Hardping Pro was finally released last evening.

It is the shareware/commercial version of the hardping freeware software.

It retails for 39.99.

It was originally slated for 14.95 and 24.95, but after seeing the need that it filled, the cost of support and maintenance, and the advertising that is going to be necessary, 14.95 simply would not be enough to to maintain the project and keep it fresh with updates.

For those of you who have never had to “Price” a product, it’s difficult.  Too low and people think it’s junk and you can’t sustain the product.  Too high and no one will purchase it.

For hardping, the price of 39.99 will cover support, advertising, and development upgrade costs necessary for the program to survive.  Even if this is more than some of the other programs in the field, I feel it’s necessary to sustain the product.  We’re striving for quality and not quantity with our customers and our products.

Thanks to everyone for the support they’ve given the company.

John

Just wanted to let everyone know, within 2 weeks, Hardping has been download 1,500 times.  It’s a great milestone for us at IO3O.
Because of the success, the plan is to create a shareware version called Hardping Pro which has more options and features.

The expected retail price is US$14.95 for the initial command line version.  A combined Windows and command line version should be available within a few months that will sell for $24.95.

Thanks to everyone for their encouragement.

John

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that in the last 6 days, there have been over 735 downloads of hardping.

Averaging between 100 and 200 per day.

In contrast, IOSurf when it was released was downloaded on average 10 times per day.  So, it’s looking good.

I’ll keep you posted.

So with the release of Hardping, I’d like to go through the steps that were taken to do it’s initial release.

 1.  Placed a simple link and review on digg. 

- Appears to have been removed though.  That’s possibly a new policy.

2.  Uploaded hardping 1.0 to upload.com -

that’s where you upload files to appear on download.com, I used the free version, so it should appear on download.com, cnet.com, etc. within about 2 weeks.

3.  put it on the Association of Shareware Professionals PAD repository

-this is where a lot of freeware and shareware websites get their software.

4.  downloaded robosoft, autosubmitted to about 400 sites.

- If you write software to be downloaded off of the internet, and you’ve never heard of Robosoft by Rudenko, you’re missing out.  Check it out here http://rudenko.com/robosoft/

Each File Submission used to take me about 10 minutes.  Which doesn’t sound bad until you realize that to do 50 sites took me 500 minutes or about 8 hours.  With Robosoft, I started it, let it run all day, and when I came back at night, did maybe 20 minutes of maintenance, and Hardping had been submitted to 400 download sites. 

5.  Intangibles

-Hardping started off with the need first, and not just what I wanted to build.  The need - IT and System Admins need to know if computers on their network are up even if they have Windows Firewall turned on

-Website was designed to get the point across quickly, even if it is ugly

-Promotion began the day after 1.0 was released, no waiting for 1 week and deciding whether or not to upload it to a specific shareware place or which blogger to contact.  Get it out there fast!

Reminder to myself - If you build it, they won’t come.  Promote! Promote! Promote!

As an update to the Hardping v1.0 release info, I’d like to tell you how it’s going 4 days later.

After putting up a website, submitting hardping to download sites, and writing some articles about it, I’ve had 54 downloads of Hardping since it went live.

I plan on following this same strategy when IOSurf v2.0 Production Release is ready to go live on the Internet as well.

Thanks to all of the supporters out there!

 John

Hey everyone,

 I decided to tweak the IOSurf home page.

I hope you like it.  After talking to some non-techie friends, pretty much all of them agreed that the home page was just a little too scary for people who aren’t in IT/Development.

So, I made it a little prettier.  It’s also got a pretty decent screen shot of the plugin people will have to be downloading.

Let me know if you think anything still looks a little too intimidating  http://www.iosurf.com

John

So, if there is one thing I noticed with the release of IOSurf is that no one really installs software anymore.

You can kind of look at it like this.

1.  Average user - likes the web, like to click buttons, doesn’t want to install anything

2.  IT/Tech user/Power user - likes the web, isn’t afraid to install things if they serve a purpose

3.  Sys Admins - likes the web, isn’t afraid to install things, will modify the registry and install things like the .NET framework if it’s needed

So, if you are ever releasing a product or a website, you definintely need to look at your customer.

What type of computer user are they? 

For instance, hardping is supposed to be for Tech/IT and also Sys Admins.  So a DOS interface, and software seems reasonable.  But for the masses, using DOS would be a nightmare.  And even DOS might be much for many Tech/Power Users.  A windows version might be better.

Also, IOSurf, although its a nice little plugin might be a bit much for the General User.  Because of the install it would almost need to be more for Tech/Power Users.

That’s why the next version we plan on releasing for Firefox.  Not because Firefox is the BEST BROWSER EVER or something like that, but because of the people who install plugins (Tech Users/IT/Sys Admins), most of them use Firefox. 

I guess it all comes down to, KNOW YOUR USER.

Hey everyone,

IO3O has released it’s second product.

Hardping. 

Hardping is a Hardware Level Ping utility.

What that basically means is that because it looks at the hardware level of devices on a network, it can’t easily be stopped by things like Windows Firewall or any other personal firewall.

It’s a cool little tool for Network Admins and people who run their own Wi-Fi networks and want to know if computers on their network are up, and also if anyone else has connected to their network.

And yes it’s scriptable for all of you DOS junkies out there.

I know this is the IOSurf blog, but I just wanted to keep everyone up to date with what’s going on with IOSurf’s parent company IO3O as well.

Enjoy.

Hey everyone,

So, we’ve made plans to create a new plugin.

It allows you to follow other people around on the internet.

Which will help you discover new websites and hopefully avoid some annoying ones.

Because of the privacy concerns though with tracking where people have been on the internet, we’ve decided to make it separate from IOSurf.  IOSurf is about collaboration, being open, and meeting new people.  This one is going to be about discovery.  So the plan is to make it incredibly secure and as anonymous as possible.

The problem is, we are having trouble with the name.

 A plugin that lets you see other people’s web footprints and decide to either follow them or make your own trail.  Should it be called IOFollow, IOTrails, or IOFootPrints?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And no, it’s not IOStalker, because you won’t know whose footprints you are following.  You’ll only know the basics that you know from footprints, gender, approximate age, and maybe country or language, just to keep it interesting.

 John

In case any of you were wondering, I tried out IOSurf on Internet Explorer 8 beta. 

And I’ve gotta tell you.  It looks great.

We’re still working through those Windows 2000 issues, but on XP and Vista,  Internet Explorer 6, 7, and now 8 are working nicely.

 A firefox version has been in the works for some time, but hasn’t materialized as of yet.

Oh yeah, for those of you who thought we were dead, we’re alive, just moving kinda slow