NetSetMan Support

gonzzo

Member

Registered: 2014-01-03

Posts: 6

Please add more fields to Tray Info

I own several licences since years and we cannot be anymore without NetSetMan.
Many thanks for that great software.

I would like to ask for some features.

Tray-Info:
- add display of active VLAN ID
- add display of secondary IP's
- add indication of changed MAC address

Other:
- Allow configuration of primary IP via DHCP and secondary fixed IP's

- If VLAN ID is not explicitely set in a profile, please apply VLAN=0 in profiles that do not set the VLAN ID. I understand that behaviour might not be wished by some users, thus you might make this an option in the overall configuration.

- If MAC address is not explicitely set in a profile, please apply original mac address. I understand that behaviour might not be wished by some users, thus you might make this an option in the overall configuration.

- Please add an option that checks the adapter/IP configuration after applying.. i.e. by pinging a configurable IP address given in the profile (gateway address or such), and gives visual clue. I think the world symbol appearing on the apply screen might be something like this. but I do not know what exacrly it means.. yes, I know I can do it with the script, but a feature added doing that would be great.

Thanks
Dan

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: Please add more fields to Tray Info

Lots of ideas - thank you!

Let's look at them one by one:

add display of active VLAN ID

Unfortunately, there is no officual API for VLAN. The feature for setting the VLAN-ID we integrated heavily depends on the driver and some workarounds. Theoretically we could use the same for displaying it in the Tray Info, but we would need to find a way to make it clear that this option might not work for the user, because this depends on his NIC and driver. We will add this to the backlog and look at this at a later point again.

add display of secondary IP's

Actually, that's already the case. All IPs for each NIC are displayed.

add indication of changed MAC address

There is an option to display the MAC address for each NIC. So what we could do is displaying the original MAC address (in case it was changed) additionally in scopes. Is this what you think of?

Allow configuration of primary IP via DHCP and secondary fixed IP's

We are not sure if this is technically possible. It does work for gateways, but this is already available.
If you think that it is possible, please attach a screenshot showing how and where you would set this up directly in Windows.

If VLAN ID is not explicitely set in a profile, please apply VLAN=0 in profiles that do not set the VLAN ID. I understand that behaviour might not be wished by some users, thus you might make this an option in the overall configuration.

If MAC address is not explicitely set in a profile, please apply original mac address. I understand that behaviour might not be wished by some users, thus you might make this an option in the overall configuration.

It's a basic rule to change only settings that are explicitly configured in a profile. If you configure the original MAC address in a profile, its configuration will basically be reset. What we could do is to set the original MAC adderss if the MAC address option has been checked but no MAC address has been entered. Right now this only throws an error message. But we are not sure if that would help in your use case. Please describe your constellation in more detail.

Please add an option that checks the adapter/IP configuration after applying.. i.e. by pinging a configurable IP address given in the profile (gateway address or such), and gives visual clue. I think the world symbol appearing on the apply screen might be something like this. but I do not know what exacrly it means.. yes, I know I can do it with the script, but a feature added doing that would be great.

Right now, after changing the IP, NetSetMan waits for the network to be ready, before continuing with the other settings. If the network is not available, it times out after 15 seconds.
Would an additional ping option still be helpful? Please describe your use case in detail.

gonzzo

Member

Registered: 2014-01-03

Posts: 6

Re: Please add more fields to Tray Info

Thanks for the quick response.

VLAN ID
I am perfectly happy if it's not shown when the NIC is not supported. But I am even happier if it's displayed when the NIC supports it.

Secondary IP's
Will have to test that. Seems not to be dislpayed for me, but I'll check again.

MAC address
Perhaps you could color or mark the MAC address in red when it's not the original/default MAC of the interface?
And not marking it when it has not been changed in the profile, but is still selected to be shown.

DHCP and secondary fixed IP's
You are right. I was not able to do that. I always had to select a static address first.. hmm..

Setting VLAN ID or MAC address
I have a default and simple profile "DHCP" which contains only DHCP setting for the interface and DNS. Nothing else. When I test connections with tagged Vlans (i.e. 50 and 51), I create profiles that are identical to "DHCP", but will set the Vlan ID to i.e. 50 or 51. When I am finished with testing, I select "DHCP" and the Vlan ID is not reset to 0. I have to explicitely set the Vlan ID to 0 in that profile. I think it would be more logical to set all values that can be changed (VLAN ID, MAC, etc.) to defaults when not explicitely set. As I mentioned before, this might not be the desired behaviour for other people. So having an option "reset all configurable parameters to a well knwon default" YES/NO might be needed ?()

ping option after applying profile
Yes, that would still be helpful. For example, I test several vlans on the same physical cable. I am not sure about the DHCP server and if the address was assigned properly. I could do an ipconfig, or wait until the tray info shows the right content. but that means waiting and clicking. Would be nice if Netsetman would inform me not only that the interface is up again, but also that a basic (configurable) connection test has been performed.

DHCP reminds me of another nice feature.
Would you be able to show all DHCP options that had been offered to the client and mark the ones that have been accepted? It would also be great if Netsetman could mimic a phone or any other device that requests or accepts certain DHCP options.Perhaps another nice NSM Tool? One that does things like discover DHCP servers, send a reqest, analyze the results, or even generate fake requests that urge the dhcp server to send options otherwise not sent. dhcptest.exe, dhcpcheck.exe and dhcpexplorer do subsets of those things..

Dan

Last edited by gonzzo (2020-12-18 01:48)

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: Please add more fields to Tray Info

Setting VLAN ID or MAC address
I have a default and simple profile "DHCP" which contains only DHCP setting for the interface and DNS. Nothing else. When I test connections with tagged Vlans (i.e. 50 and 51), I create profiles that are identical to "DHCP", but will set the Vlan ID to i.e. 50 or 51. When I am finished with testing, I select "DHCP" and the Vlan ID is not reset to 0. I have to explicitely set the Vlan ID to 0 in that profile. I think it would be more logical to set all values that can be changed (VLAN ID, MAC, etc.) to defaults when not explicitely set. As I mentioned before, this might not be the desired behaviour for other people. So having an option "reset all configurable parameters to a well knwon default" YES/NO might be needed ?()

That would go against the whole basic concept of only changing the settings configured in profiles.
In your case, you should simply extend the configuration of your "DHCP" profile, configuring VLAN to 0 (and other settings like MAC address you would like to be "reset"). By activating that profile, you know which settings are applied and that you will end up with the correct default settings you would like to have. There is no harm in that and the behavior of all settings is consistent.

DHCP reminds me of another nice feature.
Would you be able to show all DHCP options that had been offered to the client and mark the ones that have been accepted? It would also be great if Netsetman could mimic a phone or any other device that requests or accepts certain DHCP options.Perhaps another nice NSM Tool? One that does things like discover DHCP servers, send a reqest, analyze the results, or even generate fake requests that urge the dhcp server to send options otherwise not sent. dhcptest.exe, dhcpcheck.exe and dhcpexplorer do subsets of those things..

We continue working hard on NetSetMan, but we're afraid we don't have any free resources for new tools. Integrating that functionality directly seems to be out of scope. DHCP negotiation is done by Windows directly, NetSetMan only applies and triggers it.

ping option after applying profile

We have added this to our backlog and will consider it.
Right now, you could actually simply open the NetSetMan Tools dialog and run a ping (with multiple options) there.