General:
  What is NorthStar
  Documentation
  About the author
  Mailing Lists
  Mailing List Archive
  Submit Comments

Current Version:
  Demo
  Screen Shots
  User Contributed Software
  Download Stable Version
  Support

Development:
  Development Roadmap
  CVS Access
  WebCVS
  Bugs/Feature Requests
 		News

02/04/2003 - Wow, it's been a while since i've been able to look at this page. I guess it is time for an update.... I am getting back to my regular schedule now so I will have more time to work on NorthStar. Sorry for being absent for so long but as usual paying jobs and school take priority!!. Expect more updates later in the week...
6/20/2002 - Delays, delays, delays... i'm starting to sound like an airline. I'm pushing back 1.7 again so some more bugfixes can get into the release. It shouldn't be much longer now.. I promise. Check out the bugzilla link on the left for more information on what is holding things back.
6/11/2002 - Hello everyone, just wanted to post a quick update on things. I have pushed back the release date for 1.7 to 6/20/2002 to allow some more time for bugfixes and much needed documentation to get done. Most of the bugfixes are small, but that last couple of weeks have been hectic to say the least. The documentation changes mainly involve the API docs, which really need to be released with 1.7 for anyone to actually be able to write Modules or use the API. In other news I have put up an installation of Bugzilla to help track bugs/feature requests/etc. You can access it at http://cvs.brownkid.net/bugzilla/ and please use Bugzilla to submit things from now on. Oh.. and last but not least.. i'm running out of books to read.. if your using NorthStar and like it, send me a book from my Wishlist. That wraps it up for now.. back to your regularly scheduled programming.
5/21/2002 - Evenin' everyone. I have pushed up v1.65 to the servers for your downloading pleasure. This release is meant to be an interim release to allow for API stabalization and to get the API out to developers to start writing modules, etc. Installation notes can be found here (Make sure you read them.. things have changed!!) and the tar files are available in the downloads section. v1.7 is on track for a release on the target date provided we don't find any major bugs. The API documentation is not quite done yet, but I will post a message when it is so everyone can take a look. In the mean time be look in API.pm, it is heavily commented.


What is NorthStar

NorthStar is a system to help track and allocate blocks in an IP Network. My company (Preferred Communications Inc.) currently uses this system to track and maintain all of it's IP Allocation and to some extent tracking things such as Out-of-band access ports, Remote Power Control ports, DNS information and other information that can be related to a specific device. NorthStar was written in Perl and should be fairly portable to most platforms.

User Contributed Software

This section has listings of software contributed by users of NorthStar. Direct support for them is not provided, however, mailing the list will probably yield some results.

Name Description Download Author

Development Roadmap

This development roadmap serves as a guide and approximate timeline that I would like to adhere to regarding NorthStar development. As always delay's do occur and not all features will get into a release, but my goal is to try and stick to this plan as close as possible. The row highlighted green is where active project development is going on right now, rows marked yellow are released versions. The expected release date is an estimate and may change according to the actual development progress. Goals that are marked with a '*' have been added since the original set of goals for that release were set.

Version Expected Release Actual Release Goals
1.5 3/2/2002
3/6/2002		 3/6/2002 * Automatic Allocation Wizard
Audit Log Searching
Get rid of Net::IP
Netblock Allocation Status (allocated,unallocated,blocked) Support
1.6 4/1/2002 4/1/2002 - Bug Fixes
- Merge Addresses into the Networks table (a single IP is really just a /32 network)
- Usability Fixes (bypass template/view select screens if only one template or view exists)
- Add support to move subnets up the tree when deleting it's parent
- Block Priorities (allow one block to have a higher priority than an other to assist the Alloc Wizard in finding the correct block)
- Java Network Viewer
1.65 5/10/2002 5/21/2002 - NorthStar API
- Module specifications
1.7 6/5/2002
6/20/2002
6/30/2002 		-- - Whois Server
- Import Abilities
- CGI.pm v3.x support
- Send your feature requests!!!!
2.0 -- -- IPv6 Support

About the author

Well.. all about me.. first my name is Hitesh Patel aka BrownKid. I am an computer engineering student and currently work for Preferred Communications Inc. You can email me at hitesh@presys.com and if you use PGP my key is located here. If you use this software please help out a poor college student by sending money, beer, cigars, electronics parts, books, cd's & dvd's, Mountain Dew, postcards, Craftsman tools, Hot Sauce, or anything else that might help. If you want more information about me email me..

Demo

You can access a demonstration setup of the NorthStar system by clicking the URL below. When prompted for a username and password use the username "admin" and the password "test". This user has full access to create, modify, and delete any object so please be careful and don't break it ;-)

Screen Shots

Ok, here is some eye candy.
NOTE: These screenshots are from version 1.5

Download

Please note that version with a YELLOW background are development versions, while versions with a GREEN background are stabel versions.
Stable Versions
Version Download Notes
1.65 **Development Version** [tar/gz][tar/bz2]
[CHANGELOG][MD5 Checksums]
1.6 [tar/gz][tar/bz2]
[CHANGELOG][MD5 Checksums]
1.5 [tar/gz][tar/bz2]
CHANGELOG
1.4 [tar/gz][tar/bz2]
CHANGELOG

Please read the README file in the distribution file for installation and other pertinent information. See the "Support" section if you have questions

Support

Currently all support is handled by me in my free time. I do not get paid to work on this software so it does not always take priority to my other activities (school, my real job, weekends). Support is available by subscribing to the Mailing List. If you require full time support please contact me about a support package.

If you find bugs please file a bug report with Bugzilla and be sure to include any error logs and what you were doing. Bugs will be fixed ASAP with security related bugs given the highest priority. If you have a patch please send it in context diff format to the above address. if you use PGP my key is here