture to log files will always continue even if a database is unavailable, or if the capture rate is so fast that a database can not keep up. This works in conjunction with 'Maximum Rows to Buffer before Pausing Capture' so that once the limit is reached subsequent rows are ignored instead of being buffered, but are still written to the capture log file. This feature is primarily designed to support capture applications that regularly update the same information, such as global positioning satellite data where a vehicle position need not be recorded every second. The number of rows not written to the database is logged similarly to the following:
Database Rows Added: 3,990, Database Errors 16, Skipped 113
and also reported in the tray application in brackets after the number of DB rows. Note the minimum number of rows that may be buffered is 50, which is required for normal operation where 10 or more rows may be captured as a burst which may be faster than they can be written to SQL.
In Capture Settings, Database, a new option 'Ignore Records That Cause Error' has been added which prevents a row being buffered when a SQL error occurs and the database is closed and re-opened to try and clear the error. This is primarily intended to overcome syntax and duplicate key errors where the database can not write a specific row of data and will get stuck in a repeating loop trying to write the same row again and again. Unfortunately, due to the widely varying error responses from different SQL databases, this feature might cause a row to be lost if the network is lost or the SQL server simply stopped while a row is being written.
Fixed a bug introduced in Release 4.6 for serial capture only that meant a Start Command was only send once and not repeated, instead giving an error each time.
When ComCap starts, the PC local IP addresses are now listed in the info log. When the network configuration is loaded, and capture started, a warning is now given if a configured local IP no longer exists on the PC, due to networking having being changed. Currently, capture will still attempt to start, since other channels may still work, but those channels trying to use a non-existent IP address will give network errors. This mainly effects TCP and UDP server channels set-up to listen on a single IP, rather than 0.0.0.0 for all IP addresses on the PC. On the other hand, if the PC IP has changed perhaps due to DCHP being configured, data directed at the original IP address will not arrive anyway.

New in ComCap 4.6 (Aug 12, 2010)

Fixed a long term problem with TCP Server where multiple channels are being captured from the same IP and port, which caused a problem restarting capture after it was paused (usually for database problems). This was caused by only one channel being paused instead of all related channels, but a workaround has been found so capture now resumes correctly without an 'Address already in use' error.
Channels configured for TCP Server now have tabs coloured blue rather than red when listening for incoming connections, changing to green when a connection is made. This also fixes a problem with the service version that meant the channel pop-up menu assumed the channel was stopped and allowed settings to be changed and capture resumed, rather than being paused.
Tested ComCap support for IBM DB2 and Sun MySQL databases, fixing some minor issues. The IBM data link was previously unable to list table columns due to a slight difference in the schema arguments from Microsoft data links, it also returns all column names as upper case and sorted, which stopped the special database columns serial_nr and event_time being recognised. The error reporting listed database tables and columns has been improved so that data link errors are reported, rather than the lists just being left blank. Note that for a database to be supported by ComCap, the data link provider needs to support the ADO OpenSchema method, and this seems far from universal in third party providers or drivers. There is a new tick box 'Log More Information' on the Database tab that logs connection string and schema details, in case of problems in the future.
If capture is to a database, previously when capture was started the database was opened before any data was accepted or logged. The default has now changed so that data capture starts immediately while the database is still being opened with data temporarily cached and written once the database is available, similarly to when database problem occur during capture. The old behaviour is retained if 'Immediate Pause for Database Problems' is ticked. Beware this may cause some confusion when initially testing database capture, unless the errors in the information log are seen. Reversed a database error handling change in 4.5 so that the first attempt to resume capture after it's been paused is again after 'Delay Before Restart', rather than immediately. This potentially avoids two or more restart attempts a second if restart immediately fails due to a database issue.
Increased the number of database errors recognised as meaning the database server connection has been lost, each manufacturer returns it's own concept of errors, ie 'link failure', 'timeout', 'gone away', 'terminate', etc. The database is now closed after any error, since error reporting in usually better opening the database, however the last row is only saved if ComCap believes the error to be connectivity rather than a data format issue to avoid an endless loop of open and close. It is better to try and filter the data to avoid invalid data being written in the first place.
ComCap was tested against IBM DB2 Express-C v9.7 for Windows, using the 'IBM OLE DB Provider for DB2' that is part of the client package that may be downloaded from: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/db2/express/ During install, you get an option to install just the client rather than the server, but beware it installs several windows services anyway. When setting up Data Link Properties, choose the IBM provider, then 'Direct Server Connection' with the server name as an IP or host, it should then allow a database to be selected once a logon has been entered and 'Allow Saving Password' ticked. A SQL script to create four ComCap tables may be found in newdb-ibmdb2.sql. Note that writing to stored procedures has not been tested.
ComCap was tested against Sun MySQL v5.1 community edition, using the 'Connector/OBBC 3.51 driver' from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/ When setting up Data Link Properties, choose the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers, 'Use Connection String', click Build, from the File Data Source tab click New, select 'MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver;, click Next and specify a name for the link, a Driver Connect dialog will appear where the server IP or host, login and password, and database may be specified, after which the link appears in the list of DSNs and may be selected. Finally repeat the login and database selections on the Connection tab and tick 'Allow Saving Password'. Note the ODBC 5.1 driver does not seem to work with ComCap, nor does the 'MySQL OLEDB Provider'. A SQL script to create four ComCap tables may be found in newdb-mysql.sql. Note that writing to stored procedures has not been tested.
Added a new 'Line or Record End' of 'Multiple Tags' which allows the end of a record to be determined by one or more short words or tags, instead of by CR or LF. This is primarily designed to ease parsing for database capture, so that multi line data can be processed, and also for multiple records sent without line endings. If these records have unwanted preceding or following tags, these may also be set as record endings and then filtered by phrases or minimum line length. All the line end settings have been moved from the General and Logging tabs, to a new Records tab. Record End Tags may include escaped characters similarly to 'Add Escaped Text', specifically \n new line, \c CR, \l LF, \\ backslash and \s space, so text only at the end of a line can be specified as a tag.
Increased the maximum capture line length from 1,024 to 2,048.
Made three improvements to the ComGen data generator, used to create data to test ComCap. Data Types now includes a column with a 'No CRLF' tick box to prevent CRLF being automatically added to each line. Network includes two new columns. 'Lines/Session' causes the TCP connection to be disconnected after that many lines of data have been sent, to simulate devices that periodically call home, send some data and then disconnect. Setting six lines per minute with one line/session will causes 10 sessions per minute. 'Device Id (first line)' causes some text to be sent once when a session connects, to simulate devices such as the Ecov that identify themselves when connected, note that CRLF is not added automatically so escapes should be used if a line ending is needed, ie \n for CRLF.
Fixed a long term problem when running ComCap on Windows 2008 (and maybe Vista and 7) that meant, in some circumstances, the capture tabs in the main window were blank and not coloured.
Fixed a problem introduced in the last release when Sending Data from the dialog using the interactive version only, where escape control sequences were ignored.
Fixed a long term problem re-opening the info log that sometimes resulted in multiple 'file sharing violation' error messages and alerts. Also changed the mechanism for flushing the info log to disk, to reduce disk activity particularly with a lot of capture channels, which will be noticed when stopping capture

New in ComCap 4.5 (Aug 12, 2010)

Fixed a long term problem with the ComCap Service where interactive tray monitoring and remote alerts and logging were lost if capture was restarted automatically due to a temporary PC freeze ore more than 15 seconds. Also added a periodic handshake to ensure tray monitoring has not stopped.
It is now possible to set Data Loss checking separately for each capture channel, rather than all channels sharing the same settings, thus allowing for differing data flows and time zones for remote capture. In Capture Settings, on the General Tab if 'Check for Data Loss' is checked then new fields will appear on the Sounds/Data Loss tab. If 'Override Common Data Loss Settings' is checked, a grid identical to that in Common Settings appears, allowing different settings for each channel. These new settings are backward compatible, so no changes are needed if Data Loss is already set-up. Note that disabling Data Loss checking in Common Settings still disables it for all capture channels.
Temporary database problems are almost inevitable, perhaps due to communication problems or the database server being rebooted, so ComCap has various means of coping with them. When a row can not be written to the database it is automatically buffered so it can be written later. This can happen because capture is happening faster than data can be written to the database, which may be limited to only 50 to 150 rows maximum per second. In previous versions, ComCap only buffered a maximum of 1,000 rows before automatically pausing capture, but this figure is now configurable from 50 to 99,999 rows on the Database tab. Note that rows are buffered in memory, so this must be sufficient for the data expected to be buffered. If ComCap is exited before the buffered rows are written, the rows are lost. Due to this, the 'Immediate Pause for Database Problems' will cause capture to be temporarily stopped so the source can continue to buffer data (is so capable). Attempts are made to re-open the database according to 'Delay Before Restart' seconds, and when successful any buffered rows are written.
If 'Immediate Pause for Database Problems' is not specified, an alert is now sent when the database connection fails and another when it restarts. Improved error messages and alerts due to database problems, to avoid repeating the same alerts, and also added a new alert when capture restarts after being paused.
Fixed a problem when attempts to reopen the database may have been skipped. Improved the error handling when there is a timeout writing to the database, usually due to communication problems. Fixed a problem when writing to databases using an ODBC connection when connection failure was not always detected correctly, thus stopping database re-open attempts
The Information Log now has the date and time added when newly created, to avoid empty logs when there is nothing else to note. Fixed a problem with the ComCap service that meant small or empty log files may have been created in the program directory each time the services was started or stopped.
The maximum captured line length may now be set to four characters (previously 64) before the line is broken.
Fixed a bug sending data with UDP Server. Currently, UDP Send is only allowed if the channel is listening, not filtered from another channel.
If echo captured data is configured, data received from the echo destination is now reverse echoed to the original capture source, with ComCap effectively behaving as a proxy. Currently, reverse echo data is handled a line at a time and echoed when each complete line is received, so can not be used for binary data. It is designed to send commands to remote capture devices. Reverse echo data is reported in the Information Log, not the capture logs.
Fixed a validation problem on the Filters and Alerts tab, it's now possible to save settings with one of the filter lists blank.
There is now no limit on the number of seconds that may be specified for the 'Repeat Start Command' allowing it to sent once a day, if required.

New in ComCap 4.4 (Aug 12, 2010)

In order to assist with waking up and configuring remote capture servers, the right click menu has three new options: Resend Start Command, Send Data, and Terminal Window. The first two are only available when capture has been started, the Terminal Window only when it's stopped or paused. Resend Start Command simply resends the same data sent when capture starts, but on demand. Send Data displays a new window allowing custom data to be sent on demand, with the last 50 command sent selectable from a drop down box, or allowing a file to be selected and sent (TCP/UDP only), typically to configure remote capture device, or load new firmware.
A Telnet Terminal window has been added, to allow interaction with remote TCP/IP Servers. It may be selected from the File menu in the Main Window, or the right click menu when the remote address and port will be set according to the channel settings. Terminal window options may be specified such as font and size, function key behaviour, echo, auto LF and CR, etc. If Log is ticked, anything typed or received in the window is written to a session log with the file name telnet-(date)-(time).log.
Added the ability to trigger alerts from captured text. The new Filters and Alerts tab includes a tick box 'Alert for Lines with Phrases (case sensitive)' which causes a captured lines to be checked against one or more phrases (entered one line at a time), with an alert being triggered if any are matched. The alert may be a pop-up window, email or SMS message, as configured in Settings, Common, and will include the channel name and the captured line.
A number of remote TCP devices may be configured to identify themselves when a TCP session connects, by sending a device id as the first line of data. For instance, Tysso eCov serial to TCP/IP converter sends a five digit configurable number as the first line, while some GSM/3G modems send a device type and IMEI number. In Settings, Logging, 'First Line is Device Id' will cause the first captured line to be saved and not logged, and it may be added to subsequent captured lines using 'Add Escaped Text' with the \z command. So effectively the Device Id is added to each captured line to identify it, specifically with TCP Server where lots of different remote devices may be calling home.
Added some more data validation and processing options, to clean up and reject unwanted captured data. In Settings, Logging, 'Remove Leading Spaces' ensures any control characters or blanks before real data are removed. 'Validate Line Length' allows lines shorter or longer than specified limits to be ignored. This check is done after space at the start and/or end of the line is removed, but before escaped text is added. On the Settings, General tab, ticking 'Filter and Alerts' will cause a new tab Filters and Alerts to appear, on which ticking 'Ignore Lines with Phrases (case sensitive)' causes a captured lines to be checked against one or more phrases (entered one line at a time), and ignored if any are found. ComCap now counts how many lines are ignored due to these various filters and checks, and shows the total in the status bar and hourly in the Information Log.
It is now possible to add a pause into the Commands to Send Upon Start and Stop Capture, and the new Send Data command. \P (capital only) will cause a 50ms pause in the data being sent, with multiples allowing a longer delay. Note the pause may not necessarily be effective with TCP/IP, because packets may get combined at transport level, nor may the pause be exactly 50ms due to other activity within ComCap.
Fixed a bug that meant the Log Files option Start/Stop in Capture Log did not always write the stop command, specifically if the capture file had closed due to inactivity.
The Add Comment right click menu option is now effective when the ComCap service version is being used. Also, the Command window position is now restored correctly if moved.
In Settings, Files, if Log Name Format is specified as Custom, the Custom Log Name Mask is now validated to ensure that it includes yy or yyyy mask characters for year. The custom mask has always been ignored unless yy was found, but without warning.
If the Capture Log New Log Interval is set to Weekly, it's now also possible to set the New Log Open Time, so the log could rotate at 6am on Monday morning instead of midnight.
When ComCap starts, the main window is only automatically minimised if Auto Start is specified.
It's now possible to change channel settings during paused capture for both service and interactive versions, not just the latter.
Fixed a bug introduced in Release 4.3 that meant the remote IP address and port could change line by line for TCP Client or Server, if data was being captured from other sessions at the same time.
Fixed a possible bug that meant extra data might appear at the start of TCP session, if the connection was dropped and reconnected without capture being stopped and restarted.
Fixed a bug that meant test email and SMS alerts could not be sent if ComCap was configured to use the service version and it was stopped. Also, the validation of Email To: addresses has been improved to stop a blank address preventing email being sent

ComCap Changelog

What's new in ComCap 4.10

New in ComCap 4.9 (Oct 7, 2011)

New in ComCap 4.8 (Jan 17, 2011)

New in ComCap 4.7 (Aug 12, 2010)

New in ComCap 4.6 (Aug 12, 2010)

New in ComCap 4.5 (Aug 12, 2010)

New in ComCap 4.4 (Aug 12, 2010)

New in ComCap 4.3 (Aug 12, 2010)

New in ComCap 4.2 beta (Mar 9, 2007)