Why are we removing it?

It’s pretty simple really. Analyzer has been around for a long time and provides great log file analysis and reporting features for email and web usage. Since Vantage’s release in 2006 the Vantage range has become increasingly popular and now we’ve come to a stage where we want to focus majority of development on one product range and thus provide our clients with one superior product guaranteed to meet their current and future needs.

Why Vantage?

• In addition to reporting on email and Internet traffic Vantage can report website visitor traffic, firewalls, instant messaging, event logs, routers, anti-virus and anti-spam applications.
• Superior support for major vendors such as IronPort, Microsoft Forefront TMG, Sophos and Clearswift
• Increase import & report speed with multi-processing technology
• Can run as a 64 bit process when installed on 64 bit operating systems. This enables Vantage to utilize more than 2 GB of RAM (a restriction that exists on 32 bit operating systems)
• Import user and department information from any LDAP compatible directory server using the ‘Import from LDAP’ wizard (including Microsoft® Active Directory and Novell® eDirectory).
• Securely distribute the right reports to the right people within your organization using Vantage Ultimate’s Web Module
• Collate existing reports into one overview report. A much faster way of generating reports and freeing up storage space. For example, you can create monthly Internet usage reports, and then combine all these reports to create a yearly report.
• Trend reporting to view usage and network trends over time and predict future values.
• Much more

What does this mean to Analyzer Users?

If you own a WebSpy Analyzer perpetual or subscription license there is no need to threat. It is yours to keep and we wouldn’t dream of forcing you to change license. You will be able to continue using your Analyzer product as you always have till the end of days and we will continue provide you with all the support you need. However, as there will be no major updates to the Analyzer Range and we have a product that is far superior with major updates on a regular basis, we do recommend all Analyzer users to start thinking about upgrading to our Vantage range.

To find out more about upgrading from Analyzer to Vantage contact your local WebSpy reseller or office.

Supported on Windows 7

The following WebSpy products support Windows 7:

• WebSpy Analyzer (Standard, Premium and Giga)
  Analyzer customers will need to download the latest version of their product as support for Windows 7 was uploaded today (9th November 2009).
• WebSpy Vantage (Premium, Giga and Ultimate)
  All products within the Vantage range have officially supported Windows 7 since version 2.2 was released on  24th June 2009.
• WebSpy Insight for Microsoft SBS Premium
  Although Insight for Microsoft SBS Premium does not mention Windows 7 support in its documentation, it will install and run on Windows 7 without issue.

Not ‘Officially’ Supported on Windows 7

WebSpy Live, Sentinel and FlowMonitor are not yet officially supported on Windows 7 and will be updated soon. In the mean time, here are some instructions on how to get these products working on Windows 7 right now.

WebSpy Live

The existing version of Live will install and run on Windows 7 with one minor issue. When you run the application, there will be no Triggers, Aliases, or Profiles available.

To fix this:

1. Install and run WebSpy Live on Windows 7.
2. Shutdown WebSpy Live by right-clicking the Live icon in the Windows system tray and selecting ‘Shutdown’
   

   Shutting down WebSpy Live on Windows 7

3. Download the following file containing WebSpy Live’s default Triggers, Aliases and Profiles:
   WebSpy Live Default Files (zip – 19.7 KB).
4. Extract the zip file to C:\Users\<your user profile>\AppData\Roaming\WebSpy\Live 2.2 and overwrite the existing files.
5. Run WebSpy Live. You will now be able to see a list of Triggers, Profiles and Aliases on the respective Configuration screens in WebSpy Live.

WebSpy Sentinel

WebSpy Sentinel will not yet install on Windows 7 due to an issue with the included version of WinPCap (the packet driver used by Sentinel).

To fix this:

1. Download and install the latest version (4.1.1) of WinPCap from http://www.winpcap.org/install/default.htm
2. Install WebSpy Sentinel. The product should install and run without issue.

FlowMonitor

Unfortunately no work around is available for WebSpy FlowMonitor. We will update the product to work with Windows 7 as soon as possible.

Got a problem?

If you experience an issue running these products on Windows 7, or any other Windows operating system for that matter, please let us know!

We’ve got a great deal at the moment where you get 20% off Live and Sentinel if you purchase them online with Analyzer Standard.

According to the latest blog from TMG’s Product Unit Manager, David B. Cross, Beta 3 will be released in the next couple of weeks. As for the full release, David says that they are still on track for Q4 this calendar year.

Beta 3 will introduce URL filtering that is ‘fully integrated’ with TMG’s web policy rules, and also utilizes Microsoft Reputation Services.

Microsoft are also introducing Intrusion Prevention and Detection (IPS/IDS) capabilities in TMG. These systems will utilize a technology they’re calling Network Inspection System (NIS) that detects attacks using signatures of known vulnerabilities, downloaded from the Microsoft Malware Protection Center. For more information on NIS see http://blogs.technet.com/isablog/archive/2009/04/12/exercising-nis-with-test-signature.aspx

If you’re currently using ISA 2004 or 2006, upgrading to TMG will consist of exporting rules and settings from ISA, then importing them into a clean installation of TMG. TMG will also only run on Windows Server 2008.

Improving the on-box reporting has not been a focus for the TMG development team, so analyzing TMG’s web proxy and firewall logs is still the best way to go for in depth reporting.

If you’re interested in reporting on your TMG log files stay tuned! We’re currently implementing support for the SQL Express, W3C and Native text logs. WebSpy Vantage is likely to be the first application to include the feature, with Analyzer and Live soon to follow.

All going well, you can expect to see TMG support in your favourite WebSpy app within the next month or so. If you want to be notified once we’ve added support, just leave a comment below.

Cheers!
Scott.

Of particular note is a fix to the Vantage range:

• Fix: Improved partition matching when filtering by a date range

This will benefit you if you’re running reports with a date range filter such as last week or yesterday (which is pretty much everyone), and are using the default storage partitioning scheme of “Date” (again… pretty much everyone).

There was an issue in Vantage’s partition filtering technology which meant that if you specified a date range filter, Vantage would still analyse an entire storage, instead of just the date partitions you selected in the filter.

So do a Tools | Check for updates to grab build 2.1.2.12 and you should see a significant speed improvement in report generation. Woo hoo!

Here’s more details on the changes:

VANTAGE

Application Changes

• New: Added support for importing event logs from non-domain machines.
• New: Added the ability for the Troubleshoot Alias/Profiles to export results to a file.
• New: Added hash salt and substring functions to the expression language.
• New: Added support for computing a date-modified file mask at import time and storing it back into the storage.
• New: Added a file mask override to the Import new hits to existing storage task action.
• New (Vantage Ulitmate & Giga): Added support for attributes on Organization groups.
• New (Vantage Ultimate): Added custom expression-based split in Web Module publishing (Beta).
• New (Vantage Ultimate): Changed the publish report wizard to allow selection of multiple storages.
• Fix: Improved partition matching when filtering by a date range.
• Fix: Fixed an issue with registrations and trial extensions.
• Fix: Fixed zero-width rectangle exceptions in chart renderer.
• Fix: Fixed overflow exceptions on footer generation in report tables.
• Fix: Fixed XmlException error during settings load.
• Fix: Storage now clears previous data when it is overwritten when using the ‘Import logs into new storage’ task.
• Fix (Vantage Ultimate & Giga): Fixed issues with date range selection when collating reports.
• Fix (Vantage Ultimate): Web Module dock no longer checks for updates to a web module server when ‘Check for updates on startup’ is disabled.

Loader Changes

• New: Added Phion Firewall
• New: Added Watchguard Firebox X Core
• New: Added NetScreen 208
• New: Added IPCop
• New: Added Astaro Mail Gateway
• New: Added iPrism Monitor v4.2
• New: Added Cisco VPN Concentrator
• New: Added Snare for Lotus Notes
• Improved: Added string host name to Kerio Mail Server
• Improved: Improved support for NetIntact PacketLogic
• Fix: Made changes to the IronPort detection method to fix the issue when importing via FTP.
• Fixed: Fixed date format issue in event log import. You can now import event logs in any regional configuration.
• Fix: Postfix loader no longer drops session state after the first recipient line
• Fix: Updated the detection method in CheckPoint Firewall-1 Syslog format.
• Fix: Fixed an issue in iSheriff where a drilldown on the Category field would display no results.
• Fix: Various fixes to Netscreen 10
• Fix: Various fixes to Arkoon PxLog
• Fix: Vaious fixes to Sendmail MTA

VANTAGE WEB MODULE

• FIX: When sorting by key column the chart will now use the “hits” aggregate for value (prevents the chart from going wacky)

ANALYZER

Application Changes

• NEW: Added support for manual configuration of ISA block list settings (Tools | Options | Block Lists)
• Fix: Fixed an issue with registrations and trial extensions
• Fix: Fixed report wizard configuration to restore the sort column from the report template

Loader Changes

• New: Added Webroot
• New: Added Qmail Desknow Mail Server
• New: Added UserGate Proxy Server 2.7
• New: Added Netgear FVX538
• Improved: Added support for importing allowed/blocked status in Sophos Web format
• Fixed: Changed CC Proxy field count check
• Fixed: Changed ISA SQL loaders to use size delta fields instead of cumulative fields
• Fixed: Modified Exchange 2000/2003 loader to discard message cache after import

LIVE

Application changes

• Fix: Fixed an issue with registrations and trial extensions

Loader changes:

• New: Added Webroot
• New: Added Qmail Desknow Mail Server
• New: Added UserGate Proxy Server 2.7
• New: Added Netgear FVX538
• Improved: Added support for importing allowed/blocked status in Sophos Web format
• Fixed: Changed CC Proxy field count check
• Fixed: Modified Exchange 2000/2003 loader to discard message cache after import

The fix can be applied to WebSpy Analyzer Giga 2.3, Analyzer Premium 4.3 or Analyzer Standard 4.3. If you’re not running the latest version, download it now!

You can download the new loader build that we created today at either of these locations:
USA West Coast (FTP)
USA East Coast (FTP)

Then extract the zip file into Analyzer’s installation folder (usually C:\Program Files\WebSpy\Analyzer flavour 4.3\) and overwrite the existing file.

Then go to the storages screen and select your Sophos storage(s) and click ‘Reload all hits’. This will re-import your log files using the modified loader and will populated the ‘Blocked’ summary appropriately. To check it out, go to the Summaries screen and run a Full Analysis. Then go to the ‘Blocked’ summary and you should see two items – ‘Blocked’ and ‘Not Blocked’. Drilldown into whichever one you care about to analyze the sites, users, files, browsing times, size downloaded etc. Go nuts!

You can also filter out blocked hits (or Not Blocked hits) from your reports. On the Reports Screen, click Generate a new report and go through the report wizard with this filter (this example shows filtering out blocked hits).

Analyzer Report Wizard - Select Custom Filters

Analyzer Report Wizard - Selecting the 'Blocked' Summary as a Filter

Analyzer Report Wizard - Adding the items that you want to filter

Analyzer Report Wizard - final filter to exclude 'Blocked' hits

Then proceed through the report wizard to generate your report. This filter can be applied to any report as well as analyses on the Summaries screen (using the same options in the Analysis Wizard).

Happy analyzing!