Friendly names

Is there any way to add a column for friendly names so than we can type a name we know the computer for? In my envirnment the computers have cryptic names as: LW097 or even worse GOGR80, without any meaning, I would like to know at a glance who this machine belongs to.

Thanks,

Jorge

Jorge, the feature you requested is now available. You can download v3.7 from the product page, see Options - Friendly Names in the main menu after you download it.

Thanks for the quick response. It is great to be able to see who is GOGR80 at a glance.

Keep up the great work,


Jorge

Andrew,

How the Friendly Names and the applications are encoded in the .ini file? I would like to be able (if at all possible) to manualy edit them.

Thanks,

Jorge

Hi Jorge, if stored in the .ini file the strings are encoded with hexadecimal coding. For example, the letters XYZ are coded are 58595A according to the ASCII standard. This is done to prevent problems with reading and writing the .ini file when a string contains spaces and/or special characters.

Thanks, now it all makes perfect sense.
Another thing: is it possible to use BOTH IP and Mac Addresses to map to the friendly names?

Jorge

No, only either of them.

How many friendly names can the .ini file hold?

Jorge

I don't know whether there is a limit on a length of the line within the INI file. If you suddenly hit the limit, let me know. In this case, I guess we will have to change the container and store everything in XML rather than INI.

Oh! I hit the limit, all right. I hit it at about 30 or so devices ( I have 80+ devices in my network). And definitely it would be best if you do it in an .xml or so file.

Jorge

Okay, the problem has been fixed. Please download an updated build 3.7.171 and then use the /xml command line switch rather than /ini.

Wonderful! It worked like a charm, thanks a lot. Now to be closer to perfection it would be great if you could add another option in friendly names to map them to both IP and MAC addresses.
Hey, do not blame me! The more you give the more we want.
Thank you again, you are great.

Jorge

Hi, Jorge. I just checked it won't be difficult to add an option to map IP:MAC pairs to friendly names, so we will add that within a couple of days. Although this tool is free and does not bring any profit directly, it attracts visitors to our web-site which eventually does bring profit. This is why we are willing to develop this software further and consider users' comments. So, there is no blaming

Update: we've uploaded a fresh build which is capable of mapping pairs IP:MAC to comments. You can download it directly from the product page.

Thanks for the quick answer. I appreciate what you do for us, it is great.

Jorge

Andrew, I apologize for being such a pain in your neck. I just happen to notice that the new option is for BOTH IP AND MAC addresses, what I meant is for an option that chooses what is available, either IP OR MAC addresses, but both under the same option. See some of my devices do not disclose the MAC address, in those cases I would use IP but for those whom disclose it (the MAC address that is), it is best to use it as relation to the friendly name. I am not sure if that is even possible or very painful to do, in any case you have done a terrific job and I really appreciate all you do.
Thanks again,

Jorge