logging internet traffic of users

[arno schoblocher]

hello,

does anyone know a software or tool that

- logs internet activities of users
(Username/IP/URL/Megabytes/time/programm...)
- produces easy to analyze log-files
- definitely runs on a terminal server (win2k sp3)
- is as simple as possible
- is cheap

my firewall cannot do the job.

i already tested IProtectYou of www.softforyou.com but there where strange
problems that disappeared when deaktivating logging. by the way, version 3.x
works better on a TS than the current version 4.02.

regards

arno

 

[Matthew Harris [MVP]]

Try using Microsoft ISA Server. It works perfect for me,
and I even tracked down a network problem today using the
log files it creates.

-M

 

[arno schoblocher]

hi matthew,

Try using Microsoft ISA Server. It works perfect for me,

i checked on the ms-website that this would cost me USD 3,000 for a
2-processor-machine. this is a lot for my purposes - logging url's and
transfered data size. do you have any other suggestions?

best regards

arno

 

[Criss]

Hi arno,

Could you please tell me a little more about problems with iProtectYou?
I really love this product and I want to know more about it.

Regards,
Criss

 

[arno schoblocher]

hi criss,


iprotectyou ver. 3:

i am not absolutely sure about this, but the programm could cause some
problems with dns-server. we had some problems with dns also without iPY but
to make sure we deinstalled iPY. but i will try to use it and it should work
now. the functions of the program itself are ok (esp. logging).

version 4.xx:
for me, iPY does not work properly with "change user /install", i think. the
problem is, that if you change settings (using change user /install) then
they should be applied to all users. but this does not happen. in version 3
i can deaktivate iPY (_without_ change user /install) as administrator and
this will work for all users, in version 4 it is deactivaded only for the
admin and not for users. this behaviour could be absolutely correct for a
terminal server, however, as an administrator i cannot use it like i would
like to because i cannot fully control what's going on.

pls. let me know if you find out something else when testing.

arno

 

[arno schoblocher]

hi criss,

I had had no problems with DNS with version 3.06. ....
For versions 4.x (I am using 4.04) if you change settings in "Users
and Groups"

could have been a combination of wrong settings (that we had) in DNS and
iPY. we solved that DNS problem but i did not test any further now as i have
more important things to do with other software. but the problems where
bigger with 4.x test version, so i did not buy the full version that can
handle user groups. from my experience i can only draw your attention to DNS
when using iPY because deinstalling removed some problems. if it works for
you - great! so, i will test again when i solved some other stuff!

I think the Charts and Diagrams are a little complicated but I do not
use them. What problems do you have with logging?

it blocked network communications - but this was maybe also the DNS problem.

i will create logfiles as *.txt and make pivot tables with excel out of it
with programm/user/download volume/upload volume. this is enough to see
who's surfing and who is sending maybe unzipped email. only if really
neccessary i can look at the url's if there is some abuse.

i'll let you know if i have some further results.

see ya

arno