From ISP admin

Contents 1 3.39 - 31.1.2010 1.1 CHANGES 1.2 NEWS 1.3 MIKROTIK 1.4 BINARY BACKUPS OF THE MIKROTIK ROUTER 1.5 RADIUS 1.6 WIFI AERIAL EVIDENCE 1.7 GOOGLE MAPS 1.8 SNMP TEMPLATE 1.9 BILLING 1.10 BULK DOCUMENT GENERATING 1.11 NETFLOW 1.12 VOIP Import

3.39 - 31.1.2010

CHANGES

• The fault of client ordering in the "Users / Internet" bookmark correction. The clients were wrongly ordered according to the "connected to" column.
• Corrected minor reported faults

NEWS

• Graphic design of the menu buttons editted; these are now better-arranged

• Into the head of every sent e-mail, the "Return-Path:" item will be added; this is set to the e-mail address of the sender ( either a user logged into the ISP admin and/or the e-mail address chosen from offered pop-up menus). Thus in case the e-mail is not delivered, the error notification is sent to this e-mail address.

• In the menu "Settings / Number keyboards / End devices" it was possible to display devices according to individual groups ( routers, AP .. ). Now it is possible to display all the client devices by clicking on the link "All devices"

MIKROTIK

• Mikrotik version 4.x support tested.

• Communication has been tested with stable versions of mikrotik version 2.51, 3.30 and the new 4.5. In all these versions the system works fully. In the version 3.x and 4.x it is possible to use API which provides more detailed information ( the "Routers / Mikrotik status" bookmark) and offers new functions which are not supported in versions 2.x

• API usage for communication with mikrotik is no longer "experimental"but is fully available for the actual operation

• When you suspend user services, all the IP spans presented at the service in the "routed networks" item and not only in the client "main" IP address

• Optimalization of QT notation carried out. In case the change of speed of a superior QT at a shared tariff rate (adding a client, removing a client, FUP activation, etc…) was carried out, then during writing a new rule into QT this superior rule removed itself and was again created. The problem was that when the rule was removed, all the clients under this QT "lost" their parent and turned "red" in MK in QT. The system correctly created a new QT, but found out that all the clients lost the parent so they had to be removed and added again. It meant to remove the old and enter the new rules. If there was a lot of clients in the group ( hundreds of clients ), the whole operation took rather long, and at such a number of clients, recount of the main QT used to happen quite often especially from the FUP activation, and the router was often re-writing the rules. Newly, for the current rule, there is only one change of the chosen parameter carried out ( without its removal ) and thus the whole process is made faster.

• If the "extended statement" is on in the "Routers / Mikrotik status" menu, the new version of firmware routerboard is newly displayed in here as well ( firmware is something like bios ). Then, the last available version of FW is displayed, which is a part of the distribution of mikrotik after update to a newer version. If the current and available version of FW does not correspond ( there is an older version in routerboards ), the new available version will show up in red and it is advisable to update it. Update FW is done from consoles by releasing the "/system routerboard upgrade" command. Thus you will finish the firmware upgrade ( after the routerboard reboot ). It is recommended to keep a current version of firmware because it solves for example random mikrotik "freezing" and other bothersome things. The function for new version detection is available only in case that communication through API is active.

• Information about wireless adaptors count automatically. All the details are possible to be displayed in the "Routers" bookmark by clicking on edit wireless adaptor icon. Here all the available information, such as frequency, type, card chipset, set coding, is displayed.

• We are planning graphical display of the frequency range utilization on the transmitters.

BINARY BACKUPS OF THE MIKROTIK ROUTER

• The system newly saves also binary backups of the Mikrotik router configuration, which are rather easily used for the system recovery

• These backups are to be found in the "Others / Backups / Routers" menu. There is a new column in the routers details called "Binary backup", and it displays size of a backup file in case of a backup, and by clicking on a certain icon it is possible to save the backup onto a local disc. This backup is possible to be "drawn" from the local disc through the winbox into the "Files" bookmark. By chosing the backup in the winbox and clicking on the "restore" button, the complete router configuration wil appear.

• Saving the binary backup after update fully works ONLY on 64bit versions of the system. For the older 32bit systems it is necessary to install a perl library "Net::SCP::Expect" including all the subordinations. In the contrary case, the binary backup is not saved.

RADIUS

• The given IP address for the router as well as all the IP addresses set on the router on individual interfaces are now added into allowed router IP addresses, which may communicate with RADIUS server ( NAS IP address ); this information is automatically detected by loading of "routed networks". In some cases a communication problem used to arise because Mikrotik router communicated from a differen IP address ( an IP address set on a different interface ) than IP address for the router in the item of "IP address". In this case radius server rejected the connnection with the router and the client could not verify. Now, all the IP addresses set on a mikrotik router are added into "allowed" IP addresses for the communication with the radius server, and thus the problem should be solved.

• This overview of connection "Router / Radius / Log Live" shows new column "Connection Type", which is given information that the client connect via Ethernet, Wifi, etc ...

• In the preview of the connection in the menu "Routers / Radius / Log verification" there is an icon for disconnection for every active client (ie. a client connected). By clicking on this icon, the system will attempt to disconnect the communication the Mikrotik router. Disconnection is, however, only possible when "API" is active on the router and the communication with the router works fully. API is possible to be activated only on Mikrotik version 3.x and 4.x. Disconnection of the client is not supported in the 2.x version.

• In case of disconnection, the client is removed firstly from cookies ( /ip hotspot cookie ) and then is disconnected from active clients ( /ip hotspot active ). Thus a re-login is forced, or aslo client disconnection during service suspension.

• In case of service suspension, the client`s access is blocked ( removal from radius, password for verification ) and the system will consequently try to disconnect the client ( by the way described in previous step )

• When changing the IP address of the router or when changing the password for communication with the radius, the radius will reboot itself automatically to load all the current information about the routers set.

• If the client has the service radius activated, there appears a new bookmark of in the client card. All the detailed information about the settings of tariff rate (individual attributes) are listed here, as well as a complete log for the client`s login. If the client is currently logged, the information about his activity is displayed here, and by clicking on a respective icon you can disconnect the client.

WIFI AERIAL EVIDENCE

• Newly it is possible to file used aerials on the transmitters including flare angels, range of reach… These data result in drawing a network topology in
• In the menu "Settings / Codebooks / Aerials" it is possible to add individual aerials. You will enter the title (eg. UNI24), the frequency for which an aerial is used, the flare angel, theoretical reach of the aerial, and the aerial gain.
• In the bookmark for "Routers" you can add individual aerials to every interface. The aerials can be added in detail editing where the button "Add an aerial" is. Pre-set aerial types may be selected from a codebook. After the selection, the parametres such as reach, flare angel, etc. will be pre-set. * * These values can be edited. Every interface can get any number of aerials.

GOOGLE MAPS

• Since Google has made some API changes on their maps, displaying of the network topology stopped working. Now, there are changes made, which ensure re-display.
• If the router has set the GPS coordinates and individual interfaces have aerials assigned, then the maps will show theoretical signal coverage according to set parametres ( the reach, flare angel, azimuth or the direction of the aerial). Displaying the reach is only theoretical because field obstacles such as buildings and hills are not taken into account. Individual frequency range of transmitting aerials ( 2,4, 5.8 and 3,5 GHz ) are distinguished with colour. 5.8 GHz is displayed as yellow, 3.5 GHz is blue and 2.4GHz is green. If the router is offline, the signal coverage turns red to show at least approximately, disabled locations.
• When displaying maps in "Others / Maps", you can display the terrain profiles on a route shown. When you doubleclick, the initial point may be displayed, and when you doubleclick the target point will be shown. It is also possible to enter the altitude (eg. pole height, or a building height on which the aerial is located) for the initial and the target points. The profile will alter according to this altitude. The initial and target points may be drawn on the map by grabbing the mouse. After releasing the point, the profile will be counted again and will be newly displayed.
• In maps, you can set a particular map layer by using checkbox. The settings will now retain even after logout, so it is not necessary to re-set all the layers again when loging in.

SNMP TEMPLATE

• For every template it is possible to select an icon from the offered set in the OID settings OID ( "Others / Settings / SNMP OID" ); the icon will be assigned to this template. These icons will show in the bookmarks of routers next to the name of device. The icons will in the future serve for graphical preview of SNMP device.
• In the menu "Settings / Codebooks / End devices", there is an icon of a SNMP template in the preview of device, and the name of the template which us used by the device is listed here, as well as the SNMP version.
• Final proof of SNMP data reading done; so data reading out of all devices should be possible.
• In case of debugging, you can start data reading out of the device manually by using the command " /usr/local/script/ispadmin/get_data_from_snmp.pl debug ". After releasing this, you will be shown the read values and details on the consoles. In case of a communication problem, send us the debug report which will contribute to perfect functionality of the SNMP communication with all the devices.

• In case a value of STRING type is got in the SNMP template, the system used to convert it into a number, which was not successful and did not result in drawing the final graph. Now the got values are identified automatically, and in case of a value of STRING type, this text will appear directly into the graph caption as a description. Thus it is possible to display for example a description of the device, the connection frequency, etc…. These values appear only in the graph caption and are not drawn in the graph itself because this is not possible with text strings.

BILLING

• Support for the billing system MONEY S5 implemented. Now you can export into this billing system. Export is carried out as usually in the menu of "Billing / Invoices", where an appropriate icon is placed for export in the invoice preview for every month in the invoice display. Export must be firstly set in the menu "Billing / Settings / Export". Export into MONEY S5 is the type "10".

BULK DOCUMENT GENERATING

• In this version, bulk document generating using the saved templates is possible.
• Firstly, it is necessary to save a template of the document in the RTF formate in the menu of "Settings / Contracts"
• A bulk document can be generated in the "Others / Bulk document". Here it is possible to select a template of the document from the menu and also the group of clients for which the document is going to be generated. Here you can select the type of service, router, tariff rate, group, etc….
• You can displays the generated documents in the menu of "Others / Bulk document" by clicking on the item "Generated documents". You can also remove the documents here.

NETFLOW

• The NetFlow check test added. The Netflow run on the server checked regularly ( and thus the data are collected ). The current state may be displayed by clicking on "NetFlow" bookmarks. NetFlow status is graphically displayed here ( red or green point ).
• In case, NetFlow is not running on the server, a warning sign appears after login and the problem has to be solved.
• In the menu of "Others / Bookmarks / NetFlow", you can display the curent size of stored data according to particular year, day up to individual files. If the data size is larger, the process might take some longer time.

VOIP Import

• In the menu of "Others / VoIP import / Previews" during the import of a new statement choice, if the imported prices are with or without VAT. The total price calculation will be done and saved into the database.