Neon Software’s LANsurveyor, the Mac OS network mapping tool, has been updated to version 6.0, adding a host of new features including Neon Responder for Mac OS X, tight integration with AT&T’s VNC open-source screen-sharing application, printer requests for paper and toner levels and page counts, SNMP trap handling and a redesigned user interface.
LANsurveyor discovers and draws topological maps for TCP/IP and AppleTalk networks. It features network node up/down testing (polling) for both TCP/IP and AppleTalk nodes with alerts, including paging and e-mail. You can use it to produce detailed reports, including full Mac OS system configurations, software inventories, network configurations, Dantz Retrospect and Netopia Timbuktu client information. LANsurvery also controls and remotely manages Mac OS and Windows nodes, including remote restart/shutdown, remote file and folder updating, quit/launch applications and instant messaging.
Version 6.0 has a redesigned user interface with multi-threaded management and reporting options throughout. It also introduces Neon Responders for Mac OS X. The LANsurveyor management station can now map, manage and report on Classic Mac OS, Mac OS X and Windows computers running on your network.
LANsurveyor 6.0 boasts built-in support for VNC screen sharing. VNC is an open-source screen-sharing project from AT&T that provides clients and servers for Mac, Windows and Unix. LANsurveyor 6.0 uses features found in the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) Printer MIB in order to return lists of toner/ink sources and paper sources, as well as page counts, and printer model information. Almost any SNMP-enabled printer will respond to the Printer MIB information requests.
You can receive and send alerts based on SNMP traps. Many SNMP-enabled devices have the ability to send SNMP traps, which are messages indicating an unusual device condition or error occurrence. LANsurveyor 6.0 now functions as an SNMP trap receiver, allowing it to receive SNMP traps. Also, LANsurveyor 6.0 can send alerts based on the receipt of any trap, on receipt of any user-specified text within the trap or on receipt of traps from particular IP addresses.
LANsurveyor 6.0 implements a new “named” alert mechanism. Selecting Alerts from the Edit menu allows the user to centrally configure alerts for paging, e-mail, audio and others and assign these alerts names. Once named alerts are configured, they can be selected for use with LANsurveyor’s Polling (up/down monitoring) and Monitoring (SNMP traffic monitoring) windows and SNMP traps.
LANsurveyor 6.0 uses an entirely rewritten mapping subsystem that allows for improved map drawing, according to the folks at Neon Software. This new mapping subsystem also makes it easy to add new nodes to an existing map while maintaining the overall structure of the existing map, including changes made by the user by dragging map nodes to new locations, they add.
There’s also support for BetterTelnet as well as NCSA Telnet. LANsurveyor has included the ability to automatically launch and establish Telnet connections from the map in previous revisions. LANsurveyor 6.0 also adds support for BetterTelnet, an open-source Mac OS Telnet client.
Upgrade prices depend on the number of Neon Responders a user has purchased and range from US$99 to $199. For upgrade pricing, see the upgrade page.