12 03, 2010

Vantage Update 2.2.0.29 – New Fields for IronPort

By | 2010-03-12T06:55:01+00:00 March 12th, 2010|Firewall Analysis, IronPort, Loaders, Log File Analysis, Software Updates, System Administration, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Browsing Analysis|0 Comments

We have just added support for the 'Group' field in IronPort's access logs. You can add this field to your logs by adding %g in the 'Custom Fields' edit box. We have also added support for the custom fields Body Request Size and Body Response Size.

2 03, 2010

Vantage Update 2.2.0.27 – Fix for Microsoft FTMG SQL Import

By | 2010-03-02T15:58:13+00:00 March 2nd, 2010|Loaders, Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, Software Updates, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Module, WebSpy|0 Comments

Our support for Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway is quite new and we’ve just fixed a couple of issues that we haven’t yet released as a public update yet. In particular, this update fixes the "specified cast invalid error" that occurs when importing the Web Proxy database logs.

8 02, 2010

8 Reasons NOT to Use Microsoft Forefront TMG's Reporting

By | 2010-02-08T06:48:39+00:00 February 8th, 2010|Aliases, Firewall Analysis, How To, Loaders, Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, Reports, Tips and Best Practices, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Browsing Analysis, Web Module, WebSpy|6 Comments

I've been having a look through the reporting functionality included in Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway to find that not much has changed from ISA Server 2006. There is some new information regarding the newly implemented URL categorization and threat management technology, but there is very little flexibility or customization for those with reporting requirements beyond general overviews cluttered with irrelevant information. Here is what I consider to be the 8 main limitations of Microsoft Forefront TMG's reporting functionality.

16 12, 2009

Microsoft TMG and UAG Released! What is the difference?

By | 2009-12-16T07:31:02+00:00 December 16th, 2009|Firewall Analysis, Loaders, Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, Software Updates, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Browsing Analysis, WebSpy|0 Comments

Most of our customers using Microsoft ISA server are probably aware by now that Microsoft have released the new version of ISA server, which is now re-branded as Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG). In addition to this, Microsoft has also re-branded its Internet Access Gateway (IAG) to Unified Access Gateway (UAG). […]

15 10, 2009

Where does Vantage store data and how do I change it?

By | 2009-10-15T08:05:02+00:00 October 15th, 2009|How To, Log File Analysis, storages, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Module|0 Comments

In the log file analysis world, we're always dealing with large volumes of data. By default, WebSpy Vantage stores its data, including the storages that you import log files into, somewhere on your c: drive. Changing this location to somewhere with more disk space is therefore one of the first steps that customers like to perform, so I thought I'd write a quick blog to explain the locations you should be aware of and how to change them.

14 10, 2009

Microsoft Forefront TMG Release Candidate now available

By | 2009-10-14T01:00:34+00:00 October 14th, 2009|Firewall Analysis, Loaders, Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, Third Party, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Browsing Analysis, WebSpy, WebSpy News Update|0 Comments

Microsoft have announced the availability of Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) Release Candidate (RC). This is the final public release of TMG before it is made available to purchase. If you're considering upgrading your ISA Server to TMG, this means that you can start your deployment using the Release Candidate, and simply switch it to a licenced version with no additional configuration changes once the full release is available.

29 09, 2009

How to Educate your Workforce and Strengthen Security with Internet Monitoring

By | 2009-09-29T08:03:38+00:00 September 29th, 2009|How To, Log File Analysis, Tips and Best Practices, Uncategorized, Vantage|0 Comments

Today I received a phone call from one of our clients who had read my previous blog: “How to Benefit from Monitoring Good Web Activity”. This blog is focused on how you can benefit from monitoring internet activity that is not generally perceived as bad, or unproductive. The client, a network administrator at a large [...]

9 09, 2009

Exciting New Features in Vantage Update 2.2.0.10

By | 2009-09-09T07:27:29+00:00 September 9th, 2009|Loaders, Log File Analysis, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, Scheduled Tasks, Software Updates, Uncategorized, Vantage, WebSpy, WebSpy News Update|0 Comments

Attention all Vantage customers (and triallers). We've just released build 2.2.0.8 as an auto-update. This build includes new features such as scheduled data purge, support for Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway, and scheduling CSV imports into your Organizational structure.

25 08, 2009

WebSpy User Survey – The Why, How and What Behind Internet Monitoring

By | 2009-08-25T03:10:33+00:00 August 25th, 2009|Log File Analysis, Sales and Marketing, Software Updates, Uncategorized, WebSpy|0 Comments

We recently completed the analysis of our latest software user survey. It is always very exciting to review the results from such a survey since it is one of the best indications on why clients are using our software, where our strengths lies and what we can improve. […]

14 08, 2009

Increase importing speed by utilizing dates in log file names

By | 2009-08-14T06:21:10+00:00 August 14th, 2009|How To, Log File Analysis, Uncategorized, Vantage, WebSpy|0 Comments

Using Date Modifiers in file masks are a great way to increase the speed of your imports as they remove all the logs you don’t care about from the import list. If you're using WebSpy Vantage, you are probably interested in filtering your log file imports by date (only import files from the month of June for example). The obvious way to do this is to specify a date filter using the filters page in the Input Wizard. The problem is Vantage will still check every record in every log file being imported to see if it matches the date filter. If you have months or years worth of logs in the folder being imported, that's a lot of data that Vantage has to pointlessly sift through. The good news is, if your log files contain the date in their file name, then you can use file masks to instruct Vantage to never touch these unwanted files.