What is new in the SNIP 2_04_00 release  [released August 29th 2018]

This is the next release of SNIP following the Rev 2_03_00 release of July 11th.  This release contains a number of refinements to different areas of SNIP in response to user requests.

This release supports for both 32-bit and 64-bit installations in Windows.  It is recommended that all Windows 32/64 SNIP installations now update to using this release.  The 64-bit Ubuntu release with identical features remains pending at this time.

Notable changes in the release include

Changes were made to several key areas of SNIP including

NTRIP Rev2 NTRIP Client Improvements

• Improved support for NTRIP Rev2 Client connections. SNIP no longer forces a Rev1 to down convert to the older format to connect, but now replies with Rev2 protocol terms. Some NTRIP Clients could not down convert, although the actual NTRIP std requires this ability.
• Added additional logic to deal with Rev2 connections when only a password (and not a user account name) is sent in. Some NTRIP Rev2 Client software has issues with “open” Casters such as the RTK2go.com node. Sending a “dummy” user account is no longer needed by such devices.

PUSH-In Improvements

• The regular expressions logic for PUSH-In connections now supports the use of the “+” character correctly (often associated with the names of CMR type data streams).
• The tab summary of each PUSH-In stream now includes the letters “[U]” (UN-registered) and “[R]” (registered) to denote the type of connection made to the SNIP Caster.
• PUSH-In Reservations can now also be added or edited to any “live” connections to allow an easy sign-up process when adding new data streams. The advice which is given in this article is now overcome by the ability to simply right-click on the data stream of interest.
• Reservation details are now kept in a separate file from the *.ini details for each SNIP installation.

IP Ban Logic Improvements

• A new report section shows the temporarily banned IPs as part of the SNIP::STATUS web page. The full IP of each banned value is obscured to preserve privacy.
• The ban logic now also detects any PUSH-In connections that, once connected, never send any actual data before disconnecting, and counts these.  This is mostly an issue seen with RTKLIB derived code forwarding data as an NTRIP Server due to its tendency to connect even when there is no data to send.
• The two styles of reporting are reviewed further in this article.
• The selectable IP Ban period now supports selecting longer time periods (from 3 days to 2 weeks).
• The Private IP Ban report has been expanded and is now shown in the document viewer, when requested from the IP Ban dialog or from the menu bar.  This data is also provided as part of the IP report.

Auto Parsing Logic Improvements

• Once an RTCM 3.x format is detected and the message timing and counting has completed, the RTCM 3.0 format in the Caster entry is now upgraded to indicate RTCM 3.1, 3.2, or 3,3 when the message content indicates this.
• SNIP now detects when received ECEF messages (MT 1005/1006) are not valid and reports to the console in the cases of all zero values and the North and South poles. Such data streams are of no use in RTK operations.  If the connection Agent is also a SNIP device, the SNIP-2-SNIP messaging system sends a similar alert message back to the console of the remote machine.

Core Caster Improvements

• Changed the internal pending IP max connections from 30 to be 200 to allow faster restart processing after a local connection loss and restore event for large Pro caster operators.
• Changed the Caster table length count value (had been changed in release 2.02) to align with most other casters in the industry.
• The summary of all data streams which are no longer connected (prior data connections) now also shows the number of times the stream had been connected.  A large value here indicates that the stream has difficulty reliably connecting to the SNIP Caster.
• The console log now supports a new label style option with each entry numerical labeled.
• English corrections, such as NEMA to NMEA, and corrections correctly spelled, etc.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Deployment

• A great many Ubuntu changes have been made, revising all the dialogs and PNG files to overcome a persistent issue with displaying PNG images.
• The new installer script remains to be completed before the release can occur.
• The release will first occur in the beta Channel before a full production release.

Updating

Like all Rev 2.x releases on the Windows platform, one-click and painless !  The built-in installer will inform you when a new release is issued.  You can also check on this manually at any time.

When you upgrade (there is no reason not to) the installer will download the new image and install itself, leaving all of your current settings in place.  The SNIP node is taken offline for about 90 seconds before service can then resume, with full operation in about 3 minutes.

Please tell us how you use SNIP and how we can make it better.  Feel free to use the free text areas in the survey below to tell us anything else you think we should know.

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SNIP is an NTRIP Caster.    You can also use SNIP as an NTRIP Server with your existing GNSS devices.  Many deployments use a single paid copy of SNIP (Basic or Pro) in conjuration with multiple copies of SNIP Lite to set up their networks.  This configuration is very cost effective when the GNSS device vendor charges for providing an NTRIP Server option.

If you are seeking for an NTRIP Client, try one of the products mentioned here or here.

You can always obtain the most current release of SNIP here.