Room Alert 24E Firmware Release Notes Room Alert 24E Firmware v4.1.3 Released 27 December 2013

Firmware for your Room Alert products is available at RoomAlert.com.

v4.1.3

December 27, 2013

• Resolved an issue that could prevent network settings from saving with certain combinations of subnet mask entries.
• Updated field size limits for High and Low thresholds on Analog Sensors.
• Updated field size limits for Adjust on Analog Sensors.
• Resolved some issues with Adjust values for Humidity Sensors that could cause entries to be rounded.
• Resolved an issue that could cause custom values calculated from analog sensors to be displayed incorrectly in email alert messages.
• Improved the validation performed on entries made on the Settings pages to prevent errors saving configuration changes.
• Resolved an issue that could cause the internal temperature reading to be too high when Heat Index was enabled.
• Updated the factory default process to reset the Auto Negotiate settings to the default value.

v4.1.2

November 25, 2013

• Resolved an issue that could prevent high and low humidity thresholds from being saved.
• Resolved an issue that could prevent sensor labels and thresholds from saving for Temperature & Analog Sensors.
• Added an ID to the ‘Accept Changes’ button to help facilitate automated unit testing.
• Updated the Network Settings page to require users to enable at least one of the available Auto Configuration Methods if ‘Obtain IP Address Automatically’ is selected.
• Resolved an issue that could cause AVTECH.com to appear in the inner frame of the Settings page if the AVTECH.com link was clicked in the page footer.
• Resolved an issue that could cause the ‘Adjust’ to be calculated incorrectly if a negative number was entered for internal and external temperature sensors.

v4.1.1

August 30, 2013

• Resolved an issue that could prevent the accurate calculation of custom values for analog sensors that could have negative readings.

v4.1.0

August 23, 2013

• Added support for AVTECH’s new Digital Temperature & Analog Sensor. This new sensor is compatible with all Room Alert products and allows users to monitor temperatures and analog voltages between 0-5VDC. This greatly increases the types of sensors that can be monitored by Room Alert as there are many third party sensors that output 0-5VDC readings.
• Added support for Internet Explorer 9 and 10 (IE9 and IE10).
• Tested and confirmed compatibility with all current popular browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

v4.0.1

March 9, 2012

• Resolved an issue that could cause the values for voltage on a Digital Power Sensor to be scaled improperly.
• Resolved an issue that could cause sensor values to not be returned properly when queried via SNMP.

v4.0.0

February 27, 2012

• Added support for all modern web browsers. The Room Alert web interface should now be fully functional in all web browsers, including IE8/9, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and others that conform to modern web standards. With full support for Chrome and Safari, the web interface can now also be viewed in mobile devices running Android and iOS.
• Added support for the new ‘Push’ technology for use with Device ManageR. Previously, Device ManageR would query the device for sensor values at defined intervals. If the device was installed at a remote location, this could cause additional configuration steps because of firewalls that might be in place between locations. The new ‘Push’ technology allows users to configure Room Alert to proactively send sensor updates to Device ManageR at regular intervals. Since Room Alert will be sending data out to Device ManageR, firewall configurations can typically be simpler since outgoing connections are usually allowed. In addition, if Room Alert detects an alarm condition, it will immediately send an update to Device ManageR, regardless of the interval setting. This allows for more immediate notification of alarm conditions that is no longer tied to the Discovery Interval configured in Device ManageR. Please contact AVTECH for additional details about this exciting new feature.
• Updated the core embedded operating system and network drivers. This should improve the communication between our Room Alert devices and high end network switches to improve interoperability.
• Added support for the JSONP protocol. This makes it much easier for users to incorporate sensor data from Room Alert devices into their own web pages without the challenges previously posed by cross-domain scripting restrictions.
• Updated the sensor output to conform to valid JSON formats.
• Added the ability to configure the date format displayed on the web interface and in email notifications to allow for customization in different international locales.
• Improved the way time is displayed in email notifications to more fully conform to the RFC standard.
• Added timestamps to the trace output to make it easier for our Technical Support team to identify the timing of certain background activities to facilitate quicker resolutions.

v3.4.1

August 23, 2010

• Resolved an issue that could cause the Heat Index to be calculated incorrectly when the humidity or temperature was too low.
• Resolved an issue that could prevent a valid 0 Volt reading from being applied as the low reading for the Digital Power Sensor.
• Resolved an issue that could cause alerts for the internal Temp/Humidity Sensor to not be triggered or cleared properly.
• Resolved an issue that could cause valid ‘0’ readings to not be applied to the High or Low values.
• Added the ability to disable periodic Gratuitous ARP packets from being sent.
• Added a new feature that allows the Room Alert 24E to optionally automatically synchronize the date and time with the configured NTP server at regular intervals. Available intervals include 10 minutes, 60 minutes and 6, 12 and 24 hours.
• Added current sensor values to SNMP Trap messages.

v3.3.0

February 11, 2010

• Resolved an issue that could cause Digital Power Sensors to report false 0V alarms that would immediately clear. Most of these false readings are now properly filtered out.
• Added additional false alarm checking to all Digital Power Sensor readings.
• Increased the size of internal variables used for email messages to prevent possible overruns due to longer email messages.
• Improved the formatting of the date and time sent in the headers of email alerts to prevent some email clients from interpreting the date incorrectly.
• Added the ability to configure the timeout value used for email communication on the ‘SMTP Email’ screen in Settings. The default value is 5 seconds and the setting supports values from 1-99 seconds.
• Resolved an issue that could cause unexpected behavior if sensor data was not parsed properly.

v3.2.1

April 9, 2009

• Added the ability to modify the port used for HTTP requests. This was previously hard-coded to use port 80.
• Added the ability to modify the URL that is displayed at the bottom of email alert notifications. This allows users to define a WAN IP or DNS name so the link can be clicked and viewed from outside the local network if external access is configured.

v3.2.0

March 3, 2009

• Improved the progress bar used when saving setting via the web interface. It is now smoother and more accurately represents the current status of the setting save and device reboot.
• Improved false alarm checking for Digital Power Sensors. This will result in increased accuracy and reduced invalid spikes that can interfere with accurate high and low values, logging and graphing. This improved false alarm checking will also reduce the number of alert emails sent for invalid spikes.
• Added support for decimal ‘Adjust’ values to be used to calibrate temperature sensor values.
• Added a progress bar to the initial settings page load to allow the settings to be read properly from the device before displaying the configuration page. This should eliminate the occasional error loading settings from the device.
• Modified the SMTP email process to recognize the last response code sent instead of the first. This resolves an issue that could occur with some email servers that sent back more data in the response than expected.

v3.1.3

January 13, 2009

• Resolved an issue that could cause Digital Power Sensor alarms to occur incorrectly if there was an error retrieving sensor data.
• Improved the formatting of the timestamp used when sending email messages so it is correctly interpreted by most mail servers in most locales.

v3.1.2

December 23, 2008

• Added the ability to define and save the default refresh interval of the Status page via the Advanced section of the Settings.
• Resolved an issue that could cause the dates of December 29, 30 and 31 to be calculated incorrectly. These dates should all display properly with this version.
• Corrected a slight pixel offset issue on the Status page that could appear in some browsers.

v3.1.1

December 10, 2008

• Resolved an issue that could cause sensor data to momentarily freeze for a period of time.
• Addressed an issue that could cause false alarms from Digital Power Sensors that were not connected at the time.

v3.1.0

November 14, 2008

• Improved the speed of sensor data processing which will result in slightly faster threshold checking and alarm triggering.
• Added an option to the telnet configuration menu to allow users to configure the level of desired false alarm checking when processing switch sensor alarms.
  • By default, a switch sensor needs to be in an alarm state for 3 consecutive scans before triggering an alarm. This is now configurable from 0 to 5 scans before triggering an alarm.
• Changed the default MTU setting to 1024 instead of 1400. This should reduce the occurrence of network connectivity issues when connected to managed switches that drop packets that do not match the stated MSS request.
• Added additional error checking to SMTP requests to better diagnose email sending issues.

v3.0.3

September 19, 2008

• Updated fields and labels on the Settings screens to be consistent across all screens and options.
• Resolved an issue that could cause Digital Power Sensors to not send alarms if unplugged from main power.
• Increased the maximum voltage allowed for a Digital Power Sensor to 255VAC from 250VAC.
• Added a timeout check to the SMTP sending function so a communication loss with the mail server does not cause the unit to stall while waiting for a response.
• Added support for displaying the ‘Heat Index’ value in Celsius in addition to the default of Fahrenheit.
• Added switch sensor initialization checks to prevent false alarms from being sent when the unit first boots.
• Added an ‘Uptime’ value to the trace output as a way to determine how long the device has been powered on.

v3.0.2

June 20, 2008

• Combined the Email Server IP and Domain Name fields into a single field in the SMTP Email Settings Screen.
  • It will now automatically determine whether an IP address or a domain name was entered and use the appropriate method to send the email.
  • This previously caused an issue if a user entered a local IP address for their mail server and also added a domain name. In this situation, Room Alert 24E would attempt to resolve the IP address from the domain name instead of using the configured local IP address.
• Resolved an issue that could cause the value entered in the ‘Adjust’ field to change values due to incorrect rounding on sequential Sensor Settings saves.
• Resolved an issue that could cause email messages to fail to send if the mail server replies with a long response to the EHLO command.
  • We now check for a 250 response indicating it is ‘OK’ to send and discard the remaining unused message.
• Resolved an issue that could cause email messages to fail to send if the mail server responded with an alternative error code to the EHLO command.
  • We now correctly fall back to using HELO if the initial EHLO attempt fails and returns a code other than the 250 ‘OK’ message.
• Added a status message when sensor labels are saved so a blank web page does not display before the ‘Saving…’ progress bar.

v3.0.1

May 2, 2008

• Resolved an issue that could cause SNMP Queries to stop responding after a period of time. The SNMP Community Name passed from the SNMP client was sometimes interpreted incorrectly resulting in an ‘Access Denied’ error.
• Resolved an issue that could cause the MTU setting to not be applied correctly, preventing web access over VPN and other secure protocols.
  • MTU settings from 512 to 1400 can now be configured for users experiencing an issue viewing the web interface over a VPN connection.
• Resolved an issue that caused SNMP Trap messages to always be sent with a ‘public’ community string instead of the configured SNMP Community Name.
• Added a ‘View Tracing Output’ option to the Advanced Settings screen.
  • This is especially useful for determining the cause of SMTP email issues as it shows all activity happening ‘behind the scenes’, including communication with the email server.
• Added the ‘AM/PM’ time formatting to email alerts if this time format is configured in the settings.
• Added an option to disable the web interface for use in highly secure environments.
• Added an option to disable TFTP firmware updates for use in highly secure environments.
• Added an option to disable SNMP for use in highly secure environments.
• Added additional entry validation checks to the settings pages to prevent against invalid settings entry.
• Modified the ‘getData.htm’ output to be fully compatible with our new Device ManageR application.
• Modified the ‘Monitor Heat Index’ label for Temp/Humidity Sensors on the Sensor Settings screen to open a popup linking to the explanation of what Heat Index is from the AVTECH.com Knowledge Base when clicked.
• Modified the Security Settings screen to require the current password when changing to a new password.

v3.0.0

April 9, 2008

• Completely redesigned the Settings screen to use HTML forms instead of the Java Applet previously used.
  • This provides a much more user friendly configuration interface that does not require any additional browser plugins to operate properly.
• Modified the way sensor thresholds are saved so they can be entered in the currently configured temperature scale (Fahrenheit or Celsius).
  • Previously, thresholds could only be configured in Fahrenheit.
  • If thresholds were previously configured, be sure to review the Sensors section of the Settings screen after applying the update to be sure all sensor thresholds are configured correctly.
• Modified the way sensor calibration values entered in the ‘Adjust’ field are saved so they can be entered in the currently configured temperature scale (Fahrenheit or Celsius).
  • Previously, the ‘Adjust’ value could only be entered in Celsius.
  • If ‘Adjust’ values were previously configured, be sure to review the Sensors section of the Settings screen after applying the update to be sure all sensor calibrations are configured correctly.
• Modified the Settings authentication to prompt for a password using the standard browser authentication entry display. The username field will *always* be left blank and the password (if configured) should be entered in the password field.
• Added SMTP Authentication capabilities to the email configuration and sending modules. A username and password can now optionally be provided for SMTP Authentication for use on servers that do not allow anonymous SMTP email messages.
• Added the ability to modify the SMTP port used for sending email. This will also benefit users who have mail servers that use alternate ports or do not allow mail submission on port 25.
• Modified the trace output feature to allow the port number to be modified. By default, a port of 143 is used if tracing output is enabled.
• Added an option to display the time in the default 24 hour format or in 12 hour AM/PM format. This applies for the display on the Status screen as well as in email alert messages and logging data.
• Added the ability to configure the DNS Server IP address via the telnet configuration menu.
• Added the MAC Address to the Status screen display to make it easier to identify multiple devices on the network.
• Added a new feature that allows users to send a test email by accessing the URL ‘http://(IP of Device)/cmd.cgi?action=SendTestEmail’.
  • A button is also provided on the SMTP Email section of the Settings screen that will trigger a test email to be sent.
  • Both of these new functions will only work if valid email settings are configured on the SMTP Email section of the Settings screen.
• Added a function to check the return code from a SMTP server on the initial connection instead of after each command.
  • This resolves an issue that could occur if a SMTP server responds with an error code on the initial connection.
• Added a URL alias so sensor data can be accessed in JSON format at both ‘/getData.htm’ and ‘/getdata.htm’.
• Resolved an issue that could cause DHCP Names less than 8 characters long to save incorrectly.
• Resolved an issue that could cause the SNMP ‘SysObjectID’ variable to return an incorrect value.

v1.6.2

October 26, 2007

• Resolved an issue that could cause some temperature sensors not to display properly on the Status screen.
• Added additional tracing output to help diagnose temperature sensor issues.

v1.6.1

October 24, 2007

• Improved support for AVTECH’s Digital Power Sensor. This firmware version adds support for Digital Power Sensor v1.2 and above.
• Added additional tracing output for the Digital Power Sensor.
• Modified the MTU setting in the telnet configuration menu to be consistent with other Room Alert models.
• Resolved an issue that caused the last eight (8) characters in the DHCP Name not to be cleared when modified to a label that is shorter than eight (8) characters.
• Resolved an issue that caused the Temperature Sensor to stop updating if the temperature dropped below zero degrees Celsius.

v1.6.0

August 22, 2007

• Added a new webpage display option designed specifically for mobile devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. The new URL ‘http://(IP of Device)/mobile’ will display a text only output of all current sensor data.
• Added a new feature that allows users to reset the high and low values for sensors by accessing the URL ‘http://(IP of Device)/cmd.cgi?action=ResetHighLow’.
• Added the ability to modify the SMTP port used for email via the Telnet configuration menu.
• Added an option to return sensor values in a two digit format instead of the default four digit format when queried via SNMP. This option can be configured through the Telnet configuration menu.
• Resolved an issue that could prevent alarm notifications from being sent for switch sensors set to alarm on an ‘Open’ condition.
• Increased the timeout used when saving settings via the Settings applet to resolve an issue that occurred on Mac OS X and Windows Vista.
• Resolved an issue with the Email tab of the Settings applet that could prevent email settings from saving if the ‘Email Enabled’ checkbox was not selected.

v1.5.2

August 16, 2007

• A network driver provided by the chip manufacturer was found to cause a reboot loop condition under certain circumstances when settings were saved from the Settings applet. We worked with the manufacturer to resolve this issue and have included the updated network driver in this version.
• Added additional verification code to be sure the timezone offset is within an acceptable range. Users who previously had a timezone selected on the
• Advanced tab of the Settings applet should verify that the correct timezone is selected after installing this update.
• Added additional verification code to be sure valid IP addresses are entered on the Network tab of the Settings applet.
• Added additional verification code to be sure a valid DHCP Name is entered on the Network tab of the Settings applet.

v1.5.1

August 9, 2007

• Resolved an issue with the Status screen display introduced by the latest update to Microsoft Internet Explorer. Other browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Safari were unaffected.

v1.5.0

August 8, 2007

• Added Heat Index monitoring.
• Added Digital Power Sensor monitoring. Room Alert 24E can now generate alarms for Voltage (V), Current (A), Power (W) and Apparent Power (VA) detected by AVTECH’s Digital Power Sensor.
• Added a ‘tracing’ function to help diagnose issues such as email alerts not being sent.
  • When enabled through the telnet menu, tracing information will now be output to port 87223. This tracing information can be saved to a file that can be sent to AVTECH Support by executing the command ‘telnet *IP* 87223 -f C:\RA24E.tra’, replacing *IP* with the IP address of the Room Alert 24E and modifying the file path if desired.
• Added an option in the telnet interface to configure the Ethernet speed and duplex and the MTU size.
• Improved the error checking code so incorrect readings from sensors caused by EMI or other interference will be filtered and ignored.
• Updated the timezones so now intermediate timezones such as Newfoundland (GMT-3:30) and India (GMT+5:30) are supported.
  • As a result of this change, some users might have to update their timezone setting on the ‘Advanced’ tab after the firmware upgrade. Most should be updated automatically.
• Added a link to our ‘Live Sales Support’ on the About screen.
  • This makes it easy to speak with one of our Product Specialists regarding purchasing additional sensors or devices.
• Resolved an issue that could cause Switch Sensor false alarms to be sent if a normally closed sensor such as a Power Sensor was connected and the unit rebooted.

v1.0.1

May 21, 2007

• Resolved an issue that could cause sensors to stop updating if the temperature is below zero degrees.
• Resolved an issue that could cause alarms not to clear on external Temp/Humidity Sensors.

v1.0.0

March 15, 2007

• First official release of the Room Alert 24E firmware.