7 09, 2015

Optimizing Log File Size For Analysis And Reporting

By | 2015-09-07T17:13:06+00:00 September 7th, 2015|Astaro, ClearSwift, Email Analysis, Employee Internet Reports, Firewall Analysis, How To, Log File Analysis, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft IIS, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, System Administration, Tips and Best Practices, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Browsing Analysis, WebSense, WebSpy, Windows Event Logs|Comments Off on Optimizing Log File Size For Analysis And Reporting

Firewalls and proxies generate a lot of log data. Multiple gigabytes per day are commonplace now. The log files themselves are generally simple flat text files. Their size comes from the sheer volume of entries, not from being rich data types. The log file size not only consumes disk space during logging, storing, and archiving, but [...]

27 10, 2010

Watch your TMG's waist line. Switch log format and reduce fat now!

By | 2010-10-27T04:57:46+00:00 October 27th, 2010|Firewall Analysis, Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, storages, System Administration, Tips and Best Practices, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Browsing Analysis, WebSpy|0 Comments

We often recommend customers using Microsoft ISA or TMG switch their logging to W3C text file, in order to get the best possible import speed, and also because the text logs are much easier to access from a remote machine (see my previous article on accessing TMG’s SQL Express Log database). Logging to the default [...]

12 10, 2010

Vantage Update 2.2.0.55 (Clearswift, Palo Alto Networks, WatchGuard and more)

By | 2010-10-12T07:25:56+00:00 October 12th, 2010|cisco, ClearSwift, Firewall Analysis, FlowMonitor, IronPort, Loaders, Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Partners, Software Updates, Third Party, Uncategorized, Vantage, WebSpy News Update|0 Comments

We’ve just released an auto update for the Vantage software range. This release includes some new log format additions, and some fixes to existing formats. […]

19 07, 2010

Tips from TMG Expert: Changing WebSpy Vantage Scheduled Task Recurrence Interval

By | 2010-07-19T03:57:08+00:00 July 19th, 2010|How To, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, Uncategorized|0 Comments

Microsoft ISA Server and Forefront TMG users are probably familiar with isaserver.org’s informative news articles, tutorials, blogs and forums. I just wanted to bring your attention to one of isaserver.org’s contributing blog authors, Richard Hicks. Richard has been working with Forefront Threat Management Gateway (TMG) 2010 and its predecessors for more than 12 years. He [...]

19 07, 2010

Why there is so much anonymous traffic in Microsoft TMG and ISA logs

By | 2010-07-19T03:18:29+00:00 July 19th, 2010|Aliases, Firewall Analysis, How To, Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, Reports, Tips and Best Practices, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Browsing Analysis, WebSpy|5 Comments

One of the most common questions we get asked by users of Microsoft TMG and ISA is why there is so much traffic attributed to the Anonymous user. Even though unauthenticated access to the web has been disabled, they still see the ‘Anonymous’ user as one of the top users in their reports. So let’s [...]

20 05, 2010

Vantage Update 2.2.0.43

By | 2010-05-20T06:45:45+00:00 May 20th, 2010|IronPort, Loaders, Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Microsoft Threat Management Gateway, Software Updates, Tips and Best Practices, Uncategorized, Vantage, Web Module, WebSpy|0 Comments

We've just released an auto update for WebSpy Vantage (Premium, Giga and Ultimate) as well as the Web Module. This is a great update for Vantage Ultimate users as we've introduced a new feature/tab into the Web Module called 'Dynamic Reports'. Here's the full list of changes since the last auto update (2.2.0.32 on the 14th April 2010).

16 04, 2010

3 Simple Reasons Why Resellers Want WebSpy

By | 2010-04-16T07:48:58+00:00 April 16th, 2010|Log File Analysis, Microsoft ISA Server, Partners, Reports, Sales and Marketing, Uncategorized|0 Comments

To set things straight from the get-go, this is not a plug about our partner program, margin structure or reseller support. All the ingredients necessary to bake a successful partner cake are present (and being improved…get ready for some exciting partner announcement in the coming weeks). No, this is simply a very factual overview of [...]

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). […]