Another TNI 2 update is out. This time we’ve got some changes to our licensing scheme as well as additions and improvements to the software itself.

New TNI licensing policy

We used to have a somewhat complex licensing scheme where licenses had geographical and usage restrictions. Now everything is as simple as it can be.

First, you have Limited licenses. The limitation concerns the number of nodes you can inventory (starting at the minimum of 25 nodes and going up to 2000 nodes). This does not include non-scanned and manually created assets: you can have as many of them as you need. And then, there’s an Unlimited license. It’s virtually the same, but (obviously enough) the number of allowed nodes is unlimited.

You can use any license to scan computers anywhere in the world. Besides, all licenses can now be used by MSP/ITSP (Managed Service Providers / IT Service Providers) to inventory computers of their clients. The only restriction is that the licenses can be used only by the person or the staff of the organisation that they are registered to.

Again, all licenses are now worldwide and can be used by MSPs. We hope this new licensing policy proves to be more simple and convenient for our dear customers.

Visit TNI 2 purchase page to learn about pricing.

Scanning MacOS X libraries

If you have any MacOS X assets in your storage, go ahead and rescan them after installing this update. You’ll discover a brand new category, the Libraries.

At the moment we only scan Internet Plugins group of libraries, as these turned out to be the most useful and demanded information. If you happen to need another library group scanned, don’t hesitate to tell us about it. Our development process is driven by the feedback we get from you!

Improved export to Excel

From now on after exporting a table report to Excel document you get a nicely formatted table with properly typed cells. This gives you the full power of Excel to play with.

Just in case you didn’t know: inside Excel, click on those gray arrows in table header to get access to some advanced sorting, filtering and searching options. Further, you may use conditional formatting and built-in functions of Excel to get the most vivid reports and summaries.

Let your tools cooperate!

And that was TNI 2.0.5 (1280) for you. Hope you like it!

Donald Grizzly out.

Spring has come!
Mother Nature wakes from her dream.
We? We never fell asleep in the first place!

Export of tables to Excel

Go to Table reports tab, build a table and click Export » Export to XLSX file. For now, this feature is basic and rather simple, but it will soon get better and more sophisticated. Your feedback is, as always, highly appreciated.

We are extremely proud to announce that Softinventive Lab has completed the MSPAlliance Vendor Accreditation Program. As of today, we are official members of the MSPA.

MSPAlliance is the world’s largest association for the Managed Services and Cloud Computing Industry. Being a part of this community requires years of experience, highest standards of quality of products and service and recognition among MSP clients.

We’ve done a lot of work to achieve this, and now we’re motivated to work even harder. What this means for you? Better service, better TNI and, ultimately, more fun!

Today, to celebrate some pure love and true feelings, we’re releasing TNI 2.0.4 (1241).
Take a look:

Drag-n-drop from Windows Explorer

You can now drag inventory files along with folder structure right into the network tree.

Fit columns in printable table reports

Whenever you build a table report that’s just a little bit too wide for the page, choose Fit columns from the scale menu. The table will be shrunk down to be the exact same width as the currently selected page format.

We want to wish all you IT guys and IT ladies out there to be loved and cared for!

We’ve got a lot of plans for this year. For now, enjoy your updated TNI, and we’ll see you next time.

We’ve been working on new features, fixing bugs and polishing user experience for quite some time now. And we figured we’d release a fancy something at the end of the year. 

Manufacturer names in scanner tasks

This feature’s coolness is difficult to overestimate. You get this as soon as you type the range into Quick Add and expand it. All these devices were never scanned, but you can already tell which of them is a network device, a Mac or a virtual machine. Manufacturer name sure indicates a lot, doesn’t it?

Also check out the Scanner options page. From there you can change the way manufacturers and MAC-addresses are displayed.

Worth a note: the feature only works if ARP ping is enabled in Options (which is true by default) and only for targets from the current subnet.

Best wishes to you from the Softinventive Lab team. May you have an unforgettable holiday season!

We’ll meet again in the year 2012.

The update brings great new features, big and small.
Besides, it fixes a severe bug that was bugging some users for a long time… yeah, that’s what bugs do — they bug. But not this one, it’s done for.

Get exactly what you need with Table conditions!

Table report conditions are released and at your service. This is some real power! Now you can put a constraint on the entity of a table report. Ever wanted to build a report like these?

• All software from Adobe installed in September;
• All running services with ‘Apple’ in their name found on computers whose IP matches ’10.0.1.*’;
• All computers that have more than 2 GB of VRAM and a widescreen monitor;
• etc.

It’s easy now, try it. There are two new standard templates to demonstrate the feature, but don’t be shy and build your own! Go to Table reports tab, click New template, add some fields and then click  Add condition below!

Soon we’ll publish a dedicated blog post on table conditions to give your imagination a boost. And you won’t miss it thanks to this next gimmick.

Keep your eye on blog updates

Just glance at the upper-right corner of the window to see if there’s something new in our blog.

Rather important sub-feature of this notifier is that it can be disabled. If you don’t like it, go to Options / General and uncheck Show last blog post. After all, there’s RSS for that, right?

Add custom assets manually

From now on TNI 2 supports Custom assets. Click the  Add custom device button above the network tree and set up the new asset real quick. Define it’s type, fill in the values of common fields, create some custom fields (or use a preset) and don’t forget to give it a name. The asset will appear marked with  in the network tree.

The amount of work ahead of us is huge. New software accounting, custom categories in Viewer and reports tab, etc. Things will get better month after month!

Distinguish assets by name

There is now an option to distinguish assets by their network name and domain rather than by hardware (which is the default behavior of TNI 2). We’d like to point out and explain this particular feature, as it’s quite important and should be used properly.

Whenever a new snapshot appears in TNI 2 storage (either as a result of scanning or when an asset file is placed manually into the storage folder), the program first tries to merge duplicates so that a single asset is represented by a single data file. But in order to do that TNI has to know when two assets should be considered identical.

The most common way to tell is to compare MAC-addresses, UUIDs and serial numbers of two shapshots. If these parameters match, it’s safe to say that we’re looking at two snapshots of the same hardware unit and merge them.

In some networks hardware is considered a secondary matter, and computers are distinguished by their domain names. This means that one may change a computer’s motherboard, CPU and chassis and re-install OS, but leave domain name unchanged, and the whole workstation will be considered the same.

If that is the case with your network, you should go to Options / Scanner and change the setting to Distinguish assets by name and domain. Otherwise it would be smart to leave everything as is.

If you visit TNI product page of our site, you’ll find something new and shiny there. That’s TNI 2 demo video! Check it out:

That’s it for now. Don’t forget, the “coming soon” features are coming soon, so be sure to check for updates now and then. Cheers!

It’s me, Donald. And I’ve got some intelligence on one of the upcoming TNI features.

Now, the developers team didn’t want this to be made public prematurely. We don’t know the arrival date for the thing yet, it’s not the right time to reveal it, they told me. But I’ve managed to sneak a screenshot while no one was looking. One little screenshot can do no harm, right? I’ll just leave it here for you.

Table conditions! Powerful thing, if you ask me. I love it. Can’t wait for it to be released so you could love it too!

Well, now if you’ll excuse me…. I better run away and hide. They’ll be looking for me.

With the new update (which you are hereby encouraged to download and install) TNI is now capable of natively scanning FreeBSD-powered machines!

But that’s not all. Check out the full changelist:

New features in table reports

Tables got better yet! Using the improved table report constructor, now you can specify which columns you want sorted or fixed and save this choice as part of a template. Also, you may give each column a custom title (default ones are a little bit too long at times). Fixing columns is a handy new feature: these will stay on screen when you scroll the table horizontally — useful for huge tables with lots of data.

Easy sorting in the network tree

Network tree was sortable all the way, but that was kind of an obscure feature. Shame for a feature that important. Now you can easily sort your assets by a dozen of fields in any direction. It’s all there in Display settings menu (which received a more appropriate icon, by the way, so that no one gets lost).

So, there you have it: TNI 2.0.2 (build 1102). We’ve got to go: so much more cool stuff to build for you. Enjoy your updated TNI and have a nice day!