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!

Network discovery progress indication

Discovering of large IP ranges takes a lot of time, and not having any progress indicator led to confusion at some point: is it still running or what? No such problem after this update. You’ll see the discovery progress and the IP that is currently being checked right there.

New fields in table reports

Table report constructor in TNI 2 contained hundreds of fields all the way, but there’s no such thing as too many table fields, now is there? Available now are: Workgroup/Domain, Storage Path and Group, Serial number, UUID, Date and time of the last scan attempt and Error message, Virtual platform name, etc.

Expand / Collapse all

And this one is very simple but handy. Hover your mouse over any group in your storage, and you’ll find buttons for expanding or collapsing all the groups inside it. Surprisingly highly requested feature.

And now it’s time to shed some light on what’s next.

First, this:  

Second, we’re busy redesigning the insides of our Software accounting tab. Some of the most wanted features will get implemented. It’s also going to work faster and look better.

Third, we’ve got a team working on Custom devices feature. You’ll be able to add anything to your inventory, even if it is not connected to the network. Even if it was never meant to. You know, even if it is a chair:  . Why not?

Finally, we’re going to boost the Configuration history feature development. So you’ll be able to see what has changed in every asset since it was first scanned: what software was added or removed, what hardware was replaced, etc. This will take some time to build, but we’ll make it worth it.

And some other tasty things. We won’t reveal everything at once. Stay with us!

First of all, we’d like to thank our users for all the feedback that we get. Most of it is very constructive, detailed and helpful, and it keeps us on track.

Recently we updated TNI to version 2.0.1 (1074). We’ve fixed a few bugs and implemented a couple of highly requested features. Here’s the list of some of the changes in the update:

Logon script tool

We’ve reintroduced the tool for setting up logon script scanning of your network. Customers who have been with us since TNI 1.6.8 remember this function as an option available from the late Scan wizard. Now it resides in the Options window, appropriately entitled Logon script. It became cleaner and a little bit smarter.

Automatic import

Another come-back is the Automatic import feature. It is now capable of importing files from sub-folders along with folder structure itself, pulling data at startup or on timer, etc. And it’s twice as useful in combination with logon script scanning.

Selecting assets in a folder

One little GUI improvement a lot of you requested is this: now you can simply click a group in Details tab to build a report on all of the assets inside without having to enable multiple selection mode. You can still build a group summary if you need it by choosing the corresponding category from the sidebar.

Right now we’re working hard to ensure the new version is rock-solid and nimble. Please, keep the feedback coming and look forward to updates. Some cool stuff is to come once we’re through the post-release routine.

The first of your new powers is called Displayed text. Click the  button and choose which piece of data all the assets will be represented by. If you don’t care for network names, you can choose to see IP addresses in their place. Or asset tags. Or user names. Or simply custom aliases. Also, you can use any of these values for additional text that will be printed out in blue on the right.

The second power is Instant search. Well, we’re modest guys, so we call it simply Search in the software. But it’s still instant. Press Ctrl + Shift + F and try it out. Note: you can search by both primary and additional text values that you’ve set up using your first power.

The third power is Indicators. Hit the light bulb button and choose an Assistant that you like the most. They’re great guys, all of them. Let’s go with Operating system, Online status and Alert presence, for instance. After adding each of them, you’ll see something like that:

Hover your cursor over an OS icon to see the full name of OS, or hover over a red flag to reveal the explicit list of problems with the asset. You’ll find other useful hints as well.

Finally, the fourth power at your disposal is Filters. You use them to hide assets. Offline assets, maybe. Or assets without alerts (in case you want to build an alerts report). Or all assets but Linux ones. Or virtual assets, if you don’t want any virtual hardware in your reports. Use the Filter button of an added Assistant to enable or disable filtering.

Sure enough, you may abuse your matchless powers as much as you like. Who are we to deny you that? You’ll end up with something like this, I guess:

That’s no big deal. The tree can easily be hidden with this little fellow: 

This was Donald Grizzly. I’m done blogging for today. Thanks for your time, enjoy our software and stay tuned for more cool stuff!