Logging The Firewall

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As the 5861 has a hardware firewall it would be nice to know what's happing to it. You can always pug in the console cable and monitor what's happening, but there is a better way....

This is done with a server called a syslog server, they are very common on Unix networks but there are several which will work with windows.
One of these is Kiwi, and best of all it's freeware!!

First download and install the Kiwi software to the PC on your network that is to be the syslog server, this needs to be kept switched on if you want a continuous log of the firewall activity. You need to set it to listen (input) on UDP port 514.

It lives in the system tray but can be enlarged so you can view the current activity. It's also best to configure it to make daily logs rather than one large log file, which is it's default. You can even get it to e-mail an alert if it goes over the maximum message threshold, 300 mph is a good setting (messages not miles per hour!)

• There are two ways to configure the EN5861 to send UDP messages to the syslog server, the easiest way is to point your browser to http://192.168.254.254/tools/syslog.html as shown below.

• Another method to configure it is using Telnet:-

  • system addsyslogserver 192.168.254.x (PC with server installed)

  • system syslogport default (port 514)

  • reboot

Hopefully now the messages which were displayed on the console Telnet session should be shown and logged by the syslog server.
You can now look forward to hours of fun checking the logs.....