{"id":8063,"date":"2021-12-30T15:22:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-30T15:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/?post_type=ht_kb&#038;p=8063"},"modified":"2022-04-18T22:16:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T22:16:59","slug":"release-3_04_00-changes","status":"publish","type":"ht_kb","link":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/release-3_04_00-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Release 3_04_00 Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is new in the<strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"> SNIP<\/span> 3_04_00 release<\/strong> &#8211; released December 30th, 2021<br \/>\n(updating the prior release of 3_03 issued on November 16th, 2021)<\/p>\n<p>This is the next production release of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> following the Rev 3_03 release.\u00a0 This release contains several minor corrections and minor improvements in response to user requests.\u00a0 It also contains a number of revisions to support a Web API to allow integrating <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> with your hosting site (to be released on 3.05).\u00a0 It is recommended that all deployments upgrade to this edition.<\/p>\n<p>This release supports both 32-bit and 64-bit installations on all Windows Platforms from Windows 7 to the current editions.\u00a0 It is recommended that all Windows 32\/64 <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> installations now update to using this release.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Changes in this release include<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Misc Improvements in this release<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In this release we have a number of minor improvements to report, and one key bug fix. We provide a short list below.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A fatal bug in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/backing-up-your-snip-deployment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Backup processing<\/a> logic for some models of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP <\/strong><\/span>has been corrected.\u00a0 In Rev 3.03, any user initiated system backup made on <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em><strong>Lite<\/strong> <\/em><\/span>or <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em><strong>Basic<\/strong> <\/em><\/span>models of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong> <\/span>caused a crash due to a dangling pointer. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>Reverse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/geographic-reverse-ip-look-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Geo-location<\/a> functions and IP tracking features in all models of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong> <\/span>have been extended another 12 months to end of year 2022. Once this release is installed you will again see various links to small Goggle maps showing the locations of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/question-what-is-an-ntrip-client\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NTRIP Clients<\/a> (users), Base Stations, and IP values. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>Minor English typographical errors were corrected and additional tool-tip text was added to some of the older parts of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span>.<br \/>\n[<span style=\"color: #008000;\"><em><strong>General Tip<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: When in doubt about a GUI control, hover your mouse over it.] [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>In the &#8220;no Observational Data seen&#8221; message, additional logic has been added to report the precise time when when the last data of any kind was received.\u00a0 This message is displayed when a given data stream has not sent any new OBS messages in the past 5 seconds.\u00a0 This addition will aid in debugging to determine if the loss of observation messages was in conjunction with a general loss of message flow or simply the GNSS device not sending such messages. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>Additional logic has been added to report whenever any RTCM 3.x message with encoding errors are found.\u00a0 In practice this is rarely ever observed, and the CRC of the RTCM message itself (as well as the TCP\/IP checksum process) function to prevent undetected corruption during transfer.\u00a0 This feature is of value to detect <em>encoding <\/em>errors occurring at the GNSS devices itself, typically indicative of bad software at the Base Station.\u00a0\u00a0 Reporting can be enabled \/ disabled from a new checkbox added to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/the-preferences-dialog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Preferences <\/a>dialog. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>Minor additional details were added to the weekly logs to support post analysis.\u00a0 Major increases and decreases in memory use are also now noted.\u00a0 Some additional time stamps and memory usage reports were also added. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>A problems with logging raw Base Station data files every 15 minutes for some users was corrected.\u00a0 The various other log periods (30min, 1hr,2hr,&#8230; 24hours) were not affected. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>A new control &#8220;Show API Details&#8221; has been added to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/the-caster-and-clients-tab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Caster and Clients <\/em>tab<\/a>. This is used to enable the display of a detailed summary of any Web API commands\/requests.\u00a0 It is similar to the way &#8220;Show Protocol Details&#8221; is enabled to see the actual NTRIP Client requests on the console.\u00a0 We would recommend leaving both of these controls checked. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>The pop-up menu displayed in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/viewing-current-users\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Connected Users dialog<\/a> has been modified to add three new items. Besides the existing commands to disconnect the selected user, or to see various reports in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/the-document-viewer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">document viewer<\/a>, the operator can now select a menu item to copy the <em>user name<\/em>, the <em>IP<\/em>, and last NMEA <em>$GGA sentence<\/em> received (when one is present) to the clipboard for further use. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>The displayed tool-tips and reports used for data streams containing RTCM 2.x message content have been improved to provide additional details decoded from the message content.\u00a0 These are displayed for the Base Station in a fashion similar to the style used with RTCM 3.x message content. [spacer height=&#8221;20px&#8221;]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>The AVL Tab<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/the-avl-server\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AVL server<\/a> (see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/the-avl-tab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this article<\/a> for more details)\u00a0 now supports three new output formats beyond sending the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/nmea-gga-strings-in-ntrip-clients\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">$GGA sentence<\/a> format which has been supported for some time.\u00a0 These are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul>\n<li>A tab separated lat-long format<\/li>\n<li>A KML style format<\/li>\n<li>A GeoJSON style format<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-8073 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/AVLpasswd-300x235.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/AVLpasswd-300x235.png 300w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/AVLpasswd-50x39.png 50w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/AVLpasswd-320x250.png 320w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/AVLpasswd.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A simple password support system has also now been added.\u00a0 If you have been using the &#8220;Open Access&#8221; connection model in the past, you should consider switching to this model.\u00a0 The required password is the value you set (as shown in the image at right) which the connection must send at the start of the TCP\/IP connection.<\/p>\n<p>And, some additional logic has been added to deal with users who connect to the AVL server using common browsers (not advised).\u00a0 This which will return and disconnect any requests for <em>favicon.ico<\/em> and other common web clutter.\u00a0 As an AVL server, such requests are not meaningful.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Secure Caster Operations<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Considerable new work has been completed in this release but deployment with a fully TLS\/SSL secure Caster not yet ready.\u00a0 The new Secure Caster system (which is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/plug-ins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Plug-In<\/a>) will allowing running your SNIP Caster with two modes at once; a &#8216;normal&#8217; un-secure Caster (typically using port 2101) and a secure Caster (typically using port 443) with each serving identical data streams.\u00a0 The secure Caster port will also service Web API requests (described further below) when the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> operator has enabled this.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><em><strong>Aside<\/strong><\/em><\/span>: From the prior release onward (Rev 3.03) all models of the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> Caster fully support making secure NTRIP Client connections to other secure Casters (see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/secure-caster-connections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this article<\/a> for more details).\u00a0 At this point in time, very few Casters support secure client connections and even fewer NTRIP Clients do so.<\/p>\n<p>[<span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong><em>Further<\/em> <em>Aside<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: We expect the year 2022 to see increased adoption of this ability. If you manufacturer NTRIP Client software, please feel free to contact us for any support you may need to add this ability.]<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Multi-Caster use<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In this release there are several <em>behind-the-scenes<\/em> changes to support operating multiple separate Casters from a single host machine.\u00a0 This feature allows an operator to present different Casters on different IP and port combinations (as well as different DNS names) to support different user communities. The operator can allocate which Base Stations appear on each Caster and which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/user-accounts-vs-customer-accounts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">customer accounts<\/a> and user accounts (NTRIP Clients) can access and\/or manage them.\u00a0 And, any of these Casters can be operated in a secure mode when required.\u00a0 This feature has been requested by deployments that operate multiple copies of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong> <\/span>on which they resell services.<\/p>\n<p>When operating in a Multi-Caster mode, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/knowledge-base\/the-caster-and-clients-tab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Caster and Clients<\/em> tab<\/a> show similar controls for the additional Casters which are present<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-8076\" src=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView-300x98.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"669\" height=\"219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView-300x98.png 300w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView-1024x335.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView-768x251.png 768w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView-50x16.png 50w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView-920x301.png 920w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView-600x196.png 600w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView-320x105.png 320w, https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/multiCasterView.png 1338w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 669px) 100vw, 669px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now in Alpha testing, an early release of this be found at rtk2go.com (see this article: <a href=\"http:\/\/rtk2go.com\/regionalcastertables\/\">http:\/\/rtk2go.com\/regionalcastertables\/<\/a> ). Wider testing will begin soon.\u00a0 Please contact us if you are a <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em><strong>Pro<\/strong> <\/em><\/span>user and wish be a Beta tester for this new feature.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Web API<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In this release there are also several <em>behind-the-scenes<\/em> changes to support the remote administration of the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> Caster by means of a web interface.\u00a0 This will be part of the Rev 3.05 release.\u00a0 Nearly every operation associated with creating and managing user accounts, as well as obtaining current status about users and base stations, will be available with a web based interface.\u00a0\u00a0 Many of the reports have been expanded and cross-linked in anticipation of this.\u00a0 Support for the routine administration tasks of the caster using secure POST submission is being added.<\/p>\n<p>If the requestor has been granted sufficient privileges (the Web API uses a secure session token methodology over a secure TLS\/SSL link described above) then specific user connection details and base station usage detail are provided back as html pages. This use case is intended for designated administrators of the Caster and overcomes the need for direct windows desktop access.\u00a0 The revised reports show (for example) details about the user connected to a Base, which in turn link to current and historical details about each NTRIP Client user (along with current and prior NMEA $GGA locations), which in turn link to details about the IPs used to connect, etc.<\/p>\n<p>When a report is requested without sufficient privileges, much less information is provided to protect the security of the system and the users.\u00a0 Of course the <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> operator can control who has access to these reports or fully disable various reports as they see fit.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><em>How to Update\u2026<\/em><\/h2>\n<p>Updates to <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> are always free and easy.\u00a0 Your Caster will be offline about 3 minutes.\u00a0 From within <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span>, simply use the menu item <strong>Help<\/strong> \u21d2 <strong>Check for Updates\u2026<\/strong> \u00a0 Your update will be downloaded from our secure servers and then you will be asked to allow <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> to restart and update itself.\u00a0 On some Windows 10 systems you must also manually exit the current copy of <span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>SNIP<\/strong><\/span> to update.\u00a0 That\u2019s all there is to it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is new in the SNIP 3_04_00 release &#8211; released December 30th, 2021 (updating the prior release of 3_03 issued on November 16th, 2021) This is the next production release of SNIP following the Rev 3_03 release.\u00a0 This release contains several minor corrections and minor improvements in response to user [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"ht-kb-category":[286],"ht-kb-tag":[363,221],"class_list":["post-8063","ht_kb","type-ht_kb","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","ht_kb_category-release-history","ht_kb_tag-features","ht_kb_tag-release"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/8063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ht_kb"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8063"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/8063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8139,"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb\/8063\/revisions\/8139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-category?post=8063"},{"taxonomy":"ht_kb_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.use-snip.com\/kb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ht-kb-tag?post=8063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}