Network Caller ID News

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NCID Release 1.13

Network Caller ID (NCID) Release 1.13

Overview

Major Changes

The NCID server now supports up to 5 USB modems.

The NCID server can pause automatic hangups for a user defined time, when requested by the NCID client.

The NCID client was updated to include new features; a context menu, resizing of columns, tooltips, the local time of the caller, icons representing country flags and icons for calling phone number device type.

When the client is installed the first time, it creates ~/.ncid/ncidrc and displays the the same selectable columns as the previous versions of ncid with fixed display columns. When ncid is updated, it displays the user selected columns saved in ~/.ncid/ncidrc. The display columns are in groupings: required, optional, extra, and gateway.

Use Preferences->Select Columns to display selected columns.

Other Changes

Fixes and Code Improvements:

ncid client

ncidd.conf server configuration

ncidd server

New features:

ncid.conf client configuration

ncid client

Updated:

API Documentation

Man Pages

User Manual

Features and fixes for this NCID release

Server

ncidd

New: The server supports up to 5 serial or USB modems.

New: Client's can request the server to pause (temporarily disable) automatic hangup for a specific amount of time. The server will resume automatic hangup at the end of the pause time or when the client requests an end to the pause time. You might want to use this new feature if you are expecting a legitimate call but you don't yet have the phone number. Once they call you, you can then whitelist the caller using the normal means.

New: The server can decode the bytes sent by an input device's (e.g., modem) ASCII text MESG data. Such data is rarely seen and is typically a sequence of hexadecimal characters emited when an input device doesn't know how to handle some part of a call's raw SDMF/MDMF protocol data from the telco. The decoding logic is not all encompassing but should handle typical cases.

Code improvements and bug fixes.

Source code split into more files in order to allow NCID to be more modular.

Client

ncid

New: To faciliate better customization of only those columns that are important to a user, all history window columns can be hidden, except for the TYPE column which must always be visible. For technical reasons, a further restriction is that a total of at least three columns must be selected to be visible.

New: All history column headers and row columns can display a tooltip if the column width is not wide enough for the data.

New: A tool tip will display the local time of a call if not local.

New: A tooltip will show the country for a flag if the call is not the same as the country running the server.

New: If the MESSAGE column is visible, a tooltip will show the definition of the words used in the MTYPE column. If the MESSAGE column is hidden, the tooltip will display the message in the MTYPE column.

New: The GUI client can pause the server automatic hangup for up to 10 hours.

New: The history window rows have a context menu with options to manipulate Alias, Blacklist and Whitelist entries, dial the number, etc.

New: The client can now handle simple and regular expressions.

New: The ~/.ncid file was converted to ~/.ncid/ncidrc.

Code improvements and fixes.

ncid.conf

The log section was moved.

logging was changed from off to on by default. The default log is NCID/client/<host>.log. Each time ncid is restarted, it overwrites the log unless changed in ncid.conf.</host>

Tools

phonetz

New: Obtains the local time of a call if in a different timezone.

ncidnumberinfo

code improvement

ncidupdate

code improvement and fixes

wct

code improvement and fixes

Documentation

NCID User Manual

Updated

NCID API

updated

Man Pages

New: ncid_modems

New: phonetz

Updated: ncidd

Updated: ncid

Updated: ncid_tools

Important Notes

Downloads

The large green Download button on the SourceForge Project Page detects which operating system you're using. For Windows, it defaults to downloading only the latest Windows client setup program. Otherwise it defaults to the complete, latest source package. Select Files to view and download any of the available packages.

Client

Requires TCL/TK version 8.6.6 or newer for all operating systems.

The Windows client is installed as ncid.tcl and requires the installation of ActiveTcl.

The Windows client still does not support OUTPUT MODULES but Windows 10 can run Ubuntu using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). We have not installed or tested NCID using WSL, so any feedback would be appreciated if you try this.

On maintained Fedora releases, with Emoji fonts installed, the ncid client, in GUI mode, will cause an X-Windows error and then die on start-up or when doing a Preferences->Font->Re-scan.

If ncid dies on startup, you must remove the $HOME/.ncid file if using Linux based distribution, FreeBSD or macOS, or the <INSTALLDIR>/.ncid file if using Windows.

The ncid client, starting with release 1.8, ignores all Emoji fonts. For client releases prior to 1.8, the only fix is to manually remove all Emoji fonts.

On macOS, the ncid client is no longer supported under the native Aqua graphical user interface. The fix is to install the XQuartz application which provides a custom X Windows System, and a version of TCL/TK that is for X Windows/XQuartz.

Source Compile Requirements

g++ or c++ compiler

libphonenumber 7 or greater

libicu 57 or greater

If the above are not available then NCID release 1.11 should be used.

Fedora Upgrade

When doing an upgrade from NCID 1.2 on Fedora, the client post-script (installed with NCID 1.2) fails.

Everything is installed properly but if you had any clients with output modules running, you may need to restart them after the upgrade.

Macintosh Upgrade

Beginning with NCID 1.12, you must compile from source because no self-extracting installer script is available. Your existing configuration settings will be preserved.

See the INSTALL-Mac section of the User Manual for instructions on how to install:

XQuartz graphical user interface

the special version of TCL/TK needed for XQuartz

the third-party packages to install with either the Homebrew or the MacPorts package manager.

Upgrades for All Operating Systems (including Fedora and Macintosh)

It is highly recommended that you run the new update-cidcall tool after upgrading to NCID 1.12 but before launching the ncidd server for the first time.

If you don't run update-cidcall then call log data prior to NCID 1.12 will show blanks instead of the new fields.

Once NCID 1.12 is installed and running, the new call log data will automatically be populated with the new fields.

Cygwin Support

Cygwin is no longer supported beginning with NCID 1.12 because it does not provide dependencies for libphonenumber. If you still need to run on Cygwin then NCID release 1.11 should be used.

Language Support

You are welcome to contact us to request that additional countries be included for the ncid client. The NCID source has documentation and the tools that we use in case you want to add a new country on your own, but be aware that doing so is non-trivial (it depends on the format that the country's telecom authority will use).