[plug] [Fwd: ECHALK: INTERNET MONITORING SOFTWARE]

[Peter Wright]

On Wed, Jun 07, 2000 at 09:46:03AM +0800, Christian wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 06, 2000 at 09:01:38PM +0800, Oliver wrote:
> > > Can anyone out there recommend some proprietary software to monitor
> > > Internet sites that students visit.
> > 
> > Why specifically proprietary?
> > 
> > Odd.
> 
> That was my thought too.  If she wants proprietary then why use Linux to
> begin with?  I suspect that most of the suggestions Leon made, while
> probably perfectly capable of doing the job, may not be suitable if
> "proprietary" is a mandated requirement.

I suspect it's someone simply not terribly familiar with the ethos of free
(speech) and/or open source software. As most of you are probably aware,
people coming from a mainly Windows background tend to be used to paying
for "good" (for some value of "good") software and like the comforting
feeling of thinking that a company stands behind and supports the software
(which, to be fair, quite a few do to some extent).

I also suspect that Anna may well simply not be aware that Redhat Linux is
freely available/reproducible software. Which is not to imply anything
negative about her, it's just one of those (quite significant :-) things
that people don't always immediately grasp about the Linux operating system
and commonly associated software unless someone explains it to them. I know
I've occasionally had to explain to people that yes, even though (for
example) an "official" shrink-wrapped copy of RH Linux costs 50 to 150
dollars in stores, it is perfectly legal to download (and copy) essentially
the same stuff for nothing. "But why would anyone pay for it if you can get
if for free?" Um... good question. :-)

If the above is correct, she probably just meant "good stuff that works
reliably and I can get support for". In which respect Squid (and the other
analysis packages that sit on top of Squid) fits the bill admirably.

Anna, I'd strongly recommend that you take Leon up on his offer (especialy
if he's being really generous and offering his time for free :). I presume
you don't have any IT people on staff that are familiar with Linux, but if
you have IT staff of any description available, it shouldn't take too much
time before they'd be capable of administering the system quite adequately,
once Leon's helped to set it up.

And as Leon said, there are Squid/Linux experts out there that you could
hire temporarily at hopefully not terribly high rates :) if you needed
something more complex to be implemented.

> Christian.

Oh by the way, regarding WebSpy... um.... it appears to be a Windows-only
solution :-). See

http://www2.webspy.com.au/content/downloads/demo_register.asp

The downloadable demos appear to be Windows executables. There wasn't any
mention in the (very limited) product information page 
http://www.webspy.com/products.htm  about availability on any other
operating system.

Pete.

PS. Hmm, I'm wondering if I can resist the chance to take a shot at their
bizarre website layout as well... hmmm.... *looks at page source* 

<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 4.0">

Hmm. Figures. :)
-- 
http://cygnus.uwa.edu.au/~pete/

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