This release will be welcomed with open arms by many customers for the following reasons:

• General usability improvements in the Web Module
  Multi-select / delete options, Ajax progress indicators to avoid page refreshes, export from Dynamics Report tab and more (see below)
• Fixes to the Microsoft Forefront TMG loader
  See my other post: Microsoft Forefront TMG logs size fields the wrong way around. Also fixed ‘value cannot be null’ error when importing SQL logs.
• Fixes to storage corruption issues
  This build should prevent ‘Normalization Index’ storage corruption issues from occurring. This often occurred after importing data, editing some log inputs and reimporting.
• New loaders and more fixes
  See below for the full list

To update your Vantage application, simply choose Tools | Check for updates. To update the Web Module, right-click the WebSpy icon in your system tray and select ‘Check for updates’. If you have any issues updating the Web Module, please see my previous post Web Module Update Errors and Workarounds.

Web Module Changes:

• New: Task progress is now updated without refreshing the page
• New: Added multi-select / delete functionality to Reports, Analyses and Storages tables.
• New: Added export functionality to Dynamic Reports view.
• New: Added Performance section on the Options tab to enabling multi-processing (improves Analysis speed)
• Fix: Dynamic Reports view now supports Trend reports.
• Fix: Organization selector on Dynamic Reports view now always reflects updated data under IE6/7/8.Fix: Fixed javascript errors in IE when expanding the organization filter.
• Fix: Report template names are no longer truncated on the Dynamic Reports view.
• Fix: Fixed errors that may occur when collating reports on the Dynamic Reports page.
• Fix: Authentication errors are now logged with stack trace.

Vantage Changes

• Fixed: ‘Normalization index’ storage corruption problems.
• Fix: Report collation: Added support for collation of Min/Max aggregates on DateTime columns (time of first hit etc). Also added support for arrayed fields (for example, category fields with a comma separated list of categories)
• Fix: Import windows wizard now remembers settings for Import all or selected users
• Fix: Organization: Filtered LDIFs may now be imported when references to some users are missing (for example, if a user’s manager does not exist in the LDIF)
• Fix: Improved connection and error handling between Vantage and the Web Module.

Loader Changes

• New: BlueReef Sonar Total Management Module
• New: Microsoft Sharepoint 2007
• New: SmoothWall Guardian 7.0 format
• New: Sun One Proxy (Supported under Sun One Webserver)
• Fixed: Astaro: Improved format detection
• Fixed: Cisco: Strings in the IP fields of 113019 lines are now imported
• Fixed: IronPort WSA: Improved log format detection
• Fixed: Microsoft Exchange 2007: No longer raises issues regarding total-bytes or internal-message-id fields
• Fixed: Micorosft FTMG (Web) SQL: No longer encounters value could not be null errors
• Fixed: Microsoft FTMG: Added option to reverse bytes received/sent fields. See Microsoft Forefront TMG logs size fields the wrong way around
• Fixed: Microsoft IIS W3C: Now imports cs-method and connection ID
• Fixed: Sophos Web Appliance: Switched the outgoing and ingoing sizes so that they are now the correct way around
• Fixed: Fixed import new hits issue associated with W3C formats. You must reload your logs before this change will take affect. Formats affected include: BlueCoat, Clearswift, Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft FTMG, Microsoft Windows Media Services, WebSpy Live Tracking Log

Enjoy!

For those that don’t know what Soho is all about, check out this video:

Soho is a dashboard application that displays download and upload traffic statistics for each computer in your network. If you haven’t yet tried Soho, please give it a go and download it here.

It is our intention to keep our Alpha testers up to date with our ongoing development. Right now, I’d like to inform you about some issues experienced by a handful of testers and how to go about resolving them.

Learn to restart the Soho Agent

First of all, one of the handiest things we can tell you right now is how to restart the Soho Agent. This single step is resolves 99% of all Soho issues, at least temporarily. If these steps seem too complicated, rebooting your PC also has the same effect.

To restart the Soho Agent on Windows:

1. Launch the Services Console by going to Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services. Or if you like handy short cuts, try Start | Search (or Run), Type ‘services.msc’ (without the quotes) and press enter.
2. Right-click the “WebSpy Soho Agent” service and select Restart. If you get a ‘time out’ error message or warning, ignore it and right-click the service again and select Start.

To restart the Soho Agent on Mac OS:

1. Open the terminal from /Applications/Utilities/Terminal
2. Type sudo launchctl stop “WebSpy Soho Agent”
3. Enter your user password if requested.
4. Wait about 5 seconds.
5. Type sudo launchctl start “WebSpy Soho Agent”
6. Again, enter your user password if requested

OK, now you have the skills, here are the issues and work-arounds:

100% CPU usage after sleep or hibernate

Some users reported Soho’s impressive ability to consume 100% of their CPU when their computer wakes from sleep or hibernation. A few users experienced a slow and sluggish PC, and uninstalled Soho immediately.

If you’re looking for the Soho process in Windows Task Manager you will not see it until you click the Show processes from all users button (or checkbox in XP). This is because the Soho Agent runs under the System user account in order for it to run, no matter who is logged onto the PC.

From here you can end the WebSpy.Soho.Agent.exe process and everything should return to normal. You can then restart the “WebSpy Soho Agent” to get Soho working again (see steps above).

We believe we have fixed this and are in the middle of some final testing. All going well, we should have a new build ready for you very soon. In the mean time, you may like to disable sleep and hibernation in your PC’s power options.

Soho doesn’t install on Mac OS 10.5??

Our first Alpha release did not install on Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard). This was due to a silly checkbox in our packaging system not being checked. We’ve checked the checkbox and uploaded a new build to our web site. You can download it from here:
http://www.webspy.com.au/products/soho/download.aspx

Note: Soho will only install on Mac OS 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Versions 10.4 (Tiger) and below are not supported.

All computers disappear from the Current Activity chart except the local computer

Sometimes all computers will disappear from the Current Activity chart leaving your local computer all by itself. This happens when the communication between Soho Agents becomes jammed. You can usually resolve the issue by restarting the Soho Agent on your local computer (see steps below). If this doesn’t work, restart the Agents on all other computers running Soho. We are currently working on a fix for this issue.

The Soho User Interface is completely blank

If there is no information in the Total, Current Activity or History chart, this is because the Soho Agent has stopped running. Reasons for this may vary, so please let us know if this is regularly occurring. Restarting your agent usually resolves the issue (see steps above).

Feedback

Thank you to everyone that has submitted feedback so far.

Just a reminder to please let us know if your network card works or doesn’t work with Soho on this page:
http://www.webspy.com.au/products/soho/supportednics.aspx

You may also like to review the current list of features and bugs and vote them up or down at:
http://webspysoho.uservoice.com/

There is also a dedicated Soho Alpha Feedback thread in our forums at:
http://www.webspy.com.au/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12

We will let you know when fixes are available to the above issues.