4.3

1 - The Unlimited version now supports capture from up to 500 serial COM ports, TCP/IP Server, TCP/IP Client and UDP/IP network protocols simultaneously, with suitable hardware.  It has been tested on Windows XP with 260 TCP/IP sessions created by ComGen (which never had a limit), writing capture logs one line per second, with only 2-6% CPU usage on a old Pentium 4 and 12 megs memory usage.

2 - ComCap, ComGen and Signals now all support serial COM ports with names other than COM followed by a number, ie CNCA2.  Virtual COM ports are sometimes installed with such strange names.

3 - When capturing data on the same channel from multiple UDP clients using different IP addresses, the correct IP of the last packet is now displayed and added to the capture log if the Remote IP Address is added as escaped text (\r), rather than the IP of the first packet only.

4 - It's now possible to use keyboard short cuts to copy text from the capture log windows, as well as the right click menu options.

5 - Improved the logging for license key failures, particularly when old version 3 keys are used by accident with ComCap version 4 (which needs newer keys).

4.2

1 - In order to support capture from appliances that only return data when triggered, in Capture Settings, General a new option 'Repeat Start Command Every X Seconds' has been added.  This causes the Start command text to be repeatedly sent at the specified interval.  The maximum interval is 999 seconds, with zero meaning don't repeat the command.

2 - In Capture Settings, General, a 'Line End Timeout' may now be specified in seconds, where zero means no timeout, up to 300 seconds. When the timeout expires, an incomplete captured line will be processed, saved and displayed.  This is usually only necessary when non-ASCII data is being captured where there are no carriage returns or line feeds, but may also be useful when setting up ComCap to capture from a serial port with unknown speed, since it can be used to cause display of the 'corrupted' data caused by speed mismatch which will be missing line ends.

3 - In Capture Settings, Logging, 'Ignore Blank Lines' causes lines without any printable characters to be ignored.  This will reduce the size of logs that contain far too many blank lines.  This option should generally be used with 'Remove Control Characters'.

4 - In Capture Settings, Logging, 'Log Hex Data' causes all captured data to be converted into hexadecimal (doubling the size).  This is primarily intended for capturing binary data, but may be used a debugging tool to find the exact format of data being captured, for instance the type of line endings.  Normal line ending rules are applied when capturing in hex, so lines may be broken on linefeed, etc (also saved in hex).

5 - The actual information log file names are now logged hourly.  This may be useful where an emergency log is opened due to an access conflict on the original file.

6 - When configuring ComCap to 'Capture Using Background Service', a warning is now displayed if any channels are configured as 'Save to  Database' and a service account has not been specified, since database access needs logon credentials.

7 - It's now again possible to specify UNC network paths in Log Directories with 'Capture Using Background Service'.

8 - When starting the ComCap background service from the ComCap tray version, the channel currently selected now starts to update immediately all channels have started, rather than the next time it's clicked.

9 - When using the TCP Server protocol to Echo captured Data, or Send Remote the Information Log or Alerts, up to five remote TCP Clients can now access the TCP Server simultaneously (previously just one). This allows ComCap to be used to distribute captured data to five other PCs, perhaps also running ComCap.

10 - The highest numbered COM port recognised by ComCap has been increased from COM60 to COM200 to allow for virtual COM ports being installed with high numbers.  Also, the Standard version now lists all installed COM ports, not just the first three, but still only allows capture from a maximum of three ports.
 

11 - If the requirement is to capture serial data from another application on the same PC, ComCap now includes a Null Modem Emulator (com0com) from http://com0com.sourceforge.net/ that installs a linked pair of virtual serial ports, instead of needing to use a physical pair of COM ports and a null modem cable.

4.1

1 - The ComCap system tray icon now shows a small red or green square to indicate whether capture is stopped or started.

2 - If ComCap is unregistered, an alert is now sent when capture starts and when it stops after one hour (24 hours with a v3 license).  This will serve as a warning if the license key is lost or corrupted.

3 - Both the Information Log and Alerts may now be sent to a remote PC using UDP, TCP Client or TCP Server protocols, perhaps to another copy of ComCap.  This will ease central monitoring of remote capture.

4 - The Alert window will now appear without also showing the tray capture window, which avoids unnecessary log scrolling on unattended PCs.

5 - Echo to Remote using UDP now pings the remote host before sending any data to establish it exists, and continues to ping at the 'Wait Seconds' interval during the capture session to ensure it's still available.  Note this does not mean a UDP server is listening on the remote computer, just that the computer is running.  This is disabled if Common Preferences 'Don't Check Connections with Ping Echo' is ticked.

6 - When using Echo to Remote with Syslog, the Severity and Facility Priorities are now selected from drop down lists, rather than needing to enter a numeric value (ie <14>).

7 - The ComCap application and set-up program are now both digitally signed as being from Magenta Systems Ltd.  This will reduce the severity of the warnings that Windows Vista generates when programs are run.

8 - Fixed a bug with capture using TCP Server where an optional Start Command was only sent for the server remote connection, and not subsequent connections.

9 - Fixed a bug that meant the service version did not always log version and registration information on start-up.

10 - Fixed a bug that meant an unnecessary 'emergency' information log file might have been created in the program directory on start-up or close down. Such logs are generally only created when the correct log volume is not available or the log file can not be opened due to an error.

11 - In Common Settings, Serial Ports, a new column 'Control Lines' has been added. This option determines whether the three serial control lines CTS, DTS and DCD should be checked during capture, to make detection of connection or hardware problems easier since an alert can be sent if capture stops. If ticked, capture will only start when at least one of the three control lines goes high, and will stop if they all drop.   Note this is really cosmetic only (with the tab colour changing red to green) and start/stop logging, and data will be still be captured even if all the control line are low.  But unless the channel is seen to 'start', some functionality may not work correctly such as capture file name roll over.

12 - In Common Settings, Log Files, a new tick box 'Send Alert on File Errors' has been added.  If ticked, any major errors opening or writing the information or capture logs will generate an alert.  Currently there may be repeated alerts, since such errors often happen rapidly in multiple channels, but this should be fixed shortly.

13 - In Common Settings, Capture Logging, a new tick box 'Send Alert on Stop' has been added.  If ticked, an alert is sent every time ComCap is stopped.  This is intended for where ComCap should be running 24/7, and where alerts are sent via email, SMS or remotely to warn of accidental stops. Note this will only work for a 'clean' close down, if ComCap is crashed from Task Manager or by Windows close down, the alert may not be sent.

14 - Attempted to handle a situation with the service version where a serious problem that causes hundreds or thousands of error lines in the information log could potentially overflow the 'echo to tray' communication channel and lock-up ComCap.

15 - Made a few improvements in ComGen.  It will now close down faster when Windows itself closes down.  UDP Client now pings the remote host before sending any data to establish it exists, and continues to ping during the session to ensure it's still available.  Corrected the default Data Types that still had \s8 for a serial number (from an earlier beta) instead of \#8 used in the final release.

4.0

New Release