Logging

WinGate has a comprehensive new Logging system to record traffic usage and diagnostic information to log files for further analysis.

When modules and components are installed to WinGate, they can register themselves with the Logging system as potential sources of logging information. Sources can be made to supply their information to a chosen log that will create the resulting log file.

All logging sources will register themselves as suppliers of diagnostic information to the Logging system. Diagnostic information can include warnings, errors, and debug information that can assist with fault finding and administration of the module or component responsible for that source in WinGate. Diagnostic sources will supply their information to a diagnostic log called Global by default, so they can begin logging information to the Global log file after installation.

Diagnostic sources also allow you to configure which diagnostic log they should provide their information to. This means that you can customize the content of a diagnostic log by configuring only the relevant diagnostic logging sources to provide it with information.

When a registered logging source has the ability to provide usage and traffic information (e.g. WWW Proxy server, SMTP server) it will also register itself as source of usage information to the Logging system. These usage sources will automatically create their own log to record the usage information for that source to a log file.

Each usage log uses a W3C Logging compliant format so it can be viewed by a range of third party log analyzers. With customizable field names, usage logs have been designed this way so they can be read by different W3C log analyzers (who may have slightly different field requirements) when needed.

In the case where a WinGate service is installed twice (for example when you install another WWW Proxy server) a usage source for the new service will also be registered. These similar usage sources can then be made to supply their information to the same log. This allows you to configure two or more of the same proxy servers to contribute usage information to the same log file.