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                                  ipPulse (tm)
                     Welcome to ipPulse 1.5 "readme" file
               (c) 1998-2002 Northwest Performance Software, Inc.
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DOCUMENT INDEX
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This file contains the following sections:

1. Program Overview
2. General Notes
3. Contact Information
4. Installation Instructions
5. Revision History

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Program Overview

ipPulse (a Remote Status Monitor) is an application used to monitor the active
status of any number of TCP/IP connected computers. Any loss of connectivity
can be logged and a person notified audibly, or through any other number of means
such as email, or a dynamically created web page.

To use ipPulse, do the following:
1. Start ipPulse
2. Press the Help button and follow the Getting Started section

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GENERAL NOTES

Program Requirements.
*This program runs on Windows XP, 2000, NT 4 SP4+, or Windows 98/ME. It will run on
Windows 95 with the winsock 2 update. (all the preceding are trademarks or
registered trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation).
*Requires Winsock 2
*Approximately 2.7 MB disk space
*TCP/IP Network connection with DNS

License Agreement.
Please see license.txt linked from the Start/Programs/ipPulse menu selection.

Suggestions/Comments/Bug Reports
Please email all suggestions/comments/bug reports to:
support@nwpsw.com

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CONTACT INFORMATION

email:			sales@netscantools.com or sales@nwpsw.com
WWW-main site:		http://www.nwpsw.com/index.html
			http://www.ippulse.com/ippulsemain.html

Mailing address:
Northwest Performance Software, Inc.
PO Box 148
Maple Valley, WA 98038-0148 USA

Telephone.  VOICE: (425) 413-0354 (8am to 5pm Pacific (Seattle-LA) Time)
24 hour/7 day FAX: (425) 413-0639

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INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

1. If this file was zipped. Unzip and copy all files to a new,
   empty directory (folder).
2. Close this file.
3. Run setup.exe from your preferred file management program.
 Be sure to install this program in a directory different than the directory
 created in step 1 above.
4. Follow the instructions in the setup program.

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REVISION HISTORY

1.50 Release 5/01/02
	*Lowered default ping return percentage to 50% from 100%.
	*Modified Autosize to include the column headers.
	*Added ability to support dynamic dns. It can now resolve
	the hostname to an IP address on every pass.
	*Added saving and loading setup from files.
	*Changed IP address controls in Target List Editor.
	*Fully integrated SNMP resulting in greater speed.
	*SNMP mibs can be added now by simply copying the mib into the
	MIBS directory.
	*All code recompiled with VC6.

1.41 Release 5/01/01
	New
	*Added Autosize main window columns to main window right click menu.
	*Changed email/pager limits from globally applied to applied on a per
	 target basis. This means that together with the FAIL to PASS reset
	 of fail counters, consecutive failures can now be notified.
	*Added FAIL to PASS reset of FAIL counters checkbox option to the Setup/
	 Failure Criteria tab.
	*Changed Remote Control resetting of fail counters.
	
	Fixes
	*Fixed a problem with FAIL to PASS email/pager notifies for secondary
	 tests.

1.40 Release 3/01/01
	New
	*ipPulse is now a trial version and can now be unlocked. Remote Control
	 is not operable during the trial until purchased and unlocked.

	Fixes
	*Fixed problem with * in front of IP on load from file.
	*Fixed problem testing numeric pager with Send target number enabled.
	*Fixed problem double clicking on a disabled target.
	*Changed default remote control port to 4320 (unassigned port) from
	 4321 (rwhois). DLL now at 1.400.

	Additions
	*Added ability to enable/disable IP addresses/hosts from the Remote
	 Control telnet login.
	*Added ping time reset feature to right-click menu.
	*Added reset error counters on FAIL to PASS.
	*Added "not available" to HTML page when Last Pass Time is not there.
	*Added option to control sending of End of Message footer to email
	 messages.

1.31 Release 9/14/00
	Fixes
	*Email messages sent will now show the correct send time when read by
	email programs. smtpmail.dll now at 1.201. ippulse.exe now at 1.310.

1.3 Release 8/8/00
	Fixes
	*Corrected file logging so that if a hostname field is blank or a ?,
	the IP address field will be used.
	*The email setup dialog now has a timeout for waiting for SMTP
	communications to complete.
	*The email DLL now has better diagnostics and logging. Now at
	DLL version 1.20.

	Additions
	*A change in state from a FAIL to a PASS will now trigger an email
	or a pager message if the checkbox on the Setup/Failure Criteria
	tab is enabled. This does not affect count of the total email/pager
	messages sent.
	*Entering a zero (0) in a TCP port field means that the TCP port
	test will be skipped for that target. If zero is entered in the Primary
	TCP port field, the Ping test will also be skipped for the Primary
	Test.
	*Comments text field now added after IP address and hostname in the web
	page error generation section.
	*Highlighting one or more target entries, then right-clicking brings
	up a menu to toggle the active/inactive state of the target. This is
	intended for temporary use. Entering the Define Targets dialog will
	clear any inactive state targets back to active. You can also set them
	to inactive in the Define Targets dialog by prefixing any IP address
	with a '*' symbol.
	*Added viewing of logs, activating help and resetting results counters
	from a right click menu in the main display results window.
	*You can now specify the text editor used to view the log files on
	the Setup/Program Control tab.
	*The Remote Control tab in Setup now has a username field in addition
	to the current password field. The password field now shows *****
	characters. Remote Control DLL now at v1.004.

1.23 Release 5/16/00
	Fixes
	*Ping tests now properly check for either ICMP echo reply messages
	or ICMP port unreachable messages. All other ICMP packets are discarded
	and not counted as valid ping responses.

1.22 Release 4/26/00
	Fixes
	*Redefined how the average ping packet is calculated. It is now based
	on the number and round-trip-times of the ping packets received.
	*Timezone information is now requested prior to getting the localtime
	of your system. This affects the header time in the email error messages.
	*Telephone numbers changed to note the change in physical location of
	our sales office.

1.21 Release 3/9/00
	Fixes
	*AlphaPagers are now sent the whole error message.
	*Define Targets main window button is now disabled during a PAUSE.

1.20 Release 2/9/00
	Fixes
	*Removed IP to host resolution in SMTPMAIL.
	*Improved threading.
	*Ping min and max times now correctly reflect the min and max times
	occurring during a run/stop session.

	Additions
	*Moved several things from Primary Test setup page to new Setup/Program
	Control page.
	*Added cycle control. Either infinite or fixed number of passes through
	the target list.
	*Added control to set number of times to attempt hostname/ip address
	resolution.
	*Added Edit Column Visibility feature. This controls which columns are
	visible.
	*Added ability to reset primary and secondary pass and failure counts.
	*Added Ping Average time column.
	*Added Failure Count Trigger Point control to Failure Criteria tab.
	*Added ability to send error messages to multiple pagers on the same
	pager provider. One call to the provider can trigger several pagers.
	*Improved help file and switched to a different HTML help method.

1.11 Release 11/04/99
	Fixes
	*Several minor cosmetic fixes such as graying out boxes at the right time,
	tooltips for the new small extended menu buttons on the main page.
	*Deactivating the extended menu buttons on the main page during a RUN cycle.
	*Pager Phone Number entry dialog box now has column titles that change to
	reflect whether a numeric or alphanumeric pager is being setup.

	Additions
	*Separated Email Max Alerts from Pager Max Alerts on the Setup/Failure Alerts
	tab. Remote Control now displays both alert counts separately.

1.10 Release 7/30/99
	Fixes
	*Algorithm to automatically add 1 second to SNMP query timeout upon no response
	 was removed.
	*Now using pager DLL PowerPage version 2.07b.
	*Hostname/IP address resolution now done using the same thread function as is
	 used in NetScanTools Pro 2000.
	*Shutdown of threads during testing improved.
	*SNMP now updated to 3.6.1.

	Additions
	*Colorized PASS/FAIL rows. Colors can be set on the Setup/Define Display Colors
	 tab.
	*Autostart on program start. To activate, see the Setup/Primary Test tab.
	*Complete overhaul of the Target List Editor. Now includes fields for separately
	 specifying the unique SNMP Community Name, Primary and Secondary TCP Ports and
	 comments for each target. IP Address Range Generation. Clear Target List.
	*Comments column, editable from the Target List Editor.
	*PASS/FAIL test count columns for each of the tests, primary and secondary.
	*Last test FAIL time columns for each of the tests, primary and secondary.
	*Two new buttons below the Exit button activate a new set of buttons:
	 -AutoSize, which will size the column widths to the longest text string.
	 -Print/Save, which allows you to print or save the results area information.
	 -Logs, which allows you to view the Error, Test, and SMTP email logs.
	 -News, which launches your web browser to view the latest ipPulse news.
	*Log files now have formatting change: we now include hostname after IP address
	 and the comments column is included after the hostname.
	*Email messages include the hostname and comments because the email message body
	 gets the same data as the log file.
	*Email messages can optionally show the first 100 characters of the log file
	 error message in the subject line. See Setup/Failure Alerts/Email Setup.
	*Email messages can now have multiple recipients.

1.05 Update 6/1/99
	Fixes
	*Email Notifications now have the subject line filled in properly.

1.04 Update 5/21/99
	Fixes
	*Fixed a pager bug where if your modem was in use and pager alerts were enabled,
	 and ipPulse tried to use the pager, it would get hung up trying to send the
	 page and also create a large pager.log file. Now, if the modem is in use, it will
	 try 6 times waiting 5 seconds between each try. Errors are logged to pager.log.
	*Fixed a problem with snmpwalk where it could have crashed under certain limited
	 circumtances.

1.03 Update 5/11/99
	Fixes
	*Spawned SNMP walk processes now have a 60 second maximum lifetime.
	*SNMP walk has now been version updated to UCD 3.6.1.
	*Top of target list is now visible when program is started.
	*Paging Setup and Email Setup now properly launch HTML help.

	Additions
	*When a row in the main window is selected, it is now highlighted all
	 the way across the row.
	*A program can now be launched upon failure. You must assure that the
	 program you launch is self-terminating.
	*The target number of the failed target can now be sent to a numeric
	 pager. See Paging Setup.
	*Help file updated.

1.02 Update 4/6/99
	Fixes
	*Text changed on percentage returned packets to correctly reflect how
	 the PASS/FAIL triggering actually works.
	*All dialog box text checked to ensure that text clipping is eliminated.
	*Tab key ordering in all dialogs corrected.
	*Log files now include tab character formatting for easier import into
	 spreadsheets and databases.

	Additions
	*Pager setup now includes control of the specific TAPI/COM port used and
	 includes modem init string control. Pager modem logging was also added.
	*Help file updated.

1.01 Update 1/5/99
	Fixes
	*AlphaPager now correctly appends the error message to the header when
	sending an alphanumeric error page.
	*Memory leaks due to premature thread termination fixed.
	*Duplicate <BODY> tag removed from error web page generator.

1.00 Release Version 10/9/98

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