Tracking network firewall traffic

WebTrends has released its WebTrends for Firewalls and VPNs software to monitor and report on firewall activity in real-time.

"Tracking firewall activity will become a key component of Web management," Stefan Smith, a Dataquest analyst, said in a statement. "Having the ability to monitor potential breaches into the network before they occur is of tantamount importance."

Many firewall and proxy vendors provide similar tracking for their own products, but they don't address the problem for networks that use multiple vendors.

WebTrends for Firewalls and VPNs logs firewall activity, including security violations, bandwidth usage, email usage, and employee activity. It supports an unlimited number of IP addresses behind the firewall, allows tracking of departmental activity, manages multiple log files across multiple firewalls, and stores results in Microsoft or Oracle databases.

The software reports and helps forecast trends for both incoming and outgoing traffic.

The product supports firewalls and proxy servers from Check Point, Axent Technologies/Raptor, Cisco Systems, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Netscape Communications, Network Associates/TIS, and Novell.

WebTrends for Firewalls and VPNs is available through channel partners or from WebTrends' Web site, where a free 14-day trial is available for download. Version 1.0 is priced at $1,000 for a single firewall. A three-firewall add-on costs $2,000 while a five-pack is $3,000. A $349 subscription provides upgrades and technical support for one year.