Retaining friendly names between scans

Fantastic product.... but I'm having a problem getting the friendly names to stick after I shut down the program.

I scanned my network, painstakingly mapped a friendly name to each MAC address, saved the results from the File menu in an XML file, but when I restart the program and do a scan, the friendly names to do show.

What am I missing?

TIA!
Paul

Are they still present in Options - Friendly Names?

I am having the same problem. I have selected Map IP to Friendly Name and manually entered a name for the IPs of 100+ devices. I update them a few times a month when we have equipment changes on our network. After updating, I select File-Current config-Save to file and overwrite the file I opened. I have done this multiple times with not problem. Then all of a sudden, the friendly names disappear if I open the file again. But then, they sometimes show up. My .xml file has the following info if open it in notepad:

<ip-address>x.x.79.3</ip-address>
<hostname/>
<mac-address/>
<response-time>9</response-time>
<friendly-name>name I manually assigned to IP</friendly-name>
<lastscan>9/8/2017 8:57:05 AM</lastscan>
<uptime/>
<comment/>
<snmp/>
<services/>
<registry/>
<remfile/>
<wmi/>
<membership/>
<remxml/>

But in the .xml file where the friendly names are showing up after opening in netscan, i don't see any text about IPs or friendly names.

If there is a better way of importing a list of IPs and host names(or friendly names) into the .xml file quickly and easily in case they disappear again?

This is a snippet from a scan result file. It only contains found devices and their friendly names mapped during that scan.

Mappings themselves are kept in the config file, you can open its XML and see something like:

<mapnames>
  <item>
    <ident>1.2.3.4</ident>
    <value>test</value>
  </item>
  <item>
    <ident>4.5.6.7</ident>
    <value>foobar</value>
  </item>
</mapnames>

Please check your config file. It sounds like at some stage it's overwritten by a another config with no name mappings in it. So it makes sense to backup the current configuration periodically to make sure the name mappings are preserved.

Thanks for the reply Andrew. I did end up figuring out that I had overwritten the config file with a scan result file. I was able to restore the config file from a back up.

I should have mentioned that I am using the version 5.4.9 32-bit exe freeware version that was passed on to me from a coworker.The .xml files that I have that is keeping the friendly name mappings has this text:

<FriendlyNames>MQA2ADAALgAxADEAMgAuADEAMQA3AC4AMQAwAD0AVQBOAE4AUABJAC0AMAA5AEEAWAAtADEALQAwADEAKABNAEYARAApACwAIgAxADYAMAAuADEAMQAyAC4AMMQAuADIAMAAzAD0AUABMAE8ALAAxADYAMAAuADEAMQAyAC4AMQAxADcALgAzADAAPQBTAEYARAAsADEANgAwAC4AMQAxADIALgA3ADkALgAxADEANQA9AE0ARgBEACwAMQA2ADAALgAxADEAMgAuADcAOQAuADEANwA9AE0ARgBEAA==</FriendlyNames> <-- much more text though

but does not have this section that you mentioned above:

<mapnames>
  <item>
    <ident>1.2.3.4</ident>
    <value>test</value>
  </item>
  <item>
    <ident>4.5.6.7</ident>
    <value>foobar</value>
  </item>
</mapnames>

Is that because I am using an older version?

Yes, in the older versions the names were stored as a Base64-encoded strings. In the latest (paid) versions the config is more human- and machine-readable.

I am glad you have figured out how the names ended up being lost. Simply be careful not to overwrite the config file and friendly names will never be lost again.

I'm sure the paid version is a lot better than the outdated one I have. I just know that where I work, I would not get the funding or the permission to install the current version on my machine. I greatly appreciate the assistance.