SUPPORT

SmartShare Systems wishes the success of the implementation of its products at the customer base and partner network and to ensure that our customers and partners make the most out of SmartShare Systems’ product.


Case Story

Firmware Releases

This section lists all the recent product updates and firmware release notes.

Firmware release 3.0 (Released February 14th, 2012)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter

News:

  • New product line: Virtual Appliance for VMware vSphere (ESXi).
  • New product line: 4000 Series hardware appliance.
  • HTTP REST-based callout API for retrieving user names from external user database, e.g. Active Directory.
  • Show user’s real name of instead of Hostname. Requires use of Callout API.


Minor News:

  • Improved GUI compatibility for Google Chrome web browser.
  • The connection bandwidth is managed according to the capacity when the connection bandwidth capacity exceeds the capacity specifications.
  • Health Monitor: Warn if connection bandwidth exceeds bandwidth capacity.
  • Route table and Port Based Port Forwarding To Many Local Servers table increased to 30 entries each.
  • DHCP Server Static IP Addresses table increased to 40 entries. FairRouter only.
  • Connection packet loss statistics improvements regarding connections with very low packet loss.
  • Provisioning system uses alternative port 65532 if unable to use port 80.
  • Chart values in parentheses now includes “avg.” to clarify that they are average values.
  • Speed Test improvements regarding burstable connections.
  • Health Monitor: Warn if assigned WAN IP address conflicts with LAN IP configuration. FairRouter only.


Bugs Fixed:

  • PPPoE configuration missing from Connection page in GUI. FairRouter only.
  • SNMP GET-requests using ifIndex 101 returned an error instead of the value. (Bug introduced in firmware version 2.4.)
  • Sorting of Detailed User Status in the GUI didn’t always work.
  • Built-in NTP server did not respond to NTP requests.
  • Traffic to/from users in a User Group configured to be Excess Users was counted as traffic related to Unknown Users instead of Excess Users.
  • The number of Extra Shaped Users was not counted correctly.
  • Extra Shaper Status sometimes showed READY when it was ACTIVE.
  • In some cases changing the configuration for sending log messages by email required a reboot before it worked.


Firmware release 2.4 (Released December 2nd, 2011)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter

News:

  • Basic configuration is now a single page in the GUI.
  • Filter for outgoing DNS connections can prevent use of alternative DNS servers. This feature enables DNS based filtering via internal or external DNS servers, such as OpenDNS.
  • Filter for outgoing SMTP connections can prevent most spambots from sending emails.
  • RADIUS for management access.
  • HTTP REST-based API to change configuration.

Minor News:

  • TCP Waste Reduction. Discards superfluous TCP packets generated by many popular operating systems.
  • DNS servers can be statically configured.
  • The trusted SMTP server in the filter for outgoing SMTP connections can be a hostname.
  • Graphs zoom in/out at newest data, regardless of where is clicked.
  • Detailed User Status shows when the user was detected.
  • Health Monitor detects when equipment without Auto Negotiation is connected to the SmartShare and there is a risk of packet loss due to duplex mismatch.
  • Port forwarding to PPTP VPN Server. FairRouter only.
  • Network topology can be configured for bridged WAN connection, so Layer 2 traffic (incl. ARP packets) is also counted. StraightShaper only.
  • Log when the calculated Recommended User Capacity comes near the User Capacity.
  • SNMP ifIndex of Virtual WAN changed from 5 to 101.

Bugs Fixed:

  • It was not possible to enable logging when extra shaping of users was started via the GUI.
  • Selecting the User Group Type “Excess Users” in the GUI actually selected the ”No Access to WAN” behavior, and vice versa.
  • When switching System IP configuration between DHCP Assigned and Static Configuration it had no effect before the system was rebooted.
  • The default manager login and password (admin/admin) on the Ext2 port did not work.
  • In some situations, the hostnames shown for the users stopped being updated.
  • Internet Connectivity Monitor didn't work if Offline Threshold was set below 20 seconds.
  • The SMTP Password and Integrator Password fields on the Advanced page in the GUI now do not show their values on the screen.
  • Warning about User Capacity Exceeded was triggered by Peak Users, and is now triggered by comparing the calculated Required Minimum User Capacity to the User Capacity.
  • SNMP ifInDiscards and etherStatsDropEvents counted incorrectly for the WAN interface. StraightShaper only.

Firmware release 2.3 (Released August 19th, 2011)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter

News:

  • Monitoring of duration and number of times the internet connection was down.
  • Real-time graph showing connection latency, jitter and packet loss.
  • Packet capture option with IP/MAC address filter, using standard PCAP file format.
  • Configuration options for using DSCP based prioritization per User Group.
  • Configuration options for assigning fixed VoIP or Data priority per User Group.
  • Link to MySmartShare directly from the GUI. (Only visible for Installer level managers.)

Minor News:

  • Health Monitor now warns if internet connection is down.
  • Health Monitor now warns if DNS servers are not responding.
  • Health Monitor now warns if Default Gateway is unreachable.
  • Detailed User Status table can be sorted by clicking the column headline.
  • System Log shows past and non active events in a different color shade.
  • Log when a new user (Normal User) is detected. Feature is optional.
  • Logging when a user with many flows is detected is now optional.
  • HTTP REST-based API to retrieve detailed user table.
  • FairRouter and StraightShaper 300 V2 Series capacity increased to 20,000 flows.

Bugs fixed:

  • Provisioning protocol now avoids sending redundant information.
  • Connection Speed Test sometimes incorrectly failed with the reason “Connection has too low packet rate capacity.

Firmware release 2.2.2 (Released April 4th, 2011)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter

News:

  • None.

Minor news:

  • None.

Bugs fixed:

  • Built-in NTP Server didn’t respond to requests from NTP clients. (FairRouter only)
  • When a Trial was about to expire, a lot of log messages would be generated. (This bug was introduced in firmware version 2.2.)
  • Fiber connections with large burst capacity - speedtest, the speed test kept running for a long time. (This bug was introduced in firmware version 2.2.)

Firmware release 2.2.1 (Released March 2nd, 2011)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter 

News:

  •  None.

 Minor news:

  • Limit in flow capacity now only depends on product series, not license size. 

 Bugs fixed:

  • Health Monitor show warning about throughput capacity being exceeded when it was not. (300 (V2) Series products only.)  

Firmware release 2.2 (Released February 24th, 2011)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter 

News

  • Online User Manual available via ? in the menu.
  • Support for 300 (V2) hardware.
  • Easy access to GUI via LAN (http://192.0.2.2/ or 169.254.2.2/), directly on LAN port, but also from normal user network via LAN switches; no need to use Ext2 port. (Ext2 port still supported.)
  • Service Mode on LAN port replaces the Ext2 service port. When Service Mode is enabled, it includes a DHCP Server on the LAN port and enables the default Manager password. (Ext2 port still supported if present.)
  • Use USB Memory Stick to: load/save configuration, save log file, install Activation Code, enable Service Mode.
  • Count DNS requests/replies per user, available in GUI through User Details download.
  • Count SMTP flows per user, available in GUI through User Details download.


Minor news

  • Health Monitor shows red warning box on every page in the GUI if there are any current problems.
  • Built-in agents (Speed Test, NTP Client, Email Sender etc.) fall back to use Google DNS server 8.8.8.8 if configured DNS servers do not respond.
  • Remote logging now supports SMTP relays requiring username/password authentication.
  • Health Monitor shows Warning when less than 14 days of Subscription runtime remains. (Subscription models only.)
  • If the User Capacity has been exceeded, duration is shown.
  • For improved compatibility, the DHCP Client includes the Client Identifier (option 61) containing the MAC address.


Bugfixes

  • Download Detailed User Table to PC contained the list of users twice.
  • Download Detailed User Table to PC now contains counters in numerical format.
  • Speed Test results are not used if confidence is too low (less than 80%).   
  • Speed Test results are not used if the connection type has exceptionally high overhead.
  • Ethernet Auto Negotiation became permanently disabled on a port if fallback were configured for Full Duplex.
  • Download Configuration, Download System Log and Download Detailed Status to PC did not work using HTTPS with some web browsers.
  • Time-zone configuration revised.
  • VLAN tagged in-band management on a VLAN Trunk fixed.
  • ARP traffic is now included in the User’s traffic counters.
  • Number of Active Users now only includes Users, not system traffic or excess users.

Firmware release 2.1.1 (Released November 1st, 2010)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter

News:

  • None

Minor news:

  • None

Bugs fixed:

  • Ext2 management port doesn’t work (introduced in 2.1 - FairRouter only)
  • License page (Unlicensed units only) and System page took too long to load when accessed from a computer that is not connected to the internet.
  • Local IP addresses configured for NAPT should not be preregistered as Users. (FairRouter only)
  • MySmartShare would initially reports “Connection speed unknown” in the Health Monitor section the first hour after a unit had completed its startup.

Firmware release 2.1 (Released October 25th, 2010)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter

News:

  • Major upgrade of the internal firmware core to further increase performance and support future functionality
  • Top-10 pie charts show computer name (hostname) instead of IP address if resolvable
  • Detailed User Table also shows computer name (hostname) if resolvable and MAC address.
  • Integration into ConnectWise. See www.smartshareystems.com/connectwise for details. (Requires a separate MSP feature option license.)
  • HTTPS for secure web management.
  • SNMP Traps for alerting now complements email and Syslog alerts
  • Network Topology now automatically detected when using DMZ and/or multiple LANs. (StraightShaper only.)


Minor news:

  • Firmware Download box shows version of latest available released firmware, including a link to the release notes.
  • Health Monitor detects missing System IP address. (StraightShaper only.)
  • Health Monitor detects if system throughput capacity is exceeded.
  • Health Monitor details for the current problems, if any, are shown in a separate box on the Status page.
  • Health Monitor OK messages changed from “Warning Disappeared” to “OK”.
  • User Group option to select an entire /24 subnet as a single user has been removed.
  • Remote Log Email SMTP Server is now optional. The recipient’s email server will be found based the recipient’s email address.
  • Trial duration can be extended without rebooting and remaining trial duration now shows both days and hours.
  • The automatic Speed Test has been improved for high latency links.


Bugs fixed:

  • Excess and/or Other Users sometimes included management traffic generated by the system itself.
  • NTP Client was too sensitive to sporadically delayed responses from remote NTP server.
  • Speed Test interoperability with some firewalls fixed.
  • PPPoE configuration couldn’t be selected. (This bug was introduced in version 1.20 and fixed in version 1.20.2.) (FairRouter only.)
  • DHCP Server Detector interoperability problem with some DHCP Servers fixed. (StraightShaper 300 Series only.)
  • Dragging/Zooming the User Overview graph did not affect the User Bandwidth Overview graph.
  • Packets with incorrect source IP Address will now be dropped. (FairRouter only.)
  • NTP Server Status showed incorrectly “Initializing” when disabled.
  • ATL FTP Status showed incorrectly “Initializing” when disabled.
  • Clear Counters now requires confirmation and will be logged.
  • Managers with User level access will not be able to clear the system log and go to Save page.

Firmware release 1.20.2 (Released August 17th, 2010)

Products affected: FairRouter

News:

  • None

Minor news:

  • None

Bugs fixed:

  • Configuration could not be saved or activated when using PPPoE. (FairRouter only.) (This bug was introduced in firmware version 1.20.)

Firmware release 1.20.1 (Released July 9th, 2010)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter

News:

  • None

Minor news:

  • User Group properties can be configured for the Excess Users virtual user
  • 5000 Series models qualified for 10.000 users.

Bugs fixed:

  • Trial Mode does not work at all. (This bug was introduced in version 1.20.)
  • All Ports Forwarding To Local Servers could reject a valid configuration. (This bug was introduced in version 1.20.)
  • Speed Test duration was sometimes longer than necessary.
  • Speed Test sometimes failed on connections with less than 500 kbit/s upload bandwidth

Firmware release 1.20 (Released June 30th, 2010)

Products affected: StraightShaper and FairRouter

News:

  • Download Configuration to PC / Upload Configuration from PC.
  • Log system events to SYSLOG servers.
  • Log system events to email.
  • Option for extra shaping of users with many flows (typically P2P users).
  • Status LED stays green during entire startup phase, for simpler installation.
  • Product GUI has been updated


Minor news:

  • Peak Users has been replaced by Recommended Minimum User Capacity.
  • Speed Test will automatically use the nearest test server (i.e. with the lowest round trip time). Current we have one in Denmark and one in USA
  • NAPT public port range to single port on local IP address range (FairRouter Only)
  • Statistics counters can be cleared.
  • User Details shows Peak Flows.
  • System Log can be cleared.
  • When in Trial mode, Status page shows when the Trial expires.


Bugs fixed:

  • Speed Test timeout is too fast for some connections.
  • Speed Test DNS lookup fails when the DNS server is located on the LAN. (StraightShaper only.)
  • Speed Test confidence sometimes incorrect (far above 100%).
  • Speed Test error message is incorrect (it said Timeout) when the connection to the server is unreliable.
  • Speed Test wrong results on connections with large burst capacity.
  • Top-10 pie charts did not show the Excess Users group as a unique top user, but included it in the Other Users sum.
  • Statistics and pie charts sometimes shows extreme bandwidth usage by a New user.
  • Statistics could show fewer flows counted than current number of flows for a New user.
  • System time synchronization with the NTP server took more than 15 minutes to start after power-on and after a new NTP server had been configured.

Firmware release 1.19 (Released April 13th, 2010)

Products affected: StraightShaper, FairRouter and MultilinkBalancer

News:

  • 100% plug-and-play installation for StraightShaper
  • Automatically test WAN speed and connection type.
  • System log shown in GUI.
  • System log can be downloaded from GUI as text file.
  • VoIP Extra Priority now enabled as default.
  • Graphs have been redesigned, and are now easier to read.

Minor News:

  • The IP address of a Managed User will not be permanently locked, but will be available for reuse by another IP address after it have been inactive for 8 hours.
  • Guest status of Managed Users has been removed.
  • Top Users by Flows pie chart added. (StraightShaper only. Already in FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer.)
  • Flows Overview chart. (StraightShaper only. Already in FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer.)
  • User details includes Flows, Flow Rate and Flows Processed. (StraightShaper only. Already in FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer.)
  • IP addresses can be configured into the “Other Users” group, thus not using IP Device licenses.
  • Default User Weight can be set.
  • New connection overhead types to compensate for PPPoE and VPN encapsulation, as well as DSL based on VC-MUX.
  • While in Trial Mode, periodically send product performance information to SmartShare Systems. Option to periodically send product performance information to SmartShare Systems.
  • Boot process CLI command to load default configuration for system recovery.
  • The separate Bandwidth User Groups and User Groups Denied Access to WAN tables have been replaced by a unified User Groups table.
  • External NTP Server factory default set to ntp.smartsharesystems.com.
  • Access to the WAN can be blocked for IP address ranges. (StraightShaper only. Already in FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer.)
  • Status LED also indicates warning (by blinking red) at degraded performance, not only when unable to pass traffic.
  • When the configuration is changed, the system log is notified.
  • SNMP ifOperStatus for Virtual WAN interface returns “testing” state when speed test is in progress, and “notPresent” state when no license is installed or activated.
  • SNMP hrStorageSize, hrStorageUsed, hrSWRunPerfMem and hrMemorySize supported to show Memory Usage.
  • SNMP dot3StatsDuplexStatus supported.
  • Automated login available using “login.html?username=insertusernamehere&password=insertpasswordhere”.
  • The selected menu is now also a link, so it can be clicked again to reload the current page.
  • The System Overview graph (showing CPU and Memory Usage and some Health Monitor warnings) has been removed.
  • Show the correct measurement unit (user seconds) for Active User Time and User Experience Improved Time.
  • Show byte counters as human readable (kB, MB, GB, TB, PB or EB) instead of large numbers.
  • Detailed User Table can be downloaded from GUI as text file.
  • The statistical information shown as Bandwidth Available for Any User and Bandwidth Guaranteed to Each User have been replaced by the more meaningful Bandwidth Available per User and Minimum Bandwidth Available per User information.
  • DHCP Server extended to 20 static IP addresses.

Manual intervention required:

  • If both Bandwidth User Groups and User Groups Denied Access to WAN were configured, the users denied access to WAN must be re-configured (in the User Groups table) after the firmware upgrade.
  • The configured WAN Connection Speed should be changed from Static Configuration to Automatic Test after the firmware upgrade, except in special deployments. (This only applies to deployed units. The default configuration for new and unconfigured units is Automatic Test.)

Firmware release 1.18.2 (Released January 6th, 2010)

Products affected: StraightShaper, FairRouter and MultilinkBalancer

Minor News:

  • Product name and firmware version shown on Status page.

Bugs fixed:

  • In rare situations, the box could spontaneously reboot. This bug was introduced in FW 1.15.
  • Configuring a too large range of IP addresses in All Ports Forwarding could cause the box to go into a reboot loop. (FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer only.)
  • Permanent Users on Status page did not include all Permanent users. (This bug was not fully fixed in FW 1.18.)
  • The DHCP Server Detector stopped working if it received a packet with correct Ethernet checksum but incorrect IP or UDP checksum.

Firmware release 1.18.1 (Released November 27th, 2009)

Products covered: FairRouter and MultilinkBalancer

Bugs fixed:

  • Setting up All Ports Forwarding to Local Server (a NAT feature) or User Groups Denied Access to WAN (an Access Control feature) could cause the box to go into a reboot loop. This bug was introduced in FW 1.18

Firmware release 1.18 (Released November 16th, 2009)

Products covered: StraightShaper, FairRouter and MultilinkBalancer

News:

  • Changing configuration does not require reboot.
  • ATL option available for StraightShaper.
  • Using local time zone instead of UTC. (Local time zone can be configured.)
  • Configurable half/full duplex when connecting to equipment without Auto Negotiation.
  • Bandwidth Guaranteed to Each User shown on both Status and Charts pages.

Minor news:

  • Graph legends now also show the most recent value.
  • Statistics value “Bandwidth Available for Next User” (how much bandwidth would be available for the next user that becomes active) has been replaced by “Bandwidth Available for Any User” (how much bandwidth is available for any of the currently active users).
  • Statistics value “Bandwidth Rate of Top User” has been removed from Status and Charts pages. (The same, but more detailed, information can be found on both the Detailed Status and the Top Users pages.)
  • Statistical time counters are now shown in readable format (days, hours, minutes, seconds) instead of just seconds (which could be a very large number).
  • SmartShare Systems enterprise MIB implemented, containing an overall system status value. Refer to the SMARTSHARESYSTEMS-MIB.txt for the full MIB description.
  • CLI command “stop trial” added.
  • Unlicensed Trial models now show a notice to the manager, highlighting that a trial must be started for the product to work.
  • Unlicensed models now show a notice to the manager, highlighting that the activation code must be installed for the product to work.

Bugs fixed:

  • Processor usage could be 100% for a long duration if the time jumped more than a few seconds, e.g. when the clock was set manually or by NTP.
  • The DHCP Server could not assign static IP addresses outside the dynamic range. (FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer only.)
  • When using a static WAN IP address, the HealthMonitor always counted one connectivity problem during startup. (FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer only.)
  • Configuring additional IP addresses for the LAN port (by setting Next Hop Gateway to an IP address inside the Subnet in Additional LAN Subnets) did not work. (FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer only.)
  • When the LAN Port has been configured for additional IP addresses, they were not all shown in the GUI and in SNMP. (FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer only.)
  • Permanent Users on Status page did not include all Permanent users.
  • Values for Download/Upload Rate of Top User shown on Status page showed too small values. (It only included 8 seconds of traffic.) (Values shown on the Chart page was correct.)
  • Status page showed slightly incorrect values for Bandwidth Available for Next User. (Values shown on the Chart page was correct.)
  • Detailed Status page sometimes showed user status as “Managed” instead of “Permanent”.
  • In rare situations, users with a configured maximum bandwidth could temporarily exceed the configured maximum bandwidth.
  • System date and time set in GUI was not stored if the system was powered off or rebooted soon after.
  • SNMP ifType for Virtual WAN was ethernetCsmacd; now is propVirtual.
  • SNMP ifSpeed and ifHighSpeed did not reflect the connected speed when a port was connected.
  • SNMP ipAddrTable did not contain all LAN IP addresses. (FairRouter/MultilinkBalancer only.)
  • Watchdog did not monitor SNMP Agent.
  • ATL log file could become garbled. This would only happen in very rare situations (with very high flow rate and high processor usage). (ATL option only.)
  • Internal error could cause unexpected behavior under high processor usage

Firmware release 1.17 (Released June 24th, 2009)

Products covered: StraightShaper, FairRouter and MultilinkBalancer

News:

  • Status page shows how often the product has improved the experience for the users.
  • Detailed user information, showing the IP address, bandwidth and other information about each user.
  • Live updating charts showing bandwidth, concurrent flows and more. (JAVA based.)
  • Live updating pie charts showing which users are the most active. (JAVA based.)

Minor news:

  • Status page shows bandwidth use of the top user, how much bandwidth is available to any user, number of concurrently active users.
  • Status page shows how often the download and upload optimizer have been active.
  • Health Monitor also reports too many users, missing WAN IP address (when the WAN uses DHCP or PPPoE), disconnected cables and auto negotiation problems.
  • Health Monitor counts how many problems have been detected since reboot/power on.
  • System date/time can be set manually. This is useful if no NTP server is available.