Blog

MIB Smithy 4.1.2, MIB Smithy SDK 3.4.6, and MIB Views 1.4.2 are now available for download, with essentially the same bug fixes in each. These will most likely be the last releases based on the SDK 3.4 development branch, as we’re finally getting close to having the SDK 4.0 development branch in a releasable state. Since it’s taken an unusually long time to release 4.0 branch and there are some potential compatibility issues you’ll need to be aware of, as well as new features affecting all three of these products, I’ll talk a bit more about it in a post to follow shortly.

Changes affecting MIB Smithy, MIB Smithy SDK, and MIB Views:

305: Host ID not matched when interface is disconnected

Windows interfaces that were disconnected were not recognized by the license manager, requiring laptop users to have to swap license keys depending on whether they were on wired or wireless. This is is no longer necessary, as the interfaces are seen whether connected or not.

727: Clarify “trailing hyphens will be stripped” error

The parser message produced for identifiers with illegal trailing hyphens was stripping the hyphen in the error message (indicating the corrected identifier was invalid) yet not automatically correcting the error as it should.

1368: Windows: IPv6-only interface Host IDs not available

Windows interfaces configured to support only IPv6 could not previously be used for licenses keys, but can now.

1406: Circular type references cause crash

A type definition derived from another type definition, which is derived from the first type definition, would lead to a crash due to infinite recursion. (Note: TEXTUAL- CONVENTIONs cannot legally derive from other TEXTUAL-CONVENTIONs.)

Additional changes affecting MIB Smithy SDK:

312: Changing IPs with SNMPv3 loses auth/priv state

Changing the target IP address of an existing SNMPv3 auth/priv session without also setting the auth/priv password did not sufficiently prepare the session to localize keys with the next request, causing the session to switch to no-auth/no-priv.

1354: Timeout of Tnm-style async requests causes error with future request

Upon timeout of a Tnm-style async request, the callback was being invoked using non- Tnm style arguments, which would typically cause an error, when it should not be invoked at all.

MIB Smithy 4.1.1 and MIB Smithy SDK 3.4.5 are now available. The majority of these changes parallel those of MIB Views 1.4.1, plus a number of bug fixes for the XML-SMI parser uncovered while putting together a full regression test suite for it.

Changes affecting MIB Smithy

482: Updated Tcl/Tk version

The Tcl/Tk base for MIB Views was upgraded to 8.4.19. Among other things, this fixes a crash at startup on later versions of Mac OS X.

606: Application icons for Unix

Full-color application icons have been added to Unix platforms, replacing the old monochrome bitmaps.

1272: TreeView: lexicographic errors can cause loop

In certain circumstances, an agent returning lexicographically incorrect responses to get-next requests could cause branch expansion to loop until a user requested stop, and duplicate branches could be displayed. More protections against lexicographic errors were added to prevent this.

Changes affecting MIB Smithy and MIB Smithy SDK

1130: XMLSMI: some binary strings not formatted correctly

In some cases, using the ‘bstring’ integer format attribute would result in the binary value not being quoted/suffixed properly (e.g. ‘B’00001011 instead of ‘00001011’B).

1133: XMLSMI: capability variation parse error

A “variation element unexpected or unrecognized” error would occur due to attempting to parse the wrong element when parsing AGENT-CAPABILITIES variations.

1159: XMLSMI: piberrors should be parsed as enum list

The piberrors element was being parsed as a value reference, rather than an enumeration list. This was fixed previously for the SMI parser and in the schema and database APIs, but not in the XML parser.

1124: XMLSMI: oid child element doesn’t work in some places

Using the oid element to define a defval or index with an OID value rather than an identifier or with importsfrom to disambiguate imported modules resulted in a parse error.

1137: XMLSMI: wrong size/range using min or max attribute only

When using the size or range element with only the min or max attribute, the other was defaulting to 0 rather than defaulting to the same value.

1138: XMLSMI: syntax tag element’s ‘implicit’ attribute not preserved

The implicit attribute of the syntax tag element was not being checked or preserved by the XML parser. This would generally only affect SMI base modules represented as XML, not MIB/PIB modules.

1146: XMLSMI: text wrapping issues on load

Newlines were being collapsed in places they shouldn’t when parsing MixedText fields like description, resulting in (for example) <pre> not being preformatted.

MIB Views version 1.4.1 is now available with the following changes:

483: Updated Tcl/Tk version

The Tcl/Tk base for MIB Views was upgraded to 8.4.19. Among other things, this fixes a crash at startup on later versions of Mac OS X.

605: Application icons for Unix

Full-color application icons have been added to Unix platforms, replacing the old monochrome bitmaps.

1271: TreeView: lexicographic errors can cause loop

In certain circumstances, an agent returning lexicographically incorrect responses to get-next requests could cause branch expansion to loop until a user requested stop, and duplicate branches could be displayed. More protections against lexicographic errors were added to prevent this.

We often have students and staff of educational institutions interested in using our software, either for educational purposes, thesis projects, or general use on the institution’s network. Did you know we offer discounts to schools and for educational use? Probably not, because it wasn’t mentioned anywhere, but we’ve always been happy to provide such discounts upon request.

Now, we’re making it more official: if you’re a student, faculty, or staff of a US educational institution, you can obtain licenses for our software at a 50 to 100% discount (that’s free) depending on qualifications. For details, see Discounts for Educational Use on the How to Buy page.

These discounts are available on all of our current products.

At long last, our users are now able to renew and extend support for their licensed software online and gain access to updates and upgrades beyond their initial 1-year support period. Until now, users needed to submit a Purchase Order or order by phone–either of which required a bit unwieldy manual data entry on our end to process (and not particularly convenient for you, especially if you initially purchased online).

From now until December 31, 2008, you can renew or extend any of your licenses now-expired or set to expire within the next year, for up to three years, at a discounted rate of 15% of list price:

• MIB Smithy Professional: $149.25/year
• MIB Smithy Standard: $104.25/year
• MIB Smithy SDK: $52.35/year
• MIB Views: $14.25/year

This offer is open to everyone, not just online renewals. Beginning January 1, 2009, you will still be able to renew or extend support for any expired or soon-to-expire licenses for up to three years, but at the rate of 25% of list price:

• MIB Smithy Professional: $248.75/year
• MIB Smithy Standard: $173.75/year
• MIB Smithy SDK: $87.25/year
• MIB Views: $23.75/year

Buying up to three years of support in advance allows you to lock in the current price. To get started, head over to your Manage Licenses page, select the licenses you want to renew, and click the “Renew Support” button. Then you can go through the quote or checkout process as with a new purchase.

P.S. Happy Programmers Day!