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PAST DAYS' NEWS

Sawmill is a powerful hierarchical log analysis tool that runs on every major platform.
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2021-05-17:

Unfortunately Sawmill has gone out of business. support@sawmill.net will continue to be monitored for any questions.


2019-02-14: Version 8.8.0 release

Version 8.8.0 is available for download. This version improves performance of database filtering and reporting through the use of multiple processors, adds key-based SFTP authentication, improves support for Oracle databases, and improves multiprocessor progress reporting. See What's New In Sawmill 8.8 for details.


2016-11-15: Version 8.7.9 released

Version 8.7.9 is available for download. This version contains several minor bug fixes and new log formats. In addition, the Process Logs feature has been improved to support multi threading. Process logs can be used to quickly and easily convert any log data Sawmill supports into CSV.


2016-02-05: Version 8.7.8 released

Version 8.7.8 is available for download. The RedHat ES 7 binary now has MySql support. This version contains few minor bug fixes and several new log formats.


2015-10-06: Version 8.7.7 released

Version 8.7.7 is available for download. Pre-built binaries are now available for several new Linux platforms (RedHat ES 7, Debian 7 and 8). Signing issues with the Windows and Mac OS installers have been resolved in this version.


2015-05-20: Version 8.7.6 released

Version 8.7.6 is now available for download. This release adds support for TLS/SSL email connections via SMTP, and also has a plugin for the new standard OCLC EZproxy log format.


2015-01-29: Version 8.7.5 released

Version 8.7.5 is now available for download. This version now uses TLS as an encryption protocol, so when Sawmill is configured to use HTTPS, it will work on browsers which have SSLv3 disabled due to a vulnerability. A Windows specific bug where large filtered reports sometimes resulted in an error has been fixed. And support has been added for numerous new log formats and format variations.


2014-10-26: Sawmill 8.7.4 released

Version 8.7.4 is now available for download. This version has some reporting and performance enhancements, and adds support for a Kerio Mailserver variant, AWS ELB and ICAP log formats, and a variant of Watchguard Firebox XTM. It also fixes issues with Tomcat Valve patterns, and report customization and exports when using Chrome or Safari web browsers. See the version history for complete details.


2014-06-04: Support for ICAP (Internet Content Adaptation Protocol)

We have added support in Sawmill for ICAP (Internet Content Adaptation Protocol) log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.4. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-05-05: Support for AWS Elastic Load Balancer

We have added support in Sawmill for AWS Elastic Load Balancer (Amazon Web Services) log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.4. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-04-21: Sawmill 8.7.3 Released

Version 8.7.3 is now available for download. This version adds support for 11 new log formats. The support pages have been reformatted for easier use. The performance of filtered reports (without cross reference tables) has been improved, and various bug fixes are included.


2014-04-10: Information about Sawmill and Heartbleed

Sawmill uses OpenSSL to implement its HTTPS and SFTP features. The recently-discovered "Heartbleed" vulnerability in OpenSSL can affect Sawmill, and can potentially reveal passwords and other sensitive information to snoopers on the network.

On Windows, Sawmill installs its own local copy of the OpenSSL DLLs in its own installation directory, and the installed version is not vulnerable. So on Windows, Sawmill is not affected by Heartbleed.

On other platforms, Sawmill links dynamically to the OpenSSL libraries present on the operating system. If the version there is vulnerable (see the link above), Sawmill will be vulnerable. Upgrade your OpenSSL components to non-vulnerable versions (1.0.1g), to eliminate this possibility. See heartbleed.com for more information.


2014-03-24: Support for FortiGate 300 Series

We have added support in Sawmill for Fortinet FortiGate 300 Series log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-03-17: Support for Websense Server

We have added support in Sawmill for Websense Server log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-03-12: Support for Sophos Web Application Firewall

We have added support in Sawmill for Sophos Web Application Firewall log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-03-11: Support for FreeProxy

We have added support in Sawmill for FreeProxy log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3.


2014-03-05: Support for IPCop IDS Snort multiline

We have added support in Sawmill for IPCop IDS Snort multiline log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-03-04: Support for F-Secure HTTP Access logs

We have added support in Sawmill for F-Secure HTTP Access log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3.


2014-03-03: Support for Zimbra Mail Server

We have added support in Sawmill for Zimbra mail server log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-02-19: Support for Cisco IronPort WSA (CSV export)

We have added support in Sawmill for Cisco IronPort S-Series (WSA) CSV export format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-02-17: Support for NPR IceCast

We have added support in Sawmill for NPR Digital Services IceCast Reporting log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-02-12: Support for Cisco IronPort S-Series (pseudo-W3C with % pattern)

We have added support in Sawmill for Cisco IronPort S-Series pseudo-W3C log format (with % pattern in the #Fields header). This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-02-09: Support for Kerio Control (Security Log)

We have added support in Sawmill for Kerio Control security log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.3. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2014-02-05: Sawmill 8.7.2 Released

Version 8.7.2 is now available for download. This is a minor dot release that revises the Flash Media Server plugin to support spaces within the tab separated fields. It also adds support for the Bitvice WinSSHD XML log format and has an "Admin Tools" page that can be used to clear the cached profiles list and server side report caches and to update web files.


2014-01-29: Support for Bitvise WinSSHD (XML)

We have added support in Sawmill for Bitvise WinSSHD (XML) log format (the non-XML format was already supported). This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.2. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.7+ versions of Sawmill.


2014-01-24: Support for MOVEit SSH

We have added support in Sawmill for Ipswitch MOVEit SSH log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.2. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5+ versions of Sawmill.


2014-01-23: Sawmill 8.7.1 Released

Version 8.7.1 is now available for download. Along with some bug fixes this version has added plugins for Syslog Watcher and IBM HTTP Server Common Log Format. The internal implementation of report filters has been changed to reduce temporary disk usage and increase performance. And the remove_database_data action now allows the date_filter (-df) command line option which discards whatever is not in the filter set, so relative date filters can be used.


2014-01-15: Support for NETGEAR ProSecure

We have added support in Sawmill for NETGEAR ProSecure log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.1. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5+ versions of Sawmill.


2013-12-23: Support for Retrospect

We have added support in Sawmill for Retrospect log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.1. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5+ versions of Sawmill.


2013-12-08: 8.7.0 is released

Version 8.7.0 is now available for download. This version features significant improvements to the user interface, including a searchable profiles page with customizable columns and database info snapshots, as well as enhanced navigation through the report and configuration pages. 8.7.0 adds a new database field type, "unnormalized string," which does not use integers to normalize string fields. This is useful for fields which have a large number of unique values, and can greatly improve scalability while retaining full detail of a field. Support for nine new log formats and format variations was added in this version.


2013-11-26: Support for MOVEit DMZ

We have added support in Sawmill for Ipswitch MOVEit DMZ log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.0. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5+ versions of Sawmill.


2013-10-09: Support for Lotus Notes Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for IBM Lotus Notes log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.0. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting Sawmill technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5+ versions of Sawmill.


2013-10-02: Support for Limelight SHOUTcast Service Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for Limelight SHOUTcast Service log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.0.


2013-09-25: Support for Microsoft Server NPS SQL

We have added support in Sawmill for Microsoft Server NPS SQL log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.0.


2013-08-27: Support for HTTP Server Common Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for IBM HTTP Server Common log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.0.


2013-08-23: Support for Microsoft Windows Event Log XML Export Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for Microsoft Windows Event Log XML Export log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.0.


2013-08-08: Support for SL4NT (yyyy mmm dd) Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for SL4NT (yyyy mmm dd) log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.0.


2013-07-18: Support for Aurea Savvion BPM Format

We have added support in Sawmill for Aurea Savvion BPM log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.7.0.


2013-07-11: Sawmill 8.6.3 released

This is a minor release which adds "Bounces" and "Bounce Rate" as a standard part of the Web Server Package. This affects all plug-ins which use that package, including Apache Extended, IIS, and many others. Support was also added for Cisco eCDS, SocketLabs Hurricane MTA, and DataEnter Xwall log formats. A couple of security issues were addressed in this version. Sawmill's built-in HTTPS server now allows only the more secure SSLv3, and a security issue in the update and build database page was fixed. Wowza and Flash media server formats now have improved memory usage during database filtering, and these formats, which formerly needed to be processed with a single processor for accurate duration statistics, now can use multiple processors to parse the log data.


2013-06-26: Support for DataEnter XWall Format

We have added support in Sawmill for DataEnter XWall log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.3.


2013-05-22: Sawmill 8.6.2 released

Sawmill 8.6.2 is now available for download. This version has added improved database integrity during updates, so that in the event of a failed or interrupted database update the current database will not be corrupted and the update can be rerun. This version also includes enhancements to the Wowza, Microsoft and Akamai Media Server plugins, improved profile pattern matching for use in schedules and command line actions, and the ability to skip files in a log source during update using a custom Salang expression. Support for the following formats has been added: LUNA Insight Media Manager Service, WebLogic W3C, Vision Reporter, Nginx, Courier POP3/IMAP, and MDaemon Routing.


2013-05-01: Support for MDaemon Routing Format

We have added support in Sawmill for MDaemon Routing log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.2.


2013-04-03: Support for Oracle WebLogic W3C Format

We have added support in Sawmill for Oracle WebLogic W3C format logs. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.2.


2013-03-23: Support for Nginx

We have added support in Sawmill for Nginx logs, with a custom log_format description. The necessary support files, available immediately by contacting technical support, will be part of Sawmill 8.6.2.


2013-03-06: Support for LUNA Insight Media Manager Service

We have added support in Sawmill for LUNA Insight Media Manager Service logs. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.2.


2013-02-14: Sawmill 8.6.1 Released

Sawmill 8.6.1 is now available for download. This version adds a Dashboard to Media Server reports and most major gateway log formats. There is now a new dedicated report for Mobile Devices. There have also been performance improvements to filtered reports and memory management during the generation of large table reports.


2012-12-12: Sawmill 8.6.0 Released

Sawmill 8.6.0 is now available for download. This is a medium-sized release which adds several new features, including a number of improvements to the appearance and functionality of reports and graphs, better scalability for very large datasets, improved reporting of Web Browsers and geolocation information, and a new "dashboard" style of reports. A Dashboard report is included by default for Apache Combined, IIS W3C web, and Common Access; dashboard functionality will be added to other log formats in the future, and can be added manually from the Report Editor. This version also fixes a few bugs. See the Version History for a list of changes. This update is recommended (and is free) for all Sawmill 8 users.


2012-11-09: Support for Websense

We have added support in Sawmill for Websense logs. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.0. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.x versions of Sawmill.


2012-10-29: Junos Content Encore Performance Insight Using Sawmill

We have partnered with Juniper Networks to provide a solution for content delivery analytics of Junos Content Encore devices. "Sawmill Content Delivery analytics Gives You the Insight needed to optimize Performance and User Experience." Working closely with Juniper, we have created highly tuned log format plug-ins for both the NCSA and the W3C logging formats of Junos Content Encore, including support for our new Usage Reports snapon. See the white paper here.


2012-10-23: Support for Icecast Playlist

We have added support in Sawmill for Icecast Playlist logs. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.0. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.x versions of Sawmill.


2012-10-22: Support for SonicWALL Network Security Appliance (NSA)

We have added support in Sawmill for SonicWALL Network Security Appliance (NSA) logs. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.0. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5 versions of Sawmill.


2012-10-20: Support for F5 SSL VPN

We have added support in Sawmill for f5 SSL VPN logs. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.0. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5 versions of Sawmill.


2012-10-17: Support for Smoothwall Network Guardian and Advanced Firewall

We have added support in Sawmill for Smoothwall Network Guardian and Advanced Firewall logs. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.6.0. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5 versions of Sawmill.


2012-08-05: Sawmill 8.5.9 Released

Sawmill 8.5.9 is now available for download. This is a minor release which fixes various bugs, including one which could cause negative numbers in reports, one which could cause large builds to fail on 32-bit Windows, and one which caused high memory usage during MySQL database builds. It also greatly improves the performance of non-cross-referenced reports vs. 8.5.8, and adds support for several new log formats.


2012-07-16: Support for McAfee Email Gateway

We have added support in Sawmill for McAfee Email Gateway logs. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.9. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5 versions of Sawmill.


2012-07-06: Support for Juniper Media Flow Controller Access (W3C)

We have added support in Sawmill for Juniper Media Flow Controller Access logs, in W3C format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.9. The plug-in, available immediately by contacting technical support, can also be used in earlier 8.5 versions of Sawmill.


2012-06-27: Sawmill 8.5.8 Released

Sawmill 8.5.8 is now available for download. This is a minor release which fixes a bug specific to the uninstaller in Windows that did not properly shut down existing Sawmill.exe processes. It also fixed a log processing configuration where profiles were created with the skip_previously_seen_data_on_update option set to false by default, which caused previously-seen data to be re-added on updates in a default profile.


2012-06-12: Sawmill 8.5.7 Released

Sawmill 8.5.6 is now available for download. This is a minor release. It includes new functionality which greatly decreases the size and complexity of indices, and halves the size of a typical internal database (both require a rebuild). Several other minor new features are also included, as well as several bug fixes. See the Version History for a list of changes. This update is recommended (and is free) for all Sawmill 8 users.


2012-05-20: Support for NetFlow (nfdump -o long)

We have added support in Sawmill for Cisco IOS NetFlow logs, created with the "nfdump -o long" command. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.7. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2012-05-08: Support for Akamai HTTP Streaming

We have added support in Sawmill for Akamai HTTP Streaming Log Format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.7. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2012-05-01: Support for Symantec Messaging Gateway

We have added support in Sawmill for Symantec Messaging Gateway powered by Brightmail (Symantec Brightmail Gateway) log format, logged through a syslog server (previous versions of Sawmill supported only stand-alone Brightmail logs). This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.7. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2012-04-09: Support for Kerio Connect (v7)

We have added support in Sawmill for Kerio Connect version 7 (formerly Kerio Mail Server, already supported in Sawmill through Mail Server version 6.5) log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.7. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2012-03-23: Sawmill 8.5.6 Released

Sawmill 8.5.6 is now available for download. This is a moderate release, more significant than a typical dot release, and not only fixes several bugs, but also includes a raft of small and medium-sized enhancements. Performance of many operations have been improved; memory management is improved; new plug-ins have been added; and a new Usage Reports group has been added to several firewall/proxy/gateway plug-ins. Sawmill for IronPort functionality has been fully integrated into the main Sawmill installation with this release. See the Version History for a list of changes. This update is recommended (and is free) for all Sawmill 8 users.


2012-03-19: Support for Microsoft Forefront

We have added support in Sawmill for Microsoft Forefront log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.6. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2012-03-13: Support for Helix Session Manager

We have added support in Sawmill for Helix Session Manager log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.7. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2012-02-06: Support for multi-line Snare

We have improved support for Snare log format, to handle a newer variant which logs events across multiple lines of log data. This plug-in improvement will be included in Sawmill 8.5.6. If you need this immediately, please contact Sawmill Support; we can send you the plug-in for use in earlier versions of Sawmill.


2012-02-01: Enhanced LDAP Support

We have created an enhanced version of our LDAP login plug-in, which queries the LDAP/AD server to determine the groups of the logging-in user, makes them a Manager if they're in the Sawmill Administrators group, and gives them access to profiles based on their membership in groups corresponding to those profiles. This will be included in Sawmill 8.5.6; if you want it sooner, please contact support.


2012-01-30: Enhanced performance of Fortigate

We have improved support for FortiGate log format, including the new Gateway Reports, and optimizing the performance of databases by simplifying a few complex fields. This plug-in enhancement will be included in Sawmill 8.5.6. If you need reports like these now, please contact Sawmill Support; we can send you the necessary files to do this in 8.5.5.


2012-01-23: New Gateway Reports Snapon

We have create a new snapon, "Gateway Reports," which creates a group of four simple reports for gateway devices, for HR purposes: Users Summary, Categories Summary (when categories are present in the log data), Domains summary (using the new Domains field snapon), and Usage Detail. The Summary reports include pie charts for quick visual analysis. The Usage Detail report shows category, user, site, start and end time, and session duration. These new reports are intended to provide a high-level look at gateway statistics in a friendly, HR-centric manner. The snapon will be included in Sawmill 8.5.6, and will automatically be attached to the Palo Alto analysis (other plug-ins will be upgraded to use this snapon in future versions). If you need reports like these now, please contact Sawmill Support; we can send you the necessary files to do this in 8.5.5.


2012-01-18: Support for Clavister SG logs

We have added support in Sawmill for Clavister SG log format (WELF style). This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.5.6. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2012-01-17: 8.5.5 Ships

Sawmill 8.5.5 is now available for download. This is a bug-fix update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. This version improves reporting performance for a variety of reports, adds support for several new log formats, and fixes some minor bugs. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2011-12-26: Support for Cisco IronPort WSA (S-Series) Logs

We have added support in Sawmill 8.5.4 for Cisco IronPort WSA (S-Series) log format. This functionality, formerly available through Cisco in a special version of Sawmill called "Sawmill for IronPort," has been integrated into the main Sawmill distribution, and is now available through us and our resellers. Existing customers of Sawmill for IronPort (which was based on Sawmill release 7) can upgrade to Sawmill 8.5 to get all the new functionality of our latest version, while retaining the ability to analyze logs from WSA devices (profiles can also be upgraded from Sawmill for IronPort, to Sawmill 8.5). Sawmill also supports many other IronPort and Cisco devices, so it is no longer necessary to purchase two separate licenses, and maintain two separate installations, to report on WSA logs and other formats; a single version of Sawmill now can analyze WSA logs, and all other formats as well.


2011-12-15: 8.5.4 Ships

Sawmill 8.5.4 is now available for download. This is a bug-fix update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. See the Version History for a list of changes. This update fixes two issues with large database builds failing on Windows, an error which could occur during filtered report generation, and a few other issues. It is recommended for all Sawmill 8 users.


2011-12-14: Support for McAfee Email Security Appliance 5.6 added to Sawmill

The Sawmill plug-in for McAfee Email Security Appliance has been enhanced to include support for Email Security Appliance 5.6. This support is part of Sawmill 8.5.3. New reports include Attachments, Spam rules, Spam scores, and several others.


2011-11-22: 8.5.3 Ships

Sawmill 8.5.3 is now available for download. This is a bug-fix update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. See the Version History for a list of changes. This update fixes an issue with entering a new license key, greatly improves the performance of some filtered reports, and fixes a few other issues. It is recommended for all Sawmill 8 users.


2011-11-18: Enhanced Wowza Memory Management

We have enhanced the memory management of the Wowza Media Server plug-in, so it will use less memory on large datasets. The enhanced plug-in will be part of Sawmill 8.5.3, and is available immediately through our Technical Support, for use with other versions of Sawmill.


2011-10-27: 8.5.2 Ships

Sawmill 8.5.2 is now available for download. This is a bug-fix update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. See the Version History for a list of changes. This update fixes issues with hangs while processing some large datasets, with conversion of 8.1 profiles, with incorrect numbers on 32-bit systems, and with several other issues. It is recommended for anyone else experiencing any of the problems described in the Version History.


2011-10-19: Let Sawmill host you

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help. We will host your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2011-10-18: Try Sawmill for free!

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2011-10-17: The Power of snapons

We continue to develop new ways to use snapons. We just developed a snapon to track unique clients, and where they are coming from, across all sessions. We could always do this with a filter, but we worked on a snapon that creates a report to show whether the client came from a particular search or from within the company. This wil prove useful in many cases and we will publish the details in our next newsletter.


2011-10-06: Streaming Media West, Nov. 8 and 9th

We will be at Streaming Media West, in Los Angeles, CA on the 8th and 9th of November. Please come visit us at booth 59. Also, we have a discount code we will share with you, that will discount your registration fees. If you would like this information, please email support@sawmill.net.


2011-10-04: Web Analytics made easy!

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2011-10-03: Become a Sawmill reseller

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2011-09-30: Our Professional Services can help you get the most from Sawmill

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones; the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2011-09-28: This month's newsletter::Creating a Snapon to make profile edits

This newsletter points out the power behind creating snapons. There is a specific case highlighted in this newsletter about setting the number of rows in a report. What was once a time consuming task, becomes much easier with a snapon. If you are nit receiving our monthly newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net. You can also find a copy of all of our newsletters on the download page of our website.


2011-09-15: Outgrowing your hardware?

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2011-09-14: Grow your sales with Sawmill

We are a global company; we support customers from all over the world. You can grow your market, if you are a large or small company. We will work with you to find the best solution to meet your customers. Sawmill can be part of your solution that you add to your software or hardware platform. Email us today to see how this would work, sales@sawmill.net.


2011-09-13: Sawmill 8.5.1 Ships

Sawmill 8.5.1 is now available for download. This is a bug-fix update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. See the Version History for a list of changes. This fixes issues upgrading 8.1 profiles and databases, fixes a sporadic crashing issue with the web server, and fixes several other issues. It is recommended for anyone else experiencing any of the problems described in the Version History.


2011-09-08: Sawmill Professional Services can help!

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones; the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2011-09-07: Get a free quote and be up and running with Sawmill

You may be in the process of gathering information about which log analysis tool to use. We can help you in this process, by customizing Sawmill for your particular organization. If you send in one question to us, we can help you make the right choices. If you need a quote for setting up a new system, just ask us, and we will walk you through the entire setup, including helping you optimize your equipment. Request a quote, as easy as emailing support@sawmill.net.


2011-09-06: Sawmill monthly newsletter

Every month we send out a newsletter to our Sawmill customers. We include tips and tricks, shortcuts to using Sawmill and more useful information about how to be more productive with Sawmill. If you would like to be included in this newsletter list, please email support@sawmill.net.


2011-08-24: Try Sawmill for free!

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2011-08-18: This month's newsletter::Tracking Downloads using a Snapon

This month's newsletter describes how you can track a particular download or a file that is accessed from a website. If you don't automatically receive our newsletter, it will be posted on our download page. If you would like to be added to our monthly newsletter subscriber list, please email support@sawmill.net.


2011-08-12: Check out what's new with Sawmill

Please see our What's New in Sawmill 8.5 page. We've expanded it with more information about why you should be using 8.5. So upgrade or download a trial today!


2011-08-03: This month's newsletter: Sawmill 8.5

This month's newsletter goes into detail about the new features in 8.5. If you are not a subscriber, then you can download it from our Downloads page.


2011-08-02: New Sawmill Release 8.5

You can download the new version of Sawmill, 8.5. We also have a link from this page, so you can see list of new features.


2011-08-01: Custom plug-in to support your logs

Sawmill is about getting good reports from your data. Sometimes you may need a custom plug-in, one that is not in our long list. We want to help you get the best data possible. So contact us about working with your log data; we can make a difference in your analysis. For more information, contact consulting@sawmill.net.


2011-07-29: Do you need extra data storage?

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2011-07-28: Get a free quote today and make Sawmill work for you!

You may be in the process of gathering information about which log analysis tool to use. We can help you in this process, by customizing Sawmill for your particular organization. If you send in one question to us, we can help you make the right choices. If you need a quote for setting up a new system, just ask us, and we will walk you through the entire setup, including helping you optimize your equipment. Request a quote, as easy as emailing support@sawmill.net.


2011-07-27: Try Sawmill for free for 30 days!

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2011-07-25: Discount by the end of the month

Please email us at support@sawmill.net for the monthly discount. For all new and continuing customers!


2011-07-20: New features for Sawmill 8.5

We are finishing up the work on our next release, and hope that you have been downloading the pre-releases and using it already. Here is a list of the new features: Snapons Memory performance improvements Customizable overview Profile and Data Migration Database Filters Config GUI Enhancements New Profile Wizard enhancements Password Reset KPIs We look forward to releasing the final version!


2011-07-19: Added support for Juniper NetScreen SSG

We have added support in Sawmill for Juniper NetScreen SSG log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.1.10. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2011-07-14: Sawmill Consulting and Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones; the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2011-07-12: Get organized with Sawmill!

You have a lot of data, but you are not sure what it all means. With Sawmill, you can create segments for any purpose. You can have a segment for new users vs. continuing users. You will want to see that, overtime, you are keeping your older customers while gaining new. You may be having a promo on your site, you can see how many people used a special coupon or took advantage of your promo. Sawmill can create multiple segments at the same time, so that you can see what is effective and what is not, if you are running several ad campaigns at the same time. With segments you can also filter out data that is not relevant, making your data more valuable. If you have white papers or case studies, set up segments to see which one brings you more sales.


2011-07-11: 8.5 beta of Sawmill

We are still working on our new version of Sawmill. Please download the beta version and give us your feedback.


2011-07-05: Become a Sawmill reseller

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2011-07-04: Sawmill Professional Consulting

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones; the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2011-06-30: New beta 8.5 on our site

Please help yourself to our beta of 8.5. We are releasing this soon, and would enjoy your feedback!


2011-06-16: Try Sawmill for free for 30 days and see the advantage!

Universality - the ability to analyze any text based log file (850+ currently supported). Standard Reporting Interface - use anywhere for consistency of operation & skill deployment. Flexibility - runs on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, or any other compiled platform. Customization - complete user interface customization with Enterprise Edition. Live data - Sawmill reports generated new for every request. Report drill-down (zooming) - drill down through the data to the lowest level. Scalability - can process gigabytes of logs per day (hardware & log complexity permitting). Real Time operation - database updated with every line of log file (Enterprise Edition only) . Cost Effective - lower investment price, highest functionality for your $$$.


2011-06-15: Added support for Imperva WAF Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for Imperva WAF log format. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.1.10. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2011-06-09: EMEA sales and support

Remember, we have a partnership with an office in the UK for all of your Sawmill sales and support needs. Please contact them directly, www.sawmill.co.uk.


2011-06-06: Support for your log format

Sawmill is about getting good reports from your data. Sometimes you may need a custom plug-in, one that is not in our long list. We want to help you get the best data possible. So contact us about working with your log data; we can make a difference in your analysis. For more information, contact consulting@sawmill.net.


2011-06-03: Stop page tagging!

Did you know that page-tagging can slow your website down? The re-fresh of your website can actually take a hit, once you implement page tagging. Did you also know that that page-tagging is someone's opinion? So unless you do the tagging, someone else is making the decisions on what to tag. Sawmill can do page tagging, but more importantly, Sawmill analyzes log files. Why is this important? Say you implement page-tagging, you will capture what you tag from today on. What about the history, of your site and clients? All of that wealth of data is untouched and you won't be able to analyze it. Try Sawmill today, point it to your log files and see the large database of information that you have at your fingertips


2011-06-02: Analyze your raw data with Sawmill

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2011-05-31: Try Sawmill for 30 days and see the difference!

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2011-05-30: Sawmill 8.5b5 Is Now Available

Sawmill 8.5b5, the latest beta version of the upcoming Sawmill 8.5, is now available for download from the sawmill.net download page. Sawmill 8.5 is expected to ship in June. You can download Sawmill 8.5b5 from Downloads. Please keep in mind that this is beta software—it may have bugs and performance issues which will be resolved by the final 8.5 release. This is not suitable for production use (use 8.1.9 instead), but if you'd like to see what's coming, and give us feedback, you can try the beta.


2011-05-26: Track your campaigns with Sawmill

You have a lot of data, but you are not sure what it all means. With Sawmill, you can create segments for any purpose. You can have a segment for new users vs. continuing users. You will want to see that, over time, you are keeping your older customers while gaining new. You may be having a promo on your site; you can see how many people used a special coupon or took advantage of your promo. Sawmill can create multiple segments at the same time, so that you can see what is effective and what is not, if you are running several ad campaigns at the same time. With segments you can also filter out data that is not relevant, making your data more valuable. If you have white papers or case studies, set up segments to see which one brings you more sales.


2011-05-25: Become a Sawmill reseller!

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2011-05-24: Sawmill Consulting and Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones; the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2011-05-16: Sawmill 8.5b4 Is Now Available

Sawmill 8.5b4, the latest beta version of the upcoming Sawmill 8.5, is now available for download from the sawmill.net download page. Sawmill 8.5 is expected to ship in June. You can download Sawmill 8.5b4 from Downloads. Please keep in mind that this is beta software—it may have bugs and performance issues which will be resolved by the final 8.5 release. This is not suitable for production use (use 8.1.9 instead), but if you'd like to see what's coming, and give us feedback, you can try the beta.


2011-05-10: Sawmill 8.1.9 Ships

Sawmill 8.1.9 is now available for download. This is a bug-fix update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. See the Version History for a list of changes. It is recommended for all users of Sawmill 8.1.1-8.1.8 (because of security fixes for problems present in those versions), and for anyone else experiencing any of the problems described in the Version History.


2011-05-06: Global support of Sawmiill

We are a global company; we support customers from all over the world. You can grow your market, if you are a large or small company. We will work with you to find the best solution to meet your customers. Sawmill can be part of your solution that you add to your software or hardware platform. Email us today to see how this would work, sales@sawmill.net.


2011-05-05: Try Sawmill and see the advantage!

Universality - the ability to analyze any text based log file (850+ currently supported). Standard Reporting Interface - use anywhere for consistency of operation & skill deployment. Flexibility - runs on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, or any other compiled platform. Customization - complete user interface customization with Enterprise Edition Live data - Sawmill reports generated new for every request. Report drill-down (zooming) - drill down through the data to the lowest level. Scalability - can process gigabytes of logs per day (hardware & log complexity permitting). Real Time operation - database updated with every line of log file (Enterprise Edition only) . Cost Effective - lower investment price, highest functionality for your $$$.


2011-05-03: We can solve your data problems

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2011-05-02: Sawmill Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2011-04-29: Additional discounts for orders placed by the end of the month!

If you have been considering buying Sawmill, wait no longer, make your purchase by the end of April for an additional discount. Please contact sales@sawmill.net.


2011-04-28: Become a Sawmill reseller!!!

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2011-04-27: This month's newletter::Bounce Rate

Announces our public beta of Sawmill 8.5, and also describes a new feature, the use of snapons. There is also a description about how to use a Bounce Rate snapon. You will be able to measure your bounce rate, that is the entry and exit point, for each page of your web content. If you don't automatically receive our newsletter, it will be posted on our download page.


2011-04-26: Sawmill 8.5b3 public beta

Sawmill 8.5b3 is now available as a public download from the sawmill.net download page. This is the first public beta of Sawmill 8.5, the next major version of Sawmill, expected to ship in June. You can download Sawmill 8.5b3 from Downloads. Please keep in mind that this is beta software—it will have bugs and performance issues which will be resolved by the final 8.5 release. This is not suitable for production use (use 8.1.8 instead), but if you'd like to see what's coming, and give us feedback, you can try the beta.


2011-04-22: Organize your data with Sawmill

You have a lot of data, but you are not sure what it all means. With Sawmill, you can create segments for any purpose. You can have a segment for new users vs. continuing users. You will want to see that, overtime, you are keeping your older customers while gaining new. You may be having a promo on your site, you can see how many people used a special coupon or took advantage of your promo. Sawmill can create multiple segments at the same time, so that you can see what is effective and what is not, if you are running several ad campaigns at the same time. With segments you can also filter out data that is not relevant, making your data more valuable. If you have white papers or case studies, set up segments to see which one brings you more sales.


2011-04-20: Log analytics made accessible

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2011-04-19: The Sawmill Advantage

Universality - the ability to analyze any text based log file (850+ currently supported). Standard Reporting Interface - use anywhere for consistency of operation & skill deployment. Flexibility - runs on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, or any other compiled platform. Customization - complete user interface customization with Enterprise Edition Live data - Sawmill reports generated new for every request. Report drill-down (zooming) - drill down through the data to the lowest level. Scalability - can process gigabytes of logs per day (hardware & log complexity permitting). Real Time operation - database updated with every line of log file (Enterprise Edition only) . Cost Effective - lower investment price, highest functionality for your $$$.


2011-04-18: Your Sawmill story

It's bonus time for all of our faithful customers. We would like to run a new section on our website, with your success stories. You just need to submit your story, with how Sawmill solved a problem for you, created a success within your organization or saved your company money. The selected success stories will be awarded a year's free premium support license. Please send your entry to jodee@flowerfire.com. We look forward to hearing from you!


2011-04-15: Select Sawmill as your solution

We are a global company, we support customers from all over the world. You can grow your market, if you are a large or small company. We will work with you to find the best solution to meet your customers. Sawmill can be part of your solution that you add to your software or hardware platform. Email us today to see how this would work, sales@sawmill.net.


2011-04-14: Become a Sawmill Reseller!

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2011-04-01: Get a Quote from us!

You may be in the process of gathering information about which log analysis tool to use. We can help you in this process, by customizing Sawmill for your particular organization. If you send in one question to us, we can help you make the right choices. If you need a quote for setting up a new system, just ask us, and we will walk you through the entire setup, including helping you optimize your equipment. Request a quote, as easy as emailing support@sawmill.net.


2011-03-30: System requirements for Sawmill

We have made the hardware and memory requirements more easily accessible. From our home page, select Products, and there will be a heading for system requirements. This has also been updated, to give you the most current recommendations.


2011-03-10: Sawmil Hosting Services

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2011-03-08: Sawmill Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2011-03-03: This month's newsletter::Installing Sawmill as a CGI Service on Windows

This month's newsletter goes into detail about the installation of Sawmill as a CGI program under Microsoft Internet Information Server 7 (IIS 7), for instance under Windows 2008 Server. Please email support@sawmill.net for a copy of this newsletter and you can also see it on our Download section of our website.


2011-02-28: The Sawmill Advantage

Universality - the ability to analyze any text based log file (850+ currently supported). Standard Reporting Interface - use anywhere for consistency of operation & skill deployment. Flexibility - runs on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, or any other compiled platform. Customization - complete user interface customization with Enterprise Edition Live data - Sawmill reports generated new for every request. Report drill-down (zooming) - drill down through the data to the lowest level. Scalability - can process gigabytes of logs per day (hardware & log complexity permitting). Real Time operation - database updated with every line of log file (Enterprise Edition only) . Cost Effective - lower investment price, highest functionality for your $$$.


2011-02-24: Recover those lost sales!

With Sawmill, you can see where you may be losing sales from your website. Do visitors leave at the home page? Do they leave on the pricing page? Are they leaving during the purchase process? Maybe your price is too high or your shipping costs are too high. Also, if they are leaving during the registration process, maybe you want to cut down on the amount of information you require. You can capture this information with Sawmill and improve your traffic flow and sales. Try Sawmill for 30 days and improve your business!


2011-02-23: GSA pricing of Sawmill

For all of our government contacts, remember that we are on the GSA listing, so contact us directly for those prices, and save!


2011-02-21: We can host your data

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2011-02-18: Become a Sawmill reseller

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2011-02-17: Sawmill Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2011-02-11: Mobile app for Sawmill

We want to bring you Sawmill on your mobile device, giving you the ability to see your stats while you're away from the office!!! Let us know what you are interested in seeing, on a daily basis.


2011-01-28: January Newsletter::LDAP plug-in

This month's newsletter is about the LDAP plug-in that allows for control of authentication and managing of user logins. This capability is only to be used with our Enterprise version of Sawmill. For more information, please email support@sawmill.net.


2011-01-27:

Sawmill 8.1.8 is now available for download. This is a bug-fix update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. See the Version History for a list of changes. It is recommended for anyone experiencing any of the problems described in the Version History.


2011-01-13: Our growing library to help you with Sawmill

We continue to add to our wealth of information about Sawmill. We have released new case studies and white papers and our newsletters are also posted, on our website. Our newsletters go into depth each month, about a feature that exists in Sawmill, usually as a question from our support queue. It's what you, as a customer, ask about the most, we make into a newsletter. So check out our download section on our website, under Downloads.


2011-01-10: Happy New Year from Sawmill

We are busily working on version 8.5, and we would welcome your comments and input. If you would like to become a beta tester, please contact support and we'll set you up. Email support@sawmill.net for more information.


2011-01-07: Added support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Message Tracking logs

We have added support in Sawmill for message tracking log format of Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 (2007 was already supported). This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.1.8. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2010-12-23: December's newsletter

This month's newsletter explains how to use remote parsing servers, as you may be using multiple processors during a database build. This newsletter explains how to install and configure parsing servers, so that you will get the best performance while using Sawmill. Please email support@sawmill.net for a copy of this newsletter and you can also see it on our Download section of our website.


2010-12-13: Holiday support hours

We will be working during the weeks before Christmas and in between New Years. You can consider that it's business as usual for our Sawmill customers.


2010-12-08: Added support for EZproxy LogFormat directive

We have added support in Sawmill for custom log formats in EZproxy, using the LogFormat directive. This functionality will be included in future releases of Sawmill, starting with 8.1.8. It is available immediately by contacting technical support.


2010-12-06: Keep track of your customers

You have a lot of data, but you are not sure what it all means. With Sawmill, you can create segments for any purpose. You can have a segment for new users vs. continuing users. You will want to see that, overtime, you are keeping your older customers while gaining new. You may be having a promo on your site, you can see how many people used a special coupon or took advantage of your promo. Sawmill can create multiple segments at the same time, so that you can see what is effective and what is not, if you are running several ad campaigns at the same time. With segments you can also filter out data that is not relevant, making your data more valuable. If you have white papers or case studies, set up segments to see which one brings you more sales.


2010-12-03: Process your raw data with Sawmill

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2010-12-02: Become a Sawmill reseller!

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2010-11-23: Thanksgiving week support hours

We are open for business this week, we are open all week, except Thursday.


2010-11-19: We can host your log data

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2010-11-18: Sawmill can help!

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2010-11-17: November discount code

We have a special discount code that is good for this month only. Please try Sawmill today! And to learn about the code, email support@sawmill.net.


2010-11-12: New Release teaser

We will be releasing an upgrade early next year, and here is a little list of new features: Database filters for the entire main table, customizable overview report, new KPIs and snapons. We will be having an invited beta test group, please send an email to support@flowerfire.com if you want to be included in this group.


2010-11-10: Streaming Media Recap

We enjoyed seeing everyone at this year's Streaming Media West. Please touch base for a follow up with us for more information.


2010-10-28: Streaming Media West::Nov. 2-3

Next week we are at Streaming Media West in Los Angeles. Please come by our booth for a visit! Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. See you there!


2010-10-27: Become a Sawmil Reseller!

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2010-10-26: Use our GSA price list and save!

For all of our government contacts, remember that we are on the GSA listing, so contact us directly for those prices, and save!


2010-10-25: Code for discounted Streaming Media West tickets!

For those lucky enough to be customers, or read this blog, we do have a code that we can give you for $200 off the conference price. Please email support@sawmill.net and we'll pass the code along to you.


2010-10-22: The Sawmill solution, real log analysis!

Did you know that page-tagging can slow your website down? The re-fresh of your website can actually take a hit, once you implement page tagging. Did you also know that that page-tagging is someone's opinion? So unless you do the tagging, someone else is making the decisions on what to tag. Sawmill can do page tagging, but more importantly, Sawmill analyzes log files. Why is this important? Say you implement page-tagging, you will capture what you tag from today on. What about the history, of your site and clients? All of that wealth of data is untouched and you won't be able to analyze it. Try Sawmill today, point it to your log files and see the large database of information that you have at your fingertips.


2010-10-19: Streaming Media West

Two weeks away! Great show coming to LA, Streaming Media West, November 2-3. Please see the Streaming Media website and join us for this great show!


2010-10-14: Sawmill 8.1.7 is now available

Sawmill 8.1.7 is now available for download. This is a bug-fix update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. This fixes a serious security vulnerability which can allow remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the Sawmill server, and fixes other issues. See the Version History for a list of changes. It is recommended for anyone using Sawmill 8.1.5 or Sawmill 8.1.6, or anyone experiencing any of the problems described in the Version History.


2010-10-13: Sawmill can help you with your data

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2010-10-12: Streaming Media West conference code

For those lucky enough to be customers, or read this blog, we do have a code that we can give you for $200 off the conference price. Please email support@sawmill.net and we'll pass the code along to you.


2010-10-11: New blog post from our trainer

Please see Derrick's new post, about his experience with Sawmill. See Experience the World of Analytics


2010-10-08: Process all of your data!

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2010-10-07: Segment your traffic

You have a lot of data, but you are not sure what it all means. With Sawmill, you can create segments for any purpose. You can have a segment for new users vs. continuing users. You will want to see that, overtime, you are keeping your older customers while gaining new. You may be having a promo on your site, you can see how many people used a special coupon or took advantage of your promo. Sawmill can create multiple segments at the same time, so that you can see what is effective and what is not, if you are running several ad campaigns at the same time. With segments you can also filter out data that is not relevant, making your data more valuable. If you have white papers or case studies, set up segments to see which one brings you more sales.


2010-10-06: Recover those lost sales!

With Sawmill, you can see where you may be losing sales from your website. Do visitors leave at the home page? Do they leave on the pricing page? Are they leaving during the purchase process? Maybe your price is too high or your shipping costs are too high. Also, if they are leaving during the registration process, maybe you want to cut down on the amount of information you require. You can capture this information with Sawmill and improve your traffic flow and sales. Try Sawmill for 30 days and improve your business!


2010-10-05: Vote! Voting extended for Streaming Media's Reader's Choice Awards

Sawmill has been nominated in the Streaming Media Reader's Choice awards this year. We are truly honored. Please go to this link and vote, the voting is open until October 8: Streaming Media Readers Choice Awards


2010-10-04: Capturing Direct Traffic

There has been a bit of concern over capturing direct traffic lately. Direct traffic is everyone who visits your site, downloads white papers, buys from your site or even uses a bookmark to get there. If you are using a page-tagging analytics software to capture this traffic, you may be missing some of it, if you haven't tagged it correctly. This won't happen with Sawmill, Sawmill does not rely on page-tagging, it captures the raw log data, and all of it. So if you are missing some traffic from your site or even thinking that you are not getting enough stats with your current analytics tool, try Sawmill and see the difference! As always, we offer a 30 day free trial.


2010-09-30: September discounts!

Ending soon, this discount code that can be used in the store. Make your purchase by Sept. 30. SPEC0930


2010-09-29: Streaming Media Reader's Choice awards

Sawmill has been nominated in the Streaming Media Reader's Choice awards this year. We are truly honored. Please go to this link and vote, the voting is open until October 1: Streaming Media Readers Choice Awards


2010-09-28: Sawmill Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2010-09-27: Streaming Media West Conference

For those lucky enough to be customers, or read this blog, we do have a code that we can give you for $200 off the conference price. Please email support@sawmill.net and we'll pass the code along to you.


2010-09-24: End of month discounts

Please contact us for special discounts on Sawmill, available until Sept. 30. Email us at sales@sawmill.net.


2010-09-23: Become a Sawmill reseller!

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2010-09-17: Sawmill has joined the Better Business Bureau

We are pleased to announce that we have joined the BBB. You will find our listing on their website, along with other local businesses and businesses within Silicon Valley. For more information, please go to www.sanjose.bbb.org.


2010-09-16: This month's newsletter::Using Sawmill with Microsoft SQL Server on Linux

This month's newsletter walks through the steps of setting up Sawmill with MS SQL on a non-Windows platform. It will tell you how you will need to download an ODBC manager and driver, and how to configure the driver to work with MS SQL. For a copy of this newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2010-09-14: Vote for Sawmill!

Sawmill has been nominated in the Streaming Media Reader's Choice awards this year. We are truly honored. Please go to this link and vote, the voting is open until October 1: Streaming Media Readers Choice Awards


2010-09-13: Improve your website and sales with Sawmill

With Sawmill, you can see where you may be losing sales from your website. Do visitors leave at the home page? Do they leave on the pricing page? Are they leaving during the purchase process? Maybe your price is too high or your shipping costs are too high. Also, if they are leaving during the registration process, maybe you want to cut down on the amount of information you require. You can capture this information with Sawmill and improve your traffic flow and sales. Try Sawmill for 30 days and improve your business!


2010-09-10: Sawmill, your hosting solution!

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2010-09-09: Try Sawmill and see the advantage!

Universality - the ability to analyze any text based log file (850+ currently supported). Standard Reporting Interface - use anywhere for consistency of operation & skill deployment. Flexibility - runs on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, or any other compiled platform. Customization - complete user interface customization with Enterprise Edition Live data - Sawmill reports generated new for every request. Report drill-down (zooming) - drill down through the data to the lowest level. Scalability - can process gigabytes of logs per day (hardware & log complexity permitting). Real Time operation - database updated with every line of log file (Enterprise Edition only) . Cost Effective - lower investment price, highest functionality for your $$$.


2010-09-08: Sawmill 8.1.6 is now available

Sawmill 8.1.6 is now available for download. This is a minor (bug-fix) update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. See the Version History for a list of changes. It is recommended for anyone experiencing any of the problems described in the a href="http://www.sawmill.net/version_history8.html">Version History.


2010-09-06: Enhanced support for Array Networks log formats

We have enhanced support in Sawmill for firewall and VPN devices from Array Networks. Two new plug-ins, and one modified existing plug-in, implement and enhance support for Array Application Firewall and Array SPX VPN formats log analysis.


2010-09-01: Streaming Media West

Great show coming to LA, Streaming Media West, November 2-3. Please see the Streaming Media website and join us for this great show!


2010-08-31: New White Paper::Sawmill vs. Google Analytics

We have posted a new white paper on our site, comparing Sawmill with Google Analytics. To view this white paper, please go to: Sawmill vs. Google Analytics (GA) White Paper. This white paper is available for download in pdf format.


2010-08-30: Added support for Barracuda Web Application Firewall (WAF) Access Logs

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting on Barracuda Web Application Firewall (WAF) Access log data. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2010-08-26: Added support for Juniper JunOS RT_FLOW

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting on Juniper JunOS RT_FLOW log data. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2010-08-25: Added support for Barracuda Web Application Firewall (WAF) Audit Logs

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting on Barracuda Web Application Firewall (WAF) Audit log data. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2010-08-24: Added support for Barracuda Web Application Firewall (WAF)

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting on Barracuda Web Application Firewall (WAF) log data. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2010-08-19: August Discount code

For the rest of the month, use this code in our store for an additional 10% discount:SPEC0831


2010-08-12: Streaming Media Reader's Choice Award

If you are a Sawmill user and you use Sawmill to report on your streaming media logs, please vote for us! Voting closes August 16, so get those votes in today! Please follow this link: 2010 Streaming Media Reader's Choiceto vote, there's a choice for Reporting and Analytics Solution. Thank you!


2010-08-11: Page-tagging can slow you down

Did you know that page-tagging can slow your website down? The re-fresh of your website can actually take a hit, once you implement page tagging. Did you also know that that page-tagging is someone's opinion? So unless you do the tagging, someone else is making the decisions on what to tag. Sawmill can do page tagging, but more importantly, Sawmill analyzes log files. Why is this important? Say you implement page-tagging, you will capture what you tag from today on. What about the history, of your site and clients? All of that wealth of data is untouched and you won't be able to analyze it. Try Sawmill today, point it to your log files and see the large database of information that you have at your fingertips.


2010-08-10: Try Sawmill for free for 30 days

It seems that everyone knows the importance of good reports these days. But what if you don't know how to start? What if you have a large set of data? Just call us, and we can help you get up and running. Remember, you can try Sawmill for 30 days, and we will help you customize Sawmill to suit your needs.


2010-08-09: Make your plans early for LA!

We will be going to LA in November for Streaming Media West. First year in LA, should be a good show! Hyatt Regency Century Plaza.


2010-08-05: Sawmill Professional Services Can Help!

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2010-08-04: Keep a history of your customers

You have a lot of data, but you are not sure what it all means. With Sawmill, you can create segments for any purpose. You can have a segment for new users vs. continuing users. You will want to see that, overtime, you are keeping your older customers while gaining new. You may be having a promo on your site, you can see how many people used a special coupon or took advantage of your promo. Sawmill can create multiple segments at the same time, so that you can see what is effective and what is not, if you are running several ad campaigns at the same time. With segments you can also filter out data that is not relevant, making your data more valuable. If you have white papers or case studies, set up segments to see which one brings you more sales.


2010-08-03: Custom plug-in support

With over 800 plugs-in Sawmill does just about everything. However, if you have looked at our lengthy list and not found the plug-in that you need, we will develop one for you. Just drop us an email, support@sawmill.net, and we will decide what work is involved.


2010-08-02: Become a Sawmill Reseller!

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2010-07-29: How does Sawmill process log file data?

Your data is made up of log files. Most analytic packages like to take an aggregate of this data, but this can give you imprecise reports. Sawmill takes the raw log file data, that is brought in by a plug-in that works as a parser. Log fields are created from this data, and some filters may be in place for capturing the data as you want it. Database fields are created and then a report is made from those fields. The reports can be viewed in many ways, and shared with those in your organization. You can create graphs of all flavors, that are included within your reports. These reports can happen whenever you wish, as frequently or as scheduled as you like. Why not try Sawmill today? As always, 30 days free trial.


2010-07-28: The Sawmill Advantage

Universality - the ability to analyze any text based log file (850+ currently supported). Standard Reporting Interface - use anywhere for consistency of operation & skill deployment. Flexibility - runs on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, or any other compiled platform. Customization - complete user interface customization with Enterprise Edition Live data - Sawmill reports generated new for every request. Report drill-down (zooming) - drill down through the data to the lowest level. Scalability - can process gigabytes of logs per day (hardware & log complexity permitting). Real Time operation - database updated with every line of log file (Enterprise Edition only) . Cost Effective - low investment price, highest functionality for your $$$.


2010-07-23: Page tagging and tag management

There are a lot of solutions out there, gathering your reports based on page-tagging. There is starting to be quite an industry centered around page-tagging and how this is done and the upkeep. It's an expensive way to gather information and also hard to keep your tagging fresh, that's where the management problem comes in. Wouldn't you like a software that does the work of gathering your data and reports for you? Without the tag management? Sawmill can do just that, we don't rely on page-tagging, we gather your log files, process them and create reports. You don't need to worry if you are tagging the right pages, of if the tags are up to date. Try Sawmill for 30 days, see how Sawmill can make a difference, all you'll be managing is the excess time and money you'll have to devote to your business.


2010-07-21: Page-tagging revisited

Did you know that page-tagging can slow your website down? The re-fresh of your website can actually take a hit, once you implement page tagging. Did you also know that that page-tagging is someone's opinion? So unless you do the tagging, someone else is making the decisions on what to tag. Sawmill can do page tagging, but more importantly, Sawmill analyzes log files. Why is this important? Say you implement page-tagging, you will capture what you tag from today on. What about the history, of your site and clients? All of that wealth of data is untouched and you won't be able to analyze it. Try Sawmill today, point it to your log files and see the large database of information that you have at your fingertips.


2010-07-20: Podcast to help you decide what log analytics solution to buy

In this podcast, learn how to select a log analytics solution that's compatible with your existing systems. Find out why it's important to understand your internal needs before choosing a tool to help with system performance, and trend reporting. Get tips on real-time data recording for increased efficiency and proactive data management. See Choosing a Log Analytics Solution for the podcast.


2010-07-19: How Sawmill compares to Google Analytics

Please see our new white paper, it might help you decide to use Sawmill, instead of Google Analytics! Go to: Data Driven Success - Comparing Log Analytics Tools: Flowerfire's Sawmill vs. Google Analytics (GA)for the white paper.


2010-07-16: July's Newsletter::Reducing Database Disk Usage

In this month's newsletter we discuss the many ways of cutting down disk space when your database may be getting too large. If you want a copy of this month's newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2010-07-14: Special discount code for July

For the month of July, you can get an additional 10% discount, in our store. Please use the code: spec0731 during the checkout process in our store. Let us know if you need additional help during this process, and we're here to help you get setup too!


2010-07-13: Sawmill::Hosting Solution

Are you finding that you are outgrowing your data storage capacity? Do you need help processing large amounts of log data? We can help, we have the ability of hosting your data, and you can access it remotely and get the reports that you need. Hosting is just a part of our professional services, one that you may need to take advantage of! Send us an email and we'll help you with your growing data problem. Contact us at support@sawmill.net.


2010-07-12: Sawmill Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2010-07-09: New blog about using Sawmill and streaming media

Sawmill Professional is a key tool for Log File Analysis. If you’re delivering streaming video or audio content on-line you have to have a way of measuring your success. You can do this by analyzing your Streaming Server or Web Server log files with Sawmill Professional to create Streaming Reports. For more information, see Derrick Freeman's blog: Sawmill Professional Key Tool for Log File Analysis.


2010-07-08: Added support for Firewall-1 via Syslog

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting on Firewall-1 log data, logged through a syslog server. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2010-07-07: How to Choose a Log Analytics Solution

In this podcast, learn how to select a log analytics solution that's compatible with your existing systems. Find out why it's important to understand your internal needs before choosing a tool to help with system performance, and trend reporting. Get tips on real-time data recording for increased efficiency and proactive data management. See Choosing a Log Analytics Solution for the podcast.


2010-07-06: Become a Sawmill Reseller

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2010-07-05: New Support Programs

Our new support programs are now in effect, starting July 8. Please see our support programs page for more details: Sawmill Technical Support Programs.


2010-07-02: Sawmill Professional Trainings

Freeman Compression Inc. announced that it will be providing Sawmill Professional Training July 29th and 30th, and August 30 and 31st. The focus will be on log file analytics for streaming servers and other devices using Sawmill Professional. For more information, email info@freemancompression.com.


2010-07-01: GSA pricing

For all of our government contacts, remember that we are on the GSA listing, so contact us directly for those prices, and save!


2010-06-30: Discount code for June

Only two more days to use this code, SPEC0630. 10% off of all purchases in the store. Hurry!


2010-06-22: Become an authorized Sawmill Reseller

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2010-06-21: 10% discount code for June!

We're midway through the month and I wanted to remind you that we are still offering 10% purchases in the store until June 30th. Please use the discount code: SPEC0630. This code can be used with other discounts.


2010-06-18: New addition to Premium Support

We have added a bonus to premium support, the addition of an account manager, if you should so desire. This is a dedicated contact person, who will stick with you during your installation and further use of Sawmill. This will be offered with new premium support contracts, starting June 21st.


2010-06-17: Technical Support changes::June 21st

After many years and much deliberation, we are changing the way we do support. For our new customers, we will continue to offer you a free month of support, to get you up and running on Sawmill. We still offer premium support, but have added basic support as well. We hope that these changes will help all of us in the long run, and we will continue to put our customers first! Please see: Pricing for more information.


2010-06-09: Sawmill on Windows 2000

We will no longer be supporting Windows 2000. We do support many more operating systems, so we hope that we can support what you are running on. To see our complete list see: Available Platforms for a list of supported platforms.


2010-06-04: Sawmill 8.1.5 is now available

Sawmill 8.1.5 is now available for download. This is a minor (bug-fix) update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8. We post a list of smaller features that have been added and some fixes. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2010-06-02: June discount code

During the month of June, we are offering an additional 10% off. Please use the discount code: SPEC0630. This code can be combined with other discount codes in the store. Use this code during the checkout process.


2010-05-31: Get an additional 10% off!

Before the end of May, add this code, SPEC0531, to your order and get an additional 10% off! Hurry!


2010-05-28: New White Paper! How we compare to Google Analytics

Please see our new white paper, it might help you decide to use Sawmill, instead of Google Analytics! Go to: Data Driven Success - Comparing Log Analytics Tools: Flowerfire's Sawmill vs. Google Analytics (GA)for the white paper.


2010-05-27: Podcast::Top Three Decision Factors in Choosing a Log Analytics Solution

In this podcast, learn how to select a log analytics solution that's compatible with your existing systems. Find out why it's important to understand your internal needs before choosing a tool to help with system performance, and trend reporting. Get tips on real-time data recording for increased efficiency and proactive data management. See Choosing a Log Analytics Solution for the podcast.


2010-05-24: Getting serious about Analytics?

With Sawmill, you can see where you may be losing sales from your website. Do visitors leave at the home page? Do they leave on the pricing page? Are they leaving during the purchase process? Maybe your price is too high or your shipping costs are too high. Also, if they are leaving during the registration process, maybe you want to cut down on the amount of information you require. You can capture this information with Sawmill and improve your traffic flow and sales. Try Sawmill for 30 days and improve your business!


2010-05-18: Wowza users

Please check out our support page for the Wowza Media Server, it contains a description of how we support Wowza log files. See our Wowza Media Server format page for more information.


2010-05-17: Sawmill Newsletter::Creating a Custom Numerical Field

This month's newsletter outlines how you can create a custom aggregating or numerical field by modifying a plug-in. Don't be put off by the long title, this newsletter will walk you through it, and why you might want to breakdown a numerical field that contains many events. If you want a copy of this month's newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2010-05-14: Support for SiteMinder Web Acccess Manager Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting on SiteMinder Web Access Manager Log Format log data. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2010-05-13: Support for Atlassian Confluence

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting on Atlassian Confluence log data. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2010-05-12: Some truth about page-tagging

Did you know that page-tagging can slow your website down? The re-fresh of your website can actually take a hit, once you implement page tagging. Did you also know that that page-tagging is someone's opinion? So unless you do the tagging, someone else is making the decisions on what to tag. Sawmill can do page tagging, but more importantly, Sawmill analyzes log files. Why is this important? Say you implement page-tagging, you will capture what you tag from today on. What about the history, of your site and clients? All of that wealth of data is untouched and you won't be able to analyze it. Try Sawmill today, point it to your log files and see the large database of information that you have at your fingertips.


2010-05-10: EMetrics was a success!

Thank you all for visiting with us at EMetrics. It was a great conference, and it was a pleasure meeting new and old friends there!


2010-05-03: eMetrics::San Jose, May 4-6

Come see our booth at eMetrics, May 4th and 5th, get your passport stamped during your visit and be part of the drawing. See you there!


2010-04-30: Support for Service Providers

If you are a service provider, and you are using Sawmill for your clients, hopefully you are gaining new clients as the year progresses. Our website contains important tools that you can use to win those new clients over. We have a live demo section and also our white papers. If you need help with a plug-in, don't hesitate to ask either. If your client has a particular enterprise configuration, that is new to you, we can help with that as well. Please email us at support@sawmill.net.


2010-04-28: Special discount code, until the end of April!

Enter this code, SPEC0430, in our store, by April 30th, to receive 20% off of your Sawmill license order. Hurry now!


2010-04-23: Using segments to keep a history

You have a lot of data, but you are not sure what it all means. With Sawmill, you can create segments for any purpose. You can have a segment for new users vs. continuing users. You will want to see that, overtime, you are keeping your older customers while gaining new. You may be having a promo on your site, you can see how many people used a special coupon or took advantage of your promo. Sawmill can create multiple segments at the same time, so that you can see what is effective and what is not, if you are running several ad campaigns at the same time. With segments you can also filter out data that is not relevant, making your data more valuable. If you have white papers or case studies, set up segments to see which one brings you more sales.


2010-04-22: Sawmill::Used worldwide!

Sawmill is used by every type of company with a need to understand and monitor what is happening within their organization. Traffic to and through their website, traffic via their firewall for security monitoring and bandwidth/capacity management, monitoring outbound (employee) web visits via a proxy server, keeping track of mail server loading and usage, or for monitoring video and audio delivery quality from a streaming media server. These are just a few of the thousands of different applications that Sawmill contributes to in every country worldswide. Use of Sawmill can be personal, or it can be as a service (SaaS). We estimate the combined installed base of Sawmill, to be well in excess of 500,000 copies worldwide. This makes Sawmill perhaps the most installed analytics product to date.


2010-04-20: eMetrics Passport Program

Come see our booth at eMetrics, May 4th and 5th, get your passport stamped during your visit and be part of the drawing. See you there!


2010-04-19: Improved support for Windows Event Log (CSV)

We have enhanced support in Sawmill for reporting on Microsoft Windows Event Logs exported to CSV. The enhanced plug-in now supports variable date formats, and Chinese AM/PM specified in the time. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2010-04-15: Sawmill Newsletter::Creating a Minutes Report and Graph

This month's newsletter discusses how to create a report that drills down deeper into your data. By configuring Sawmill, you can create a graph of events that happen minute by minute. If you want a copy of this month's newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2010-04-13: What is a profile? and how many do I need?

We always get the question, "how many profiles do I need?". We thought it would be a good time to review this question. A profile is defined as a file that contains configuration settings for an individual or a group of users. What does that really mean? It means a file that will create a report. That report may be customized for a group of people or one person. It can also be a report for a device or a website. So if you're buying Sawmill and you can't decide on the number of profiles, ask yourself how many reports you would like to see. Also, you can upgrade the number of profiles you may need, at any time.


2010-04-12: Custom plug-ins and more!

What size of Log Files can Sawmill process? There is no definitive limit. You are only limited by the hardware you are using....sounds pretty simple? But it's true! Sawmill can analyze your data, analyze your log files, and if we don't support your log file format, just ask for a custom plug-in.


2010-04-08: Join us at EMetrics, May 3-7, San Jose, CA

We would like to pass along a special code for 20% off of a three-day pass at eMetrics. Please enter FLOWEMOSSJ when you visit the eMetrics site, http://emetrics.org/sanjose/. Hope to see you there!


2010-04-07: Sawmill Newsletter::Deleting Database Fields

Most log formats contain dozens of fields in the data: only a handful of these fields are useful. In a proxy server analysis, for instance, you might want to know the source IP, username, destination URL, timestamp, and a couple others. But exactly which fields are useful depends on the application, and the installation, and the user, so Sawmill's default behavior is to report them all, to ensure that the fields you want, and the reports you want, are there in the default profile. This newsletter helps you clean up your database, so that it is giving you the custom reports that you need. If you want a copy of this month's newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2010-04-06: Support for Exchange via Syslog

We have added support for Microsoft Exchange logs, logged through a syslog server. This enhanced plug-in will be available in Sawmill 8.1.5, and can be requested at any time from Sawmill support.


2010-04-05: Sawmill 8.1.4 is now available

Sawmill 8.1.4 is now available for download. This is a minor (bug-fix) update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8. It fixes several bugs, including an installer issue which could prevent Sawmill from starting on Windows systems without the Visual Studio 2008 redistributable package, and an issue which could cause an error when zooming to Log Detail, and an issue which caused an error when using Generic W3C. It also adds support for new variants of Windows Event, FortiGate Traffic, and Astaro log formats. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2010-03-30: The Sawmill Advantage

Universality - the ability to analyze any text based log file (850+ currently supported). Standard Reporting Interface - use anywhere for consistency of operation & skill deployment. Flexibility - runs on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, or any other compiled platform. Customization - complete user interface customization with Enterprise Edition Live data - Sawmill reports generated new for every request. Report drill-down (zooming) - drill down through the data to the lowest level. Scalability - can process gigabytes of logs per day (hardware & log complexity permitting). Real Time operation - database updated with every line of log file (Enterprise Edition only) . Cost Effective - low investment price, highest functionality for your $$$.


2010-03-29: New Customer? Sawmill Professional Services can help!

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2010-03-25: Sawmill Professional Training

Derrick Freeman will be doing a day of training with Sawmill Professional for the Mac, April 2. Please see Training schedule for more details.


2010-03-23: Support for Palo Alto Networks firewall

We have been working closely with Palo Alto Networks, the past few weeks. That work has paid off as more and more customers are using their firewall and we support their log file formats. Please see our lengthy list of plug-ins, from our Product page.


2010-03-22: Become an authorized Sawmill Reseller

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2010-03-19: How Sawmill works for you!

Here's the basic data flow for Sawmill: Log File data -> "Cracked" by plug-in (parser) -> Log Fields -> Log Filters (Default but optional) -> Database Fields -> Report Fields -> Reports: browser-displayed via CSS, or PDF'd, CSV'd, or emailed. There are so many automatic functions, like finding the right plug-in to work with your data from our list of over 800. An Overview Report is created, and this will give you the first glimpse into your data. From there, you can customize your reports however you want with Sawmill's powerful filters.


2010-03-17: Try Sawmill free for 30 days

It seems that everyone knows the importance of good reports these days. But what if you don't know how to start? What if you have a large set of data? Just call us, and we can help you get up and running. Remember, you can try Sawmill for 30 days, and we will help you customize Sawmill to suit your needs.


2010-03-16: eMetrics::San Jose, May 4-6

Please join us at eMetrics in the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, CA! We will be part of the Marketing Optimization Summit. As the event gets closer, stay tuned for more announcements.


2010-03-15: Support For Window 2000 DNS Logs

We have added support for Microsoft Windows 2000 DNS log format, to the existing Windows 2003 DNS plug-in. This enhanced plug-in will be available in Sawmill 8.1.4, and can be requested at any time from Sawmill support.


2010-03-11: Follow Derrick's training blog

Follow Derrick's training notes, and feedback from his series of trainings. Derrick's blog.


2010-03-10: Sawmill training

Derrick Freeman of Freeman Compression Inc. announced that it will be providing Sawmill Professional Training in Chicago, March 19th. Free instruction will be provided on video compression using Telestream Episode Encoder Pro, live streaming media production using Telestream Wirecast and log file analytics for streaming servers and other devices using Sawmill Professional. For more information, email info@freemancompression.com.


2010-03-08: Security and Role-based Access

Roles for your users equals greater security of your data. With Sawmill Enterprise, you can create users with specific duties, to keep your data intact. Only root admins can create users and roles, so that your users can only view the reports they need, and they can't edit your files in any way. This is particularly important for enterprise organizations, you can set up users and the reports they will see. Schedule them to see those reports in the Scheduler, and this daily admin of your data is left up to Sawmill. This feature is available in our trial version of Enterprise, so try it for 30 days!


2010-03-05: Support For Edgecast Logs

We have added support for Edgecast logs. This new plug-in will be available in Sawmill 8.1.4, and can be requested at any time from Sawmill support.


2010-03-02: Improve your sales!

With Sawmill, you can see where you may be losing sales from your website. Do visitors leave at the home page? Do they leave on the pricing page? Are they leaving during the purchase process? Maybe your price is too high or your shipping costs are too high. Also, if they are leaving during the registration process, maybe you want to cut down on the amount of information you require. You can capture this information with Sawmill and improve your traffic flow and sales. Try Sawmill for 30 days and improve your business!


2010-03-01: Filter out your own traffic

You probably visit your own website frequently. You might want to ensure that it is functioning properly (through an automated system, or manually), or you might be looking for information on your own site, or there might be portions of your own site that are private and for your use only. When you analyze your website with Sawmill, your own traffic will normally appear in the reports. If the purpose of the analysis is to determine how other people use your site, your own traffic can be a distraction, or can skew the statistics. Therefore, it is often best to exclude your own traffic, so the reports show only external traffic. For more information about this topic, and for the newsletter that explains how to do this, please email support@sawmill.net.


2010-02-24: Vast support of log formats!

As of our last count, we support 840 log formats, we can analyze just about anything. If your log format is not on the list, please contact us, and we'll create a plug-in for you. Have a look at our growing list: Log Formats.


2010-02-23: Online video and your customers

More and more sites are using videos to post or share information. Sawmill supports the Flash Media Server log files. That means that you can process these logs and get the reports you need to see how effective your videos are. If you have ads in your videos, you can track if these are viewed fully. You can track your content, if it's viewed and what percentage is viewed. You can also track what player is being used, and where the customer is located geographically. You can also track which title is being viewed and the url, plus other indicators that will make your video posting more efficient.


2010-02-22: Become a Sawmill Reseller

Do you support customers, who are looking for solutions to analyze their data? Do you sell other software and want to add a web analytics package to your product line? You can become a Sawmill reseller. Becoming a reseller allows you access to discounts and also our support team. We will work with you to make your company successful, while selling Sawmill. For more information, email sales@sawmill.net.


2010-02-18: This month's newsletter::Updating Multiple Profiles

This month's newsletter contains information for updating your profiles. This can be done simply by using the Scheduler feature in Sawmill, updates for new log data only, or by using multi-processors that can help you update larger batches of data. If you want a copy of this month's newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2010-02-17: Sawmill 8.1.3 is now available

Sawmill 8.1.3 is now available for download. This is a minor (bug-fix) update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8. It fixes several bugs, including an installer issue which could prevent Sawmill from starting on Windows systems without the Visual Studio 2008 redistributable package. It also adds or improves support for Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) TCP Proxy and SHOUTcast W3C Log Format. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2010-02-16: Size does not matter!

What size of Log Files can Sawmill process? There is no definitive limit. You are only limited by the hardware you are using....sounds pretty simple? But it's true! Sawmill can analyze your data, analyze your log files, and if we don't support your log file format, just ask for a custom plug-in.


2010-02-15: Live Data, every time

Besides the many features that make Sawmill unique and attractive, features such as universality/ flexibility/customization, a major feature is live reporting, where reports are re-calculated with every request ensuring data is always up-to-date. Live data also enables instant filtering and dynamic drill-down (zooming) to the lowest possible level, to the originating log files if possible. By comparison, competing products typically offer static html reports, reports that allow no investigative drill-down, or at best a drill-down of one layer that is little more than an alternative view of the same data. Static reports require much less processing power but the trade-off is non-interactive data that with every passing hour is more out of date. Users of such products have to make do with the same report and the same data view until the report is run again, typically the next day or the next week. Try Sawmill and see for yourself, how up to date your statistics can be!


2010-02-11: More information about profiles

We always get the question, "how many profiles do I need?". We thought it would be a good time to review this question. A profile is defined as a file that contains configuration settings for an individual or a group of users. What does that really mean? It means a file that will create a report. That report may be customized for a group of people or one person. It can also be a report for a device or a website. So if you're buying Sawmill and you can't decide on the number of profiles, ask yourself how many reports you would like to see. Also, you can upgrade the number of profiles you may need, at any time. If you are using a profile that works well for you, make it your "template" profile, that you can copy and reuse for other file formats. We can offer assistance at any time, and you will have a set of profiles that you can use for any analysis.


2010-02-10: Your best business asset::Your customer!

Sawmill can easily give you on-demand reports and real-time statistics but your greatest asset is your customer, what are they looking at, what are they buying, how long do they stay on a page. Sawmill is the tool that will help you define your customer's preferences and path through your site. You can make changes to your site based on Sawmill's reports, and you can improve your customer's experience and understand what they like about your business.


2010-02-09: Improve your sales!

With Sawmill, you can see where you may be losing sales from your website. Do visitors leave at the home page? Do they leave on the pricing page? Are they leaving during the purchase process? Maybe your price is too high or your shipping costs are too high. Also, if they are leaving during the registration process, maybe you want to cut down on the amount of information you require. You can capture this information with Sawmill and improve your traffic flow and sales. Try Sawmill for 30 days and improve your business!


2010-02-08: Sawmill Search Engine and Search Phrase reports now show Bing

Results for the Bing search engine (bing.com) will now show up in Sawmill's Search Engines and Search Phrases reports. This feature will be available in Sawmill 8.1.3. Contact Sawmill Support if you need it sooner.


2010-02-05: Pass Through Reports for Cisco WAAS 4.1.1 and 4.1.3

The Cisco WAAS (Wide Area Application Services) TCP Proxy log format plug-in for version 4.1+ now reports on BP (pass through) events. This feature will be available in Sawmill 8.1.3. Contact Sawmill Support if you need it sooner.


2010-02-04: Zoom Further with Sawmill

Have you ever wanted to increase the level of zoom, to see whatever you wish in your reports? You can with Sawmill, we have the ability of zooming into your statistics, at whatever granularity you need. Try us for 30 days, risk free and see that you uncover stats you never utilized before!


2010-02-02: Training blog::EZ Proxy Logs and IIS Web Server logs

Follow Derrick's training notes, feedback from his series of trainings, this last one highlighting EX Proxy logs and more! Derrick's blog.


2010-02-01: Increase your sales with Sawmill

Month after month, you want to see your sales increase. Are you using the best tool to improve your sales? How are your customers finding you? Where are they coming from? With Sawmill, you will get accurate statistics about your sales data. You can compare it month after month, and make changes to your website, that will improve your sales. You can improve your marketing to your customers and use Sawmill to track the increase in your website traffic. Try Sawmill for 30 days and see how we can help you increase your sales.


2010-01-27: Sawmill Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with with your data. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2010-01-26: Schedule your reports with Sawmill

You may have many people in your organization that needs reports. With Sawmill, you can schedule reports to go out whenever you wish, to whomever you wish. Emailing reports is an easy step that allows you to set up automatic emails for every day of the week, month or quarter.


2010-01-22: The Sawmill Advantage

Universality - the ability to analyze any text based log file (850+ currently supported). Standard Reporting Interface - use anywhere for consistency of operation & skill deployment. Flexibility - runs on Unix, Linux, Mac, Windows, or any other compiled platform. Customization - complete user interface customization with Enterprise Edition Live data - Sawmill reports generated new for every request. Report drill-down (zooming) - drill down through the data to the lowest level. Scalability - can process gigabytes of logs per day (hardware & log complexity permitting). Real Time operation - database updated with every line of log file (Enterprise Edition only) . Cost Effective - low investment price, highest functionality for your $$$.


2010-01-21: Who uses Sawmill?

Sawmill is used by every type of company with a need to understand and monitor what is happening within their organization. Traffic to and through their website, traffic via their firewall for security monitoring and bandwidth/capacity management, monitoring outbound (employee) web visits via a proxy server, keeping track of mail server loading and usage, or for monitoring video and audio delivery quality from a streaming media server. These are just a few of the thousands of different applications that Sawmill contributes to in every country worldswide. Use of Sawmill can be personal, or it can be as a service (SaaS). We estimate the combined installed base of Sawmill, to be well in excess of 500,000 copies worldwide. This makes Sawmill perhaps the most installed analytics product to date.


2010-01-19: New Year's resolutions? Better analytics?

We are all setting our business goals for 2010. Setting up marketing campaigns, new business incentives, trying new tools for better analysis. Why not try our professional services? Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with Sawmill. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2010-01-18: This month's newsletter::Log Filters can redefine page views

This month's newsletter describes how you can customize the definition of page views, to more accurately capture your web server logs' hits. If you want a copy of this month's newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2010-01-14: Sawmill training

Freeman Compression Inc. announced that it will be providing Sawmill Professional Training in Orlando, FL, Jan. 22. Free instruction will be provided on video compression using Telestream Episode Encoder Pro, live streaming media production using Telestream Wirecast and log file analytics for streaming servers and other devices using Sawmill Professional. For more information, email info@freemancompression.com.


2010-01-13: Companies using web analytics are excelling

According to a recent study by IBM, companies who used web analytics over the past 18 months have shown to be more successful than those who are not. Not only are companies using web analytic tools, but they are using them to support enterprise intelligence. Information inside and outside the company is looked at for relevance and business objectives are more closely aligned with functions across an organization. Sawmill can help you be a more successful company, with our support of log formats and support for enterprise organizations. Try us for 30 days and see what a difference we can make!


2010-01-12: SHOUTcast W3C logs

We have compensated for a problem where SHOUTcast W3C log entries sometimes do not comply with the w3c specification in a way that caused Play Durations to be incorrect in Sawmill reports. We've seen it in SHOUTcast 1.9.8, but it may occur in other versions as well. This is an important concern for Soundexchange RIAA reporting. The modified plug-in will be released with Sawmill 8.1.3. You can request it at any time from Sawmill Support.


2010-01-08: Native support for SUSE 10

By popular demand: we have added a new "binary" download of Sawmill: SUSE Linux 10. So, SUSE Linux users no longer need to build Sawmill from the source code; they can download a pre-compiled binary. The SUSE version currently lacks MySQL support (build from source if you need it), but we expect that to be added in the near future.


2009-12-30: Happy New Year!

To all of our customers out there...have a great new year!


2009-12-22: This month's newsletter::Tuning Cross-Reference Tables

This month's newsletter discusses how to tune your build time and report time by fine tuning your cross reference tables. If you want a copy of this month's newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-12-21: Support for ISA Logs Parsed Via ODBC

We have added support for Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server logs, parsed directly via ODBC from a SQL database. This extends Sawmill's existing extensive support for text ISA log files, by allowing them to be read directly from a SQL database server. These changes will be available in Sawmill 8.1.3, and can be requested at any time from Sawmill support.


2009-12-15: Web Analytics

It seems that everyone knows the importance of good reports these days. But what if you don't know how to start? What if you have a large set of data? Just call us, and we can help you get up and running. Remember, you can try Sawmill for 30 days, and we will help you customize Sawmill to suit your needs.


2009-12-14: Sawmill 8.1.2 is now available

Sawmill 8.1.2 is now available for download. This is a minor (bug-fix) update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8. It fixes several bugs which could cause high memory usage or crashes when building or updating large datasets. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2009-12-11: RIAA compliant duration calculations for streaming media

We will be offering a free upgrade soon, 8.1.2, that will support the duration calculations for streaming media that is being demanded by the RIAA. Please stay tuned for the release!


2009-12-09: Blog about resolving domain names

Please see Derrick Freeman's blog about resolving domain names with Sawmill:Resolving Domain Names with Sawmill Professional.


2009-12-08: Profiles, how many do I need?

We always get the question, "how many profiles do I need?". We thought it would be a good time to review this question. A profile is defined as a file that contains configuration settings for an individual or a group of users. What does that really mean? It means a file that will create a report. That report may be customized for a group of people or one person. It can also be a report for a device or a website. So if you're buying Sawmill and you can't decide on the number of profiles, ask yourself how many reports you would like to see. Also, you can upgrade the number of profiles you may need, at any time.


2009-12-04: Sawmill training

Freeman Compression Inc. announced that it will be providing Sawmill Professional Training in six U.S. cities starting December 2009 through May 2010. The full day training sessions will take place in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Orlando. Free instruction will be provided on video compression using Telestream Episode Encoder Pro, live streaming media production using Telestream Wirecast and log file analytics for streaming servers and other devices using Flowerfire Sawmill Professional. For more information, email info@freemancompression.com.


2009-12-01: Sawmill support changes!

Effective Jan. 1 2010, we will be making support changes, so please see our website or email us at suppport@sawmill.net. Now is an excellent time to lock in premium support before the end of the year!


2009-11-26: Flash and Sawmill

More and more sites are using videos to post or share information. Sawmill supports the Flash Media Server log files. That means that you can process these logs and get the reports you need to see how effective your videos are. If you have ads in your videos, you can track if these are viewed fully. You can track your content, if it's viewed and what percentage is viewed. You can also track what player is being used, and where the customer is located geographically. You can also track which title is being viewed and the url, plus other indicators that will make your video posting more efficient.


2009-11-25: Support for Sawmill on Friday

Our offices will be open on Black Friday, so if you have any urgent or otherwise support, we'll be here!


2009-11-23: Thanks for stopping by our booth!

Thank you for stopping by to say hello during the Streaming Media West conference. We enjoyed seeing old and new customers. See you next time around and please contact us for any follow up.


2009-11-18: This month's newsletter::Using the Network API

Sawmill 8.1.1 introduces a Network API feature, which can be used to remotely control a Sawmill installation via HTTP (or HTTPS). This is useful for automating Sawmill as part of a larger environment; the Network API can be called by external scripts to perform various actions. If you want a copy of this newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-11-17: Streaming Media West::San Jose, CA

See us live, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at Streaming Media West!


2009-11-13: Streaming Media West::San Jose, CA

Almost here! Next Tuesday, see you at the Streaming Media West show. For our customers, I have a discount code that I can send to you, please email support@sawmill.net and we will set you up with a discount!


2009-11-11: Schedule your reports with Sawmill

You may have many people in your organization that needs reports. With Sawmill, you can schedule reports to go out whenever you wish, to whomever you wish. Emailing reports is an easy step that allows you to set up automatic emails for every day of the week, month or quarter.


2009-11-10: Streaming Media West::San Jose, CA

We will be at Streaming Media West, November 17-19. Please drop by our booth! We will be offering discounts and other prizes.


2009-11-09: Upgrade your version of Sawmill

Remember, if you have a current Sawmill 7 license, upgrading to version 8 is 50% of the version 8 price! If you're not sure about your current license, just send an email to support@sawmill.net and we can help you with your upgrade.


2009-11-05: Improve your sales!

With Sawmill, you can see where you may be losing sales from your website. Do visitors leave at the home page? Do they leave on the pricing page? Are they leaving during the purchase process? Maybe your price is too high or your shipping costs are too high. Also, if they are leaving during the registration process, maybe you want to cut down on the amount of information you require. You can capture this information with Sawmill and improve your traffic flow and sales. Try Sawmill for 30 days and improve your business!


2009-11-03: Sawmill training in 6 US cities

Freeman Compression Inc. announced that it will be providing Sawmill Professional Training in six U.S. cities from December 2009 through May 2010. The full day training sessions will take place in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Orlando. Free instruction will be provided on video compression using Telestream Episode Encoder Pro, live streaming media production using Telestream Wirecast and log file analytics for streaming servers and other devices using Flowerfire Sawmill Professional. For more information, email info@freemancompression.com


2009-11-02: Sawmill works with Windows 7

We wanted to let our Windows customers know that Sawmill works with Windows 7, you won't have to change a thing, it just works!


2009-10-29: Working with Sawmill

We are adding new business accounts, and it may work for you. If you have a number of clients who you support and they need reports, why not use Sawmill as a custom solution? We will work with you, to meet your customers' needs. We have ways for you to support large and small customers, just shoot us an email and we will help you with the right solution.


2009-10-26: Streaming Media West

We will be at Streaming Media West, November 17-19. Please drop by our booth! We will be offering discounts and other prizes.


2009-10-23: Your best business asset::Your customer!

Sawmill can easily give you on-demand reports and real-time statistics but your greatest asset is your customer, what are they looking at, what are they buying, how long do they stay on a page. Sawmill is the tool that will help you define your customer's preferences and path through your site. You can make changes to your site based on Sawmill's reports, and you can improve your customer's experience and understand what they like about your business.


2009-10-22: Sawmill is the tool you need, but you may need more!

Web analytics and analysis of digital information can be hard. The first step is to do a report, of your data, but then what? Sawmill can help you create a report, and we have professional services to help you set up profiles, so that you can capture what is important. Once you have your report, you can see areas where you will want to target improvements. Once you make the changes, Sawmill can help you see the impact those changes have made.


2009-10-20: Streaming Media Europe

Thanks for stopping by our booth at Streaming Media Europe, we enjoyed seeing you all.


2009-10-16: Streaming Media web analytics reports

One of the continuing trends is to put video on websites, whether it's for pay-per-view or to give information, but do you know how to track the downloads? With Sawmill, we were able to work with a large video on-demand provider, and utilize Sawmill's parsing plug-ins and filtering capabilities, and the provider realized that they were under billing their clients. You can read the entire story, in our White Papers section: White Papers.


2009-10-15: Streaming Media Support

More and more sites are using videos to post or share information. Sawmill supports the Flash Media Server log files. That means that you can process these logs and get the reports you need to see how effective your videos are. If you have ads in your videos, you can track if these are viewed fully. You can track your content, if it's viewed and what percentage is viewed. You can also track what player is being used, and where the customer is located geographically. You can also track which title is being viewed and the url, plus other indicators that will make your video posting more efficient.


2009-10-14: Streaming Media Europe

Just a last minute reminder, we will be at Streaming Media Europe this week. Please stop by the booth and say hello.


2009-10-13: Sawmill 8.1.1 is now available

Sawmill 8.1.1 is now available for download. This is a minor (bug-fix) update to Sawmill 8.0.0, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8. It fixes several bugs which could cause database corruption or error messages when processing certain large datasets. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2009-09-30: Support for AIX CPU Utilization Log Format

We have added support for AIX CPU Utilization log format. These changes will be available in Sawmill 8.1.1, and can be requested at any time from Sawmill support.


2009-09-28: Sawmill Podcast

We are working on a podcast and webcast, that will appear on our site in the upcoming weeks. It will be useful for you, our old and new customers to use, as you present the many attributes of Sawmill within your companies. We will inform you with a special newsletter as they become available.


2009-09-25: Streaming Media Europe

Just another reminder... Our UK office will be at Streaming Media Europe in London, October 15 and 16th. Greg Ferrar, our lead developer, will also be there. So if you are there or visiting, please stop by the booth. For more information visit Streaming Media Europe.


2009-09-23: Sawmill training

Sawmill training is available October 5 and 6th, please see Sawmill Professional Training, for a current list. And if you want training in your city, please let us know!


2009-09-18: Sawmill newsletter for September

This month's newsletter discusses how to enable HTTPS with your web server. If you want a copy of this month's newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-09-17: Communigate Pro 5.2

We have added support for CommuniGate Pro 5.2 to the CommuniGate Pro Log Format plug-in. We've also improved the tracking of multiple recipients and eliminated counting a message twice when ACCOUNT/delivered and DEQUEUER/LOCAL/delivered are both in the log. An Action report has been added with values like "relayed SMTP", "relayed LIST", "delivered LOCAL" and "delivered SYSTEM". These changes will be available in Sawmill 8.1.1, and can be requested at any time from Sawmill support.


2009-09-16: Added Citrix support

We added support for two types of events from Citrix Netscaler 9.0 to the Citrix Netscaler Log Format plug-in. Also increased the number of types of 8.x events that are supported.


2009-09-15: Added new support or enhanced support in 8.0.1

We added new support, or enhanced existing support, for the following log formats: AIX messages, Citrix NetScaler, Clearswift MIMEsweeper, Juniper Netscreen, Kingdon Firewall, Marshal8e6 Content Appliance, Open WebMail, Watchguard Firebox XTM.


2009-09-14: New Features in 8.1.0

We added a plug-in to support the Pure FTP (Syslog) Log Format. The syslog format is the typical Unix daemon format and is different enough from the standalone version of the format that a separate plug-in was created.


2009-09-11: Streaming Media Europe

Our UK office will be at Streaming Media Europe in London, October 15 and 16th. Greg Ferrar, our lead developer, will also be there. So if you are there or visiting, please stop by the booth. For more information visit Streaming Media Europe.


2009-09-09: Sawmill 8.1.0 is now available

Sawmill 8.1.0 is now available for download. This is a moderate update to Sawmill 8.0, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8, or for anyone wanting the new features it provides. It adds support for HTTPS in Sawmill's built-in web server, adds a basic network API for remotely managing Sawmill, adds support for many new log formats, and fixes a number of bugs. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2009-09-04: Sawmill training, future classes

Derrick Freeman, our Sawmill trainer, will be holding classes throughout the fall, please see Sawmill Professional Training, for a current list.


2009-09-02: Sawmill Professional Training classes

Please sign up now for Sawmill Professional training classes in September. For more information, visit Sawmill Professional Training.


2009-09-01: Hundreds of log files supported!

As of our last count, we support 827 log formats, we can analyze just about anything. If your log format is not on the list, please contact us, and we'll create a plug-in for you. Have a look at our growing list: Log Formats.


2009-08-27: Schedule your reports!

You may have many people in your organization that needs reports. With Sawmill, you can schedule reports to go out whenever you wish, to whomever you wish. Emailing reports is an easy step that allows you to set up automatic emails for every day of the week, month or quarter.


2009-08-26: Apple Mac OS X Snow Leopard

For our Mac users, we are compatible with the release of Snow Leopard, that Apple is releasing on Friday. Sawmill will take advantage of the 64-bit speed and capabilities.


2009-08-24: Monthly Newsletter::Single User Profile

This month's newsletter discusses how you can create one profile with special permissions for a single user, allowing them to create reports, change log filters and much more. To get a copy of this newsletter, email support@sawmill.net.


2009-08-21: Support for Checkpoint Firewall-1 fw1-loggrabber Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by Checkpoint Firewall-1, exported with fw1-loggrabber. The Watchguard Checkpoint Firewall-1 loggrabber plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-08-19: Profiles, what are they?

We always get the question, "how many profiles do I need?". We thought it would be a good time to review this question. A profile is defined as a file that contains configuration settings for an individual or a group of users. What does that really mean? It means a file that will create a report. That report may be customized for a group of people or one person. It can also be a report for a device or a website. So if you're buying Sawmill and you can't decide on the number of profiles, ask yourself how many reports you would like to see. Also, you can upgrade the number of profiles you may need, at any time.


2009-08-18: Sawmill and streaming media

One of the continuing trends is to put video on websites, whether it's for pay-per-view or to give information, but do you know how to track the downloads? With Sawmill, we were able to work with a large video on-demand provider, and utilize Sawmill's parsing plug-ins and filtering capabilities, and the provider realized that they were under billing their clients. You can read the entire story, in our White Papers section: White Papers.


2009-08-17: Vote for Sawmill!

Please follow this link,Streaming Media Choice Awards. Vote for Sawmill under the Reporting, Analytics heading, vote by August 21st! Thank you!


2009-08-14: Streaming Media Europe

Our UK office will be at Streaming Media Europe in London, October 15 and 16th. So if you are there or visiting, please stop by the booth. For more information visit Streaming Media Europe.


2009-08-12: Sawmill Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with Sawmill. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2009-08-10: Filter you own traffic

If you have a web site, you probably visit it yourself, frequently. You might want to ensure that it is functioning properly (through an automated system, or manually), or you might be looking for information on your own site, or there might be portions of your own site that are private and for your use only. When you analyze your web site with Sawmill, your own traffic will normally appear in the reports. If the purpose of the analysis is to determine how other people use your site, your own traffic can be a distraction, or can skew the statistics. Therefore, it is often best to exclude your own traffic, when doing an analysis with Sawmill, so the reports show only external traffic. For more information about this topic, and for the newsletter that explains how to do this, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-08-07: Custom work

Sawmill is about getting good reports from your data. Sometimes you may need a custom plug-in, one that is not in our long list. We want to help get best data possible. So contact us about working with your log data, we can make a difference in your analysis. For more information, contact consulting@sawmill.net.


2009-08-05: Sawmill Newsletter

On the 15th of each month, we publish the Sawmill newsletter, if you are not receiving this newsletter and would like to, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-08-04: Using segments

You have a lot of data, but you are not sure what it all means. With Sawmill, you can create segments for any purpose. You can have a segment for new users vs. continuing users. You may be having a promo on your site, you can see how many people used a special coupon or took advantage of your promo. Sawmill can create multiple segments at the same time, so that you can see what is effective and what is not, if you are running several ad campaigns at the same time. With segments you can also filter out data that is not relevant, making your data more valuable. If you have white papers or case studies, set up segments to see which one brings you more sales.


2009-08-03: Increase your sales with Sawmill

Month after month, you want to see your sales increase. Are you using the best tool to improve your sales? With Sawmill, you will get accurate statistics about your sales data. You can compare it month after month, and make changes to your website, that will improve your sales. You can improve your marketing to your customers and use Sawmill to track the increase in your website traffic. Try Sawmill for 30 days and see how we can help you increase your sales.


2009-07-31: Sawmill Professional Training classes

Please sign up now for Sawmill Professional training classes in August. PC and Mac one day training offered by GeniusDV.com. For more information, visit Sawmill Professional Training.


2009-07-30: Support for Watchguard Firebox XTM Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by Watchguard Firebox XTM, logging to a syslog server. The Watchguard Firebox XTM Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-07-27: Custom log formats

We continue to add to our custom log formats, there are over 800 formats now to choose from. If you have an appliance or hardware that we do not have a plug-in for, please let us know and send us a log file sample, to support@sawmill.net.


2009-07-24: Current product development

We are always in development, here at Sawmill. So if you have something you would like to see in the next small or major release, please let us know! Email, support@sawmill.net.


2009-07-23: Support for Open WebMail Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by Open WebMail. The Open WebMail Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-07-21: ODBC and SQL with Windows

Sawmill supports ODBC and SQL if you're using Windows. For complete instructions about how to set up ODBC, see:ODBC and SQL configuration under Windows.


2009-07-20: Sawmill Server Best Practices

We are asked quite frequently about how to set up Sawmill, and what the hardware requirements are. Sawmill will run on any platform, but we recommend x64 Linux. For specific hardware requirements, please see: Server Sizing.


2009-07-16: July Newsletter::Adding Graphs to Reports

This month's newsletter talks about Sawmill's support of graphing numerical and non-numerical values, including inline bar graphs, separate bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts. If you would like a copy of this newsletter or to be added to our newsletter list, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-07-15: Enhanced Support For 8e6

We have enhanced the support in Sawmill for reporting on logs generated by Marshal8e6 Content Appliance. The enhanced plug-in supports the new format generated by these devices, and includes reporting of the new "filter action", "request type", "string" and "domain" fields. The enhanced Marshal8e6 Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-07-10: Support for Kingdon Firewall Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by Kingdon Firewall. The Kingdon Firewall Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-07-08: Enhanced Support For Juniper Netscreen

We have enhanced the support in Sawmill for reporting on logs generated by Juniper NetScreen. The enhanced plug-in supports reporting of session information, including session duration and concurrent sessions. The enhanced Juniper Netscreen Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-07-07: Support for Clearswift MIMEsweeper Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by Clearswift MIMEsweeper. The Sawmill MIMEsweeper Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-07-02: Wowza Media Server and Sawmill training

This weekend, Derrick Freeman will be giving a one day Wowza Media Server Pro Training for the PC and the Mac. He will be using Sawmill to analyze the log files. For more information see: Wowza Media Server Pro Training.


2009-07-01: Video Streaming, Compression and Sawmill Training

Derrick Freeman will be offering 5 training classes for churches in Orlando, FL on August 29th. Please see his blog for more information: Video Streaming and Compression.


2009-06-30: Flash files and Sawmill

More and more sites are using videos to post or share information. Sawmill supports the Flash Media Server log files. That means that you can process these logs and get the reports you need to see how effective your videos are. If you have ads in your videos, you can track if these are viewed fully. You can track your content, if it's viewed and what percentage is viewed. You can also track what player is being used, and where the customer is located geographically. You can also track which title is being viewed and the url, plus other indicators that will make your video posting more efficient.


2009-06-29: Where are your customers leaving your site?

With Sawmill, you can see where you may be losing sales from your website. Do visitors leave at the home page? Do they leave on the pricing page? Are they leaving during the purchase process? Maybe your price is too high or your shipping costs are too high. Also, if they are leaving during the registration process, maybe you want to cut down on the amount of information you require. You can capture this information with Sawmill and improve your traffic flow and sales. Try Sawmill for 30 days and improve your business!


2009-06-26: June's Newsletter::Cross-Reference Tables

In this month's newsletter, we talk about how important cross-reference tables are for speeding up the report generation. When you update your data, you can keep your reports up-to-date and their creation can remain fast. If you are not subscribed to our newsletter list, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-06-25: Sawmill 8.0.9 is now available

Sawmill 8.0.9 is now available for download. This is a minor update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8. It fixes several issues which could result in database corruption and incorrect reports. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2009-06-24: Sawmill Support

Most things are not for free, but we continue to keep our free phone, email and forum support. We use our best efforts to respond to all our customers in a timely manner. We also have paid support, for larger organizations, or for those who need a time guarantee. But to us, all of our customers are important. We also make improvements to Sawmill, with our customers' requests in mind. You can pick up a phone and call us, you will get a real person on the other line, we don't use a phone tree. We strive to give our customers the best service and product as possible.


2009-06-22: Less money spent on web analytics technology

According to a recent report companies are spending less on web analytics, more on the staff to do the analysis. A good web analysis package should be affordable and allow you to spend what you need for your internal staff. Sawmill is that solution, it provides the robust analytics you need to keep your business profitable, but not by breaking the bank.


2009-06-19: A Bit About Log Filters

The right set of log filters, filtering your data, is important to keep the size of your data manageable. You can selectively eliminate portions of your log data. You may not be interested in seeing the hits on files of a particular type (e.g. image files, in web logs). You may not be interested in seeing the events from a particular host or domain (e.g. web log hits from your own domain, or email from your own domain for mail logs). For web logs, you may not be interested in seeing hits which did not result in separate page views, like 404 errors (file not found) or redirects. This is where Sawmill's robust interface for creating filters comes into play, you can create log filters that will lessen your data and ultimately making your reports more relative. For more on log filters see: Using Log Filters.


2009-06-17: Sawmill Training classes::August

Please sign up now for Sawmill Professional training classes in August. PC and Mac one day training offered by GeniusDV.com. For more information, visit Sawmill Professional Training.


2009-06-16: Enhanced Support For Citrix NetScaler

We have enhanced the support in Sawmill for reporting on logs generated by Citrix NetScaler. The enhanced plug-in supports extraction and reporting of data in CMD_EXECUTED lines. The enhanced Citrix NetScaler Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-06-12: Know your customers

We created Sawmill to allow you to get to know your customers. With Sawmill, you become the expert in seeing who your customers are, what they like about you and where you are losing them. You don't need to use multiple software packages to do this, you can start right away with Sawmill. Migrate beyond what others want you to analyze, do it yourself, and do it easily. We also listen to our customers, so drop us a line in our forum and we'll answer back.


2009-06-11: Security and multiple users

With Sawmill 8, we have added the ability to make roles. Roles for your users equals greater security of your data. Only root admins can create users and roles, so that your users can only view the reports they need, and they can't edit your files in any way. This is particularly important for enterprise organizations, you can set up users and the reports they will see. Schedule them to see those reports in the Scheduler, and this daily admin of your data is left up to Sawmill.


2009-06-10: Calling for newsletter content

We publish the monthly newsletter with tips and information that we think will be important to our customers. But we would also like to hear from you, so please drop us a line, if you want to see a particular Sawmill feature or technique highlighted. Email us at support@sawmill.net.


2009-06-09: Analysis of IBM AIX authentication logs

Sawmill can now analyze authentication information from syslog messages generated by IBM AIX. This is included in an enhanced version of our existing Unix Auth plug-in, that enhanced CWAT Alert Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill. The Unix Auth plug-in also supports all other major UNIX authentication logs.


2009-06-08: Universal log format support

As of our last count, we support 827 log formats, we can analyze just about anything. If your log format is not on the list, please contact us, and we'll create a plug-in for you. Have a look at our growing list: Log Formats.


2009-06-05: Enhanced support for CWAT Alert Log Format

We have enhanced the support in Sawmill for reporting on Alert logs generated by CWAT. The enhanced plug-in support more recent formats of the CWAT alert logs, including formats with additional fields. The enhanced CWAT Alert Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-06-04: Database optimization

If you are working with large databases, in particular with SQL databases, you can tune your databases to build faster. Under the Database menu, select General Tuning, and deselect the update/build xref tables box. This will not build cross reference tables during your build and speeds up the process.


2009-06-03: Support for Sybase Error Log

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of error logs generated by Sybase. The Sawmill Sybase Erorr Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-06-02: Enhanced Support For Microsoft Windows perfmon Log Format

We have enhanced support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by Microsoft Windows perfmon Log Format. This format was supported in previous versions of Sawmill, but only for a specific field layout; it now supports any field layout specified in the CSV header, and intelligently aggregates media performance fields. The Sawmill perfmon plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-06-01: How can Sawmill help your business?

Right now you need a log analysis tool that will help you increase your bottom line, save or reduce your costs and increase your customer's satisfaction. Sawmill can accomplish those three goals, it can show you through your analysis where you could be doing better, either by dropped customers or you're not targeting your audience as well as you could. Sawmill is free for 30 days and also a great buy. You will increase your customer satisfaction by using a tool that shows you where your customers go and what they do. You will be able to market to them in a fresh new way. Try Sawmill, we will help you be successful.


2009-05-29: Follow our trainer's blog

Follow Derrick's blog as he outlines how he uses Sawmill, and you can contact him directly with your questions see: Performing log file analysis with Sawmill.


2009-05-28: Support for HP UX Audit Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by HP UX Audit Log Format. The Sawmill HP UX Audit Log Format plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-05-26: GSA Contract!

We are happy to announce that we have a new contract with the GSA. We will be able to provide special prices for Sawmill. If you are a federal agency, please let us know during the purchasing process and we can give you a discounted quote.


2009-05-25: Customer kudos

Dave from MarketingTactics just switched to Sawmill after using WebTrends for 11 years, he wanted to use a more modern log analyzer. He found our support superior, Sawmill is more versatile and more powerful in some aspects and affordable! We will be posting Dave's full comments soon, but thanks Dave!


2009-05-22: Software One

Welcome to our new reseller, Software One, they are carrying the full line of Sawmill, and you can see their site: Software One.


2009-05-21: Sawmill 8.0.8 is now available

Sawmill 8.0.8 is now available for download. This is a minor update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8. It improves the performance of several internal database operations, and fixes a number of bugs. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2009-05-20: Streaming Media East

Thanks to all who spoke with us at Streaming Media East, it was a well-attended show and we look forward to building new relationships in the near future!


2009-05-18: streaming video content

One of the continuing trends is to put video on websites, whether it's for pay-per-view or to give information, but do you know how to track the downloads? With Sawmill, we were able to work with a large video on-demand provider, and utilize Sawmill's parsing plug-ins and filtering capabilities, and the provider realized that they were under billing their clients. You can read the entire story, in our White Papers section: White Papers.


2009-05-15: Get going with Sawmill!

So, say you've downloaded Sawmill, and you're using it for free, for 30 days. Do you also realize that you can get free phone support, email and forum support? Also, if you need a special plug-in, we will help you develop that. We also offer free pre-sales training, so that you will know how get going with Sawmill, even before you purchase! Once you purchase, all of your databases and logs stay intact, nothing changes except you have a license, and more benefits to come. All of this seems pretty easy, right? It's just that easy, so download today and start working with one of the best analysis tools out there.


2009-05-14: Newsletter::Creating custom actions

This month's newsletter explains the use of -a actions, and how you can create your own actions and ultimately do whatever task you need, beyond the default ones. If you are not subscribed to our newsletter list, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-05-13: Scheduled reports

You may have many people in your organization that needs reports. With Sawmill, you can schedule reports to go out whenever you wish, to whomever you wish. Emailing reports is an easy step that allows you to set up automatic emails for every day of the week, month or quarter.


2009-05-12: How good are your conversions?

Are able to see where your customers are landing on your site, and where they go? If you are creating a new website or updating an old one, you will want an analysis tool that will tell you where your site is successful and where you can do better. It's all about capturing your visitors and then seeing that they like your site and want to do business with you. Sawmill can capture all of the data you need to see that your business is successful from the start and also lets you see how well they like your site and what you're offering. Try Sawmill for 30 days on us, and you're on your way to creating a better website.


2009-05-11: Streaming Media East::May 12th NYC

Just a reminder, that next Tuesday, a few Sawmill folks will be attending the show, and we will have discount codes for purchasing Sawmill. Please see Kate at the show, for a code and a demo.


2009-05-08: Traffic monitoring and PCI DSS compliance

Sawmill monitors all of your incoming and outgoing traffic, 24/7. You can run a report at anytime to see who is accessing your data. In order to be PCI complaint, you must have a tool to track and monitor all traffic to your network resources. For more information about how Sawmill can help you with PCI compliance, visit our download page, White Papers.


2009-05-07: What does your data mean?

Log analysis tools can gather your data, but what does the data mean? The human factor comes into play when you try to analyze the data and answer questions you have about your site or your device. Sawmill can help you meet your goals, whether they be increased revenue or maintaining customer satisfaction. Sawmill's easy-to-use filters will allow you to focus on the data that will meet your business questions. Sawmill's default filters perform the most common filtering of your data, once you've become familiar with those, you can fine-tune them to make more sense of your data.


2009-05-06: New Sawmill 8 users

This is a reminder, since we are seeing customers upgrading daily. You can easily upgrade to version 8, without uninstalling version 7. Keep your old LogAnalysisInfo folder, and use the Import wizard on the Admin toolbar to find your existing profiles. Once selected, import them and they will work in version 8. Also, in the same wizard, import your databases for use in version 8. You can also import schedules and users during this process. Let us know if you need assistance during this process, email support@sawmill.net.


2009-05-05: Support for 4ipnet Secure WLAN Controller (WHG-series)

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by 4ipnet Secure WLAN Controller (WHG-series). The Sawmill WHG plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-05-01: How can your data be more useful?

What data is useful for your business? Do you need to know where your customers are globally? Do you need to look at their purchasing behavior? Do you want to reach your customers more efficiently? You can meet all of those goals with Sawmill. We have powerful tools to see where your customers live geographically, you will be able to see where they are on your site and what they look at, and also you can customize your site to be more interesting to your customers. Remember that you can download Sawmill and use it for 30 days. During that time, we would also be happy to offer you some training, so that you can use your data to meet your business needs.


2009-04-30: Profiles revisited

We always get the question, "how many profiles do I need?". We thought it would be a good time to review this question. A profile is defined as a file that contains configuration settings for an individual or a group of users. What does that really mean? It means a file that will create a report. That report may be customized for a group of people or one person. It can also be a report for a device or a website. So if you're buying Sawmill and you can't decide on the number of profiles, ask yourself how many reports you would like to see. Also, you can upgrade the number of profiles you may need, at any time.


2009-04-29: Support for hMailserver 5

We have enhanced support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by hMailserver, to support version 5 of hMailserver. The Sawmill hMailserver is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-04-28: New Support For UUDynamics SSL VPN Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by UUDynamics SSL VPN.The Sawmill UUDynamics SSL VPN plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-04-22: "Business Time" analysis with Sawmill

There is much debate going on in the web analytics world about analyzing data in "Business Time". Sawmill does analysis in business time, you will see your data faster, be able to analyze differences between first time visitors and repeat customers. You will also be able to identify all types of visitors, including their frequency, page and content viewing, entry and exit pages. We use GeoIP for international analysis. The catch phrases may come and go, in all of our markets, but you only need one tool to do the job.


2009-04-20: Sawmill 8.0.7 is now available

Sawmill 8.0.7 is now available for download. This is a minor update to Sawmill 8, and a free upgrade for all Sawmill 8 users. It is recommended for anyone experiencing difficulties with Sawmill 8. It improves the performance of some database operations, and fixes a number of bugs. See the Version History for a list of changes.


2009-04-17: Training classes in Florida

Once again, our partners at Genius DV are offering training classes using Sawmill with streaming media. These classes are in August. For more information, please visit geniusdv.com.


2009-04-16: April Newsletter

Check out our newsletter, that will be appearing in your inboxes today. It's all about creating custom fields, and how that has changed in version 8. If you are not receiving the newsletter, drop us a note: support@sawmill.net.


2009-04-14: Online Sawmill training

We will be offering a free online training, April 13th, 2pm EST. The class will include: creating profiles, processing Windows firewall logs, single page summary reports, processing FileZilla FTP logs and Streaming Server Logs and many more items. Please contact derrick@sales.sawmill.net for more information.


2009-04-13: Free 30 minute class using Sawmill!

Our trainer, Derrick Freeman, will be giving out free 30 minute sessions on how to use Sawmill. These sessions are geared towards everyone using a trial version and who are new to Sawmill. For more information, please contact Derrick, derrick@sales.sawmill.net.


2009-04-09: New Support For The Dude Syslog Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of logs generated by the syslog server in MicroTik The Dude. The new plug-in can report on any log data logged via The Dude's syslog server. The Sawmill The Dude plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-04-08: Streaming Media East

We will be visiting Streaming Media East on May 12th in NYC. Please see our developer, Kate, for a special Sawmill discount code, that you can use towards the purchase.


2009-04-07: Support for your log format

Sawmill is about getting good reports from your data. Sometimes you may need a custom plug-in, one that is not in our long list. We want to help get best data possible. So contact us about working with your log data, we can make a difference in your analysis. For more information, contact consulting@sawmill.net.


2009-04-06: March's newsletter

Our last newsletter dealt with date range filtering, something that we do all the time. The newsletter points out how to use many features in Sawmill to chose a particular day, month or year. If you want a copy of this newsletter, please contact support@sawmill.net.


2009-04-03: New Support For LinkSys VPN Router

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of LinkSys VPN Router logs. The new plug-in can report traffic by source IP and port, destination IP and port, protocol, date, time, and more. The Sawmill LinkSys VPN Router plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-02-23: Enhanced SmarterMail Parsing

We have enhanced Sawmill's parsing of SmarterMail logs. The new plug-in now supports extraction of date information in several encodings, including the one used by the latest version of SmarterMail. The enhanced Sawmill SmarterMail plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-02-20: Our monthly newsletter: Detecting intrusions and alerting

This month's newsletter was on intrusion detection and alerting, and the example was using MS IIS log data, with a password cracking attack. If you did not receive this newsletter and would like to, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-02-19: Sawmill 8.0.4

Sawmill 8.0.4, a minor update to Sawmill 8, is now available for download. This fixes a bug which could cause hangs during 32-bit Windows database builds, and one which could cause zeros in filtered reports. It also adds or enhances support for a few log formats, and more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.4 here.


2009-02-18: Enhanced IIS SMTP Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Microsoft Internet Information Services FTP logs. The new plug-in now extracts and reports the username, in addition to the IP address, of the FTP client. The enhanced Sawmill IIS plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-02-12: New Support For Mirapoint SMTP Log Format

We have added support in Sawmill for reporting of Mirapoint logs, logged through a syslog server. The new plug-in can report message traffic and bandwidth through a Mirapoint server, including senders, recipients, messages queued, messages delivered, bytes queued, and bytes delivered. The Sawmill Mirapoint plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-02-11: Enhanced Squid Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Squid Web Proxy Cache logs. The new plug-in now supports Squid logs which are generated through a syslog, and yet also have Squid timestamps in them. The enhanced Sawmill Squid plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-02-06: Upgrade to Sawmill 8!

Remember, if you have a current Sawmill 7 license, upgrading to version 8 is 50% of the version 8 price! If you're not sure about your current license, just send an email to support@sawmill.net and we can help you with your upgrade.


2009-02-04: Sawmill Tutorial on GeniusDV. com

Our trainer, Derrick Freeman, at GeniusDV has posted a new tutorial on their site, using ftp logs. Please visit: the tutorial.


2009-02-03: Expanded Sawmill Training

Our training partners in Florida have expanded their training to include working with Apache Servers, firewalls and also FTP server log files. For more information, please visit www.GeniusDV.com.


2009-02-02: Sawmill 8 Online Samples Are Live

The online Samples for Sawmill 8 are now live. These provide an easy way to see Sawmill's reporting interface, without having to download and install it yourself. These provide live samples of web server, media server, mail server, and gateway log analysis and reporting (just 4 of the 800+ formats currently supported by Sawmill).


2009-01-30: Enhanced Limelight Flash Media Server Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Limelight Flash Media Server logs. The new plug-in now support arbitrary W3C headers in the log data, allowing Sawmill to parse Limelight data containing any number of fields, instead of being locked to a particular set of log fields. The enhanced Sawmill Flash Media Server plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-01-29: January Newsletter

Our monthly newsletter may be of interest to most of you, it's about importing Sawmill 7 data to Sawmill 8. If you failed to get this newsletter, or would like to be added to our subscribers, please email support@sawmill.net.


2009-01-28: Enhanced Flash Media Server Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Flash Media Server logs. The new plug-in now supports session reporting in all logs (previously, logs lacking a cs-uri-stem field could not report sessions or concurrent connection information). The enhanced Sawmill Flash Media Server plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-01-27: Enhanced Ironport Microsoft ISA Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Microsoft ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) server, when logging in W3C format. The new plug-in now supports logs where fields are unquoted but contained spaces; it also improves handling of the hierarchical URL field and its derived fields, and the IP address field and its derived fields (including the geographic fields, which were not being reported for some variants of ISA). The enhanced Sawmill ISA plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-01-26:

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Microsoft Port Reporter log format. The enhanced plug-in extracts and reports on PID, module, and user context, when available. The enhanced Microsoft Port Reporter plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2009-01-23: Sawmill 8.0.3 Now Aailable

Sawmill 8.0.3, a minor update to Sawmill 8, is now available for download. This fixes several bugs which could cause errors during reporting and database building, fixes problems with changing the database directory, fixes a problem with 7-to-8 profile conversion, and more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.3 here.


2009-01-14: New Support For F5 Load Balancer

We have added support in Sawmill for analyzing log files, and generating reports, from F5 Load Balancer devices. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-12-24: Sawmill 8.0.1 Now Available

Sawmill 8.0.1, a minor update to Sawmill 8, is now available for download. This fixes problems with Windows installations (especially with running Sawmill 8 and Sawmill 7 at the same time), changes the default port to 8988, adds support for full Unicode with Microsoft SQL Server, fixes a bug with the Create Profile Wizard which prevented the use of wildcards in pathnames, and more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.1 here.


2008-12-15: Sawmill 8 Ships!

Sawmill 8, the latest major release of Sawmill, is now available for download and purchase. New features include a completely new graphical interface with many new editors; support for Microsoft SQL Server; support for Oracle; RBAC (role-based authentication control); real-time importing; enhanced multiprocessor database building and reporting; and much more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.0 here.

Sawmill 8 is a paid upgrade for Sawmill 7 users. Premium Support subscribers get the upgrade for free.


2008-12-12: Hurry! Buy Sawmill now and get the latest version for free!

We are releasing Sawmill 8, so if you have been waiting for it to be released, it is almost here! But why pay more? Buy Sawmill 7 now, and get Sawmill 8 as a FREE upgrade.


2008-12-06: Sawmill 8.0.0b8 Now Available

Sawmill 8.0.0b8, a "beta" release of Sawmill 8.0.0, is now available for download. Because it is still not fully tested and debugged, we do not recommend it for production environments--wait for Sawmill 8.0.0, coming in December. New features include a completely new graphical interface with many new editors; support for Microsoft SQL Server; support for Oracle; RBAC (role-based authentication control); real-time importing; enhanced multiprocessor database building and reporting; and much more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.0b8 here.


2008-11-30: Sawmill 8.0.0b7 Now Available

Sawmill 8.0.0b7, a "beta" release of Sawmill 8.0.0, is now available for download. Because it is still not fully tested and debugged, we do not recommend it for production environments--wait for Sawmill 8.0.0, coming in December. New features include a completely new graphical interface with many new editors; support for Microsoft SQL Server; support for Oracle; RBAC (role-based authentication control); real-time importing; enhanced multiprocessor database building and reporting; and much more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.0b7 here.


2008-11-29: Sawmill 8.0.0b6 Now Available

Sawmill 8.0.0b6, a "beta" release of Sawmill 8.0.0, is now available for download. Because it is still not fully tested and debugged, we do not recommend it for production environments--wait for Sawmill 8.0.0, coming in December. New features include a completely new graphical interface with many new editors; support for Microsoft SQL Server; support for Oracle; RBAC (role-based authentication control); real-time importing; enhanced multiprocessor database building and reporting; and much more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.0b6 here.


2008-11-24: Sawmill 8.0.0b3 Now Available

Sawmill 8.0.0b3, the third "beta" release of Sawmill 8.0.0, is now available for download. Because it is still not fully tested and debugged, we do not recommend it for production environments--wait for Sawmill 8.0.0, coming in December. New features include a completely new graphical interface with many new editors; support for Microsoft SQL Server; support for Oracle; RBAC (role-based authentication control); real-time importing; enhanced multiprocessor database building and reporting; and much more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.0b3 here.


2008-11-20: Sawmill 8.0.0b2 Now Available

Sawmill 8.0.0b2, the second "beta" release of Sawmill 8.0.0, is now available for download. Because it is still not fully tested and debugged, we do not recommend it for production environments--wait for Sawmill 8.0.0, coming in December. New features include a completely new graphical interface with many new editors; support for Microsoft SQL Server; support for Oracle; RBAC (role-based authentication control); real-time importing; enhanced multiprocessor database building and reporting; and much more. You can download Sawmill 8.0.0b2 here.


2008-11-13: Sawmill 8 Goes Beta!

Sawmill 8, the next major release of Sawmill, has entered beta, indicating that all features are complete, all major bugs have been fixed, and only minor ones remain. That means that Sawmill 8 is now available for public testing and evaluation (because it is still not fully tested and debugged, we do not recommend it for production environments--wait for Sawmill 8.0.0, coming in December). New features include a completely new graphical interface with many new editors; support for Microsoft SQL Server; support for Oracle; RBAC (role-based authentication control); real-time importing; enhanced multiprocessor database building and reporting; and much more. You can download Sawmill 8 here.


2008-11-07: 2-Day Video Streaming Training for the PC-Florida

Don't miss out! The 2-Day Video Streaming Training classes are Nov.8-9, in Orlando, FL. These classes include the use of Sawmill for gathering statistics. See www.geniusDV.com for more details.


2008-11-06: 2-Day Video Streaming Training for the Mac-Florida

Once again our trainer and streaming media expert at GeniusDV is doing a 2 day class on video streaming, in Orlando, FL. The dates are Nov 24-25. Please see geniusdv.com for more details.


2008-11-05: Public beta is coming!

We will be announcing our public beta shortly. We will be sending out an official newsletter about this, so stay tuned!


2008-10-31: Excluding your own traffic with log filters

If you have a web site, you probably visit it yourself, frequently. You might want to ensure that it is functioning properly (through an automated system, or manually), or you might be looking for information on your own site, or there might be portions of your own site that are private and for your use only. When you analyze your web site with Sawmill, your own traffic will normally appear in the reports. If the purpose of the analysis is to determine how other people use your site, your own traffic can be a distraction, or can skew the statistics. Therefore, it is often best to exclude your own traffic, when doing an analysis with Sawmill, so the reports show only external traffic. For more information about this topic, and for the newsletter that explains how to do this, please email support@sawmill.net.


2008-10-30: Discount code from Streaming Media West

Just a reminder: Those of you who visited us at Streaming Media West, may have picked up a brochure while at our booth. There is a discount code on the flyer, for 25% off. The discount code is good until November 25!


2008-10-29: October Newsletter - converting log data

Typically Sawmill is used to parse log data into a database, and then generate reports from that database with Sawmill's web reporting interface. But Sawmill can also be used as a stand-alone parser, or log converter. This is useful for parsing complicated log formats, like mail logs, which typically have many lines per event, and where the lines must be parsed intelligently, in a particular order, and then re-integrated into a single event. This sort of parsing is difficult, but Sawmill already knows how to do it for all common log formats, so if you're writing a script to import log data into a database, or to do alerting based on log data, or to any anything else with log data, you can use Sawmill as the first stage of your script, to do the parsing and send the parsed data on to you. For more about this feature, please email support@sawmill.net.


2008-10-28: Creating a MySQL profile and database with Sawmill

To create a Sawmill profile which uses MySQL as its back-end database, create a profile just as you would for the internal database, but on the Database Options page of the Create Profile Wizard, select "Use MySQL database" (this is available only in Sawmill Enterprise). Then enter the hostname, username, and password of your MySQL database server. If you're using a socket to communicate with MySQL, and the socket is not in the default location, you can also enter its pathname on this page. You can also rename the database, to be different from the profile on this page. At the end let Sawmill build the database. You can then view the database through SQL queries, Sawmill has inserted all log data into the MySQL database, and built the itemnum tables.


2008-10-27: Welcome Audio & Video Plus!

We would like to welcome Audio & Video Plus as a new reseller of Sawmill. They provide audio and video solutions and technologies to a wide audience. Welcome aboard! You can visit them at www.audioandvideoplus.com.


2008-10-24: Enhanced Checkpoint Firewall-1 NG Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Checkpoint Firewall-1 NG logs (text export). The enhanced plug-in reports country, region, city, and optionally organization, ISP, and domain (with optional databases). The enhanced Sawmill Checkpoint Firewall-1 NG text export plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-10-21: Support for Fedora Core 9

Sawmill now compiles on Fedora Core 9 (from the encrypted source code); a compatibility issue has been fixed. If you want to run Sawmill on Fedora Core 9, and are having troubles with the compilation, contact support@sawmill.net for a pre-release build with this fix.


2008-10-20: How to create a rolling 30 day database

We have questions all the time pertaining to keeping a database to a manageable size. Each day, Sawmill adds new data to a database. These databases can get huge! We created an article in January of this year letting everyone know how to create a database that always shows the past 30 days of data. If you would like a copy of this newsletter, please email support@sawmill.net.


2008-10-18: Enhanced Checkpoint Firewall-1 Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Checkpoint Firewall-1 logs (those generated with "fw logexport"). The enhanced plug-in reports country, region, city, and optionally organization, ISP, and domain (with optional databases). The enhanced Sawmill Checkpoint Firewall-1 plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-10-01: New case study - saving revenue

Please see our latest case study, it details some consultancy work we did recently with a streaming media company, and we were able to show them where they were losing money. Please check our White Papers page for the latest white papers and case studies.


2008-09-29: We Are Back From Streaming Media West

Thanks to everyone who came to see us at our booth at Streaming Media West. We're back in Santa Cruz now, ready to help you with your streaming media log analysis needs, and all your other log analysis needs.


2008-09-24: Streaming Media West

Flowerfire will be in booth 420 at the Streaming Media West Conference, in San Jose, CA, September 23-25. Come meet the Sawmill team, and see how Sawmill can help you with your streaming media reporting. With support for Flash Media Server, Microsoft Media Server, Quicktime Streaming Server, Real Media Server, HTTP media servers, Wowza, Shoutcast, and more, Sawmill is a single solution for all media log analysis needs.


2008-09-24: Sawmill Training from GeniusDV.com

This is a reminder about our training classes. Our trainer, Derrick Freeman, will be offering Sawmill Professional one day training classes for the PC and Mac. All classes are being taught in Orlando, FL. The Mac classes will be Oct. 10th and then Dec. 17th. And if you missed the PC class, that one will be offered again on Nov. 14th. Please see: http://www.geniusdv.com/video_streaming_training/ for more details.


2008-09-23: Enhanced Ironport C-Series Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Ironport C-Series log format. The enhanced plug-in reports the number of messages spam positive and virus positive, using separate numerical columns. The enhanced Sawmill Ironport C-Series plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-09-22: Search our white papers and find out why Sawmill can help your organization

We have an ever growing list of white papers, they currently include: page tagging, PCI compliance, HIPAA and Sarbanes/Oxley compliance and other topics that include web access tracking and case studies. If you are interested in downloading our latest ones, please go to http://www.sawmill.net/white_papers.html.


2008-09-19: One more week until Streaming Media West!

Flowerfire will be in booth 420 at the Streaming Media West Conference, in San Jose, CA, September 23-25. Come meet the Sawmill team, and see how Sawmill can help you with your streaming media reporting. With support for Flash Media Server, Microsoft Media Server, Quicktime Streaming Server, Real Media Server, HTTP media servers, Wowza, Shoutcast, and more, Sawmill is a single solution for all media log analysis needs.


2008-09-18: September Newsletter: Analyzing Custom Log Data With Sawmill

The September Sawmill newsletter discusses analysis of custom log formats (formats not supported by Sawmill's default set of 800+ log format plug-ins). It includes an example script which generates some log data for analysis of log data line counts, disk usage, and uncompressed data size; then it goes through the details of implementing a Sawmill log format plug-in to analyze and report on the log data generated by the custom script. If you didn't get the newsletter and would like to read it, or if you would like to join the newsletter mailing list, please email support@sawmill.net.


2008-09-17: New support for Raiden RaidenMAILD

We have added support in Sawmill for analyzing log files, and generating reports, from Raiden RaidenMAILD servers. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-09-16: Enhanced Sidewinder Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Secure Computing Sidewinder Firewall log format, adding collection and reporting of the facility, area, type, and priority fields, and support for logging environments which do not add extra syslog information to the front of the lines. The enhanced Sawmill Ironport C-Series plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-09-15: Enhanced Ironport C-Series Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Ironport C-Series log format. The enhanced plug-in detects and numerically reports quarantined messages. The enhanced Sawmill Ironport C-Series plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-09-12: Enhanced Ironport Microsoft ISA Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Microsoft ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) server, when logging in W3C format. Sawmill suports traditional ISA W3C logs, with field names like cs-bytes; but some versions of ISA generate log field names like "bytes sent" instead. The latest plug-in supports this alternate format, improving reporting of ISA W3C logs to cover all known variants. The enhanced Sawmill ISA plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-09-09: Enhanced Ironport C-Series Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Ironport C-Series logs, to break down all events by type (e.g., rejected, delivered, blocked, etc.), to report them in the Actions report with a summary pie charts, and to improve extraction of the reverse DNS host and interface fields. The enhanced Sawmill Ironport C-Series plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-09-08: Improved Time-Taken Tracking In Apache Custom Log Format

We have enhanced the time-taken tracking in our Apache Custom log format plug-in. If you use Sawmill to analyze Apache logs, you can now use the %D format string in the LogFormat or CustomFormat directive, and Sawmill will understand it. The field will show the server response times in milliseconds, which Sawmill will include as a column in all standard table reports. This improvement will be available in Sawmill 7.2.16. Or, you can contact Sawmill Support to get the new plug-in.


2008-09-05: For our customers, discounts for Streaming Media West!

We will be sending out a special email, to our customers, with a discount code for those of you who want to attend the Streaming Media West conference. If you would like to receive this email, please contact support@sawmill.net. You can save up to $200 off the cost of any pass or a free Exhibit Hall Pass. The deadline for any discount has passed, so this is the only discount available for this show! So let us know if you'd like this special code.


2008-09-04: Flowerfire Will Be At Streaming Media West

Flowerfire will be in booth 420 at the Streaming Media West Conference, in San Jose, CA, September 23-25. Come meet the Sawmill team, and see how Sawmill can help you with your streaming media reporting. With support for Flash Media Server, Microsoft Media Server, Quicktime Streaming Server, Real Media Server, HTTP media servers, Wowza, Shoutcast, and more, Sawmill is a single solution for all media log analysis needs.


2008-09-03: Enhanced Ironport C-Series Reporting

We have enhanced Sawmill's reporting of Ironport C-Series logs, to track and report on Delayed HAT REJECT sessions. These sessions are a feature of C-Series logging; when this feature is enabled, the Ironport C-Series will continue to collect information from the sending SMTP server, including the sender and recipient email addresses, even after it knows that it will reject the message. This allows Sawmill to report rejections by recipient or sender domain or address. The enhanced Sawmill Ironport C-Series plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-09-01: Further improvements coming to "Process Logs"

In addition to the improvements described in yesterday's message, we have added another new option for "process logs" action, to allow users to customize how "empty" fields appear in the generated output. When using Sawmill to import log data into a SQL database with BCP, it is useful to have empty fields appear as literally empty in the output, rather than the default value, "(empty)". This is now customizable, so empty fields can be configured to appear as completely empty values in the final SQL table. This improvement will be available in Sawmill 7.2.16.


2008-08-28: Improved "Process Logs" Output coming in 7.2.16

We have made several improvements to the flexibility of the output of the "process logs" action in Sawmill, which is typically used to convert any log data to comma-separated format. With the new options, the delimiter is customizable, the header is optional, and the output date/time format is customizable. By specifying tabs between fields, a timestamp in the format "YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS", and no header, this makes Sawmill's output compatible with BCP. One of our customers is using this to quickly import their Windows Media, Flash Media, Quicktime Streaming Server, and other media logs into their Microsoft SQL Server database, using Sawmill for the log conversion stage, and FreeBCP for the import. This new functionality will be available in Sawmill 7.2.16.


2008-08-27: Professional Services For Streaming Media, continued.

This week Flowerfire is again on site with a large streaming media hosting provider, helping them to implement billing and reporting systems with Sawmill. Sawmill is used to parse the logs from their Flash Media Servers, HTTP media servers, Real Media Servers, Quicktime Streaming Servers, and Microsoft Media Servers, integrating the per-customer bandwidth information from the disparate formats into a unified Microsoft SQL table which can be queried for billing purposes. If you have a similar need for Sawmill's log parsing, conversion, and import capabilities, we can get you up to speed quickly. Contact support@sawmill.net for a Professional Services quote.


2008-08-26: Professional Services For Streaming Media

Today, engineers from Flowerfire are on-site at a streaming media hosting provider, working to integrate Sawmill into their existing Microsoft SQL Server environment for billing and reporting. Sawmill is used to parse logs from their Flash Media, Microsoft Media, and Quicktime Streaming servers, and with a small amount of additional scripting, the parsed data is to be injected into their Microsoft SQL Server for use in billing calculations. If you would like to use Sawmill to parse, import, and report on your log data, our Sawmill Professional Services experts can help you get your system up and running quickly and efficiently.


2008-08-25: August Newsletter::Using Sawmill to query log data with SQL

The August Sawmill newsletter goes through the step-by-step process of creating a profile which uses MySQL as the back-end database. There is an example of analyzing a 5000 line log file, and how to query it for specific hostname information. There are other examples of getting the top 10 hostnames, and how to generate a report from these. If you didn't get the newsletter and would like to read it, or if you would like to join the newsletter mailing list, please email support@sawmill.net.


2008-08-22: Use uppercase file types in log filters

Just a reminder, if you are trying to filter on ASP or HTML file types, make sure that you use uppercase letters for the file types, creating a string with "asp" or "html" will not filter the files.


2008-08-21: New support for Firebox X Core e-Series

We have added support in Sawmill for analyzing log files, and generating reports, from Watchguard Firebox X Core e-Series devices. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-08-20: Upgrading is a breeze!

If you are using Sawmill version 7.2x, you can upgrade to the latest version at any time without losing data. Merely download the latest version, and install it over your existing version. There is no need to rebuild the database! Also, if you were using a trial license and have purchased a full license, all of your configuration files, logs and setup will be preserved, nothing is lost from your trial version.


2008-08-19: See us at Streaming Media West!

We will be at Streaming Media West, September 23-25, in San Jose, CA. Come see us at booth 420, we will be showing off our newest Sawmill version, giving away t-shirts and having show specials.


2008-08-18: Enhanced support for Windows Event Log reporting

We have enhanced support in Sawmill for reporting on Microsoft Windows Event Logs exported using the dumpevt tool. The enhanced plug-in now supports variable time formats, and Directory Services logs. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-08-15: New support for Atlassian JIRA log format

We have added support in Sawmill for analyzing log files, and generating reports, from Atlassian JIRA. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-08-14: New Article discusses Page Tagging vs. Log Analysis

An independent article in Search Engine Journal discusses the downsides of page tagging (e.g., Google Analytics), and the benefits of log analysis (e.g., Sawmill). We suggest you read it, to understand some of the benefits of log analysis. And while you're at it, why not look at our own Page Tagging White Paper, on the same subject?


2008-08-11: Professional Services Get You Reports Faster And Better

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with Sawmill. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2008-08-08: Sawmill Training from GeniusDV.com

Our trainer, Derrick Freeman, will be offering Sawmill Professional one day training classes for the PC and Mac. All classes are being taught in Orlando, FL. The class for the PC is Sept. 11, with another class on Nov. 14th. The Mac classes will be Oct. 10th and then Dec. 17th. Please see: http://www.geniusdv.com/video_streaming_training/ for more details.


2008-08-07: The Apache Custom log format plug-in works with other access logs too!

The Apache Custom plug-in is designed to allow you to paste the format string that you used to create a custom Apache log format into a field in Sawmill's profile wizard to create a custom profile for parsing your Apache Custom logs. Actually, this plug-in will work with any access log that is made up of the same kinds of elements as Apache allows, such as protocol, method, url and cookie. Other fields can be named and added with the %{Field}n directive. (If there are any valid directives that we don't support, this should cover them also, but we'd appreciate hearing from you if you find any.) Apache's directives are here http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_log_config.html. Note that modifiers < and > are not supported by Sawmill, but leaving them out causes no problems at all in your reports. To select the Apache Custom format, choose "Apache Custom Log Format" from the manual selection list in the profile creation wizard, click Next and follow instructions from there.


2008-08-04: Difference between database rebuild versus update?

We recently received this question in our forum and we wanted to mention it here... clarification for others. An update adds to the existing database, any changes will be seen as new data. If you have made changes, say to a log filter, then you will want to rebuild the database, all the data will be processed again, and the database will be rebuilt as "new".


2008-08-01: Welcome CompuCom!

We would like to welcome our latest reseller, CompuCom! CompuCom is located in Texas and has won many awards for their outstanding work in IT Infrastructure, Application, Software and Hardware Services. You can read more about them at www.compucom.com.


2008-07-31: Welcome Realmobile!

We would like to welcome one of our newest resellers, Realmobile! They are based in Seoul, Korea and will be doing the Korean translation for Sawmill. For more information about them, visit www.realmobile.net.


2008-07-30: Customer Testimonial

We would like to share with you a recent testimonial from Mark at Digital Marketing & Imagery:"Sawmill is remarkable...A true software utility that has been thought out from top to bottom. Anyone who works with server logs, which is everyone at some time or another, should have this program. I'll make sure I give my counterparts a heads up!" Thanks Mark!


2008-07-29: Sawmill Sale, Ending Soon!

Attention all Sawmill customers, new and old! Our July sale is ending on the 31st, please act soon for discounted prices. All upgrades are 50% off, act now!


2008-07-28: Use Professional Services To Supercharge Sawmill

Over the past few weeks, we've been working with a Fortune 1000 company, configuring their Sawmill installation to analyze their JBoss server logs. With just a few hours of professional services, we have enhanced their version of the JBoss plug-in to extract the JVM name from the filename, track and report exceptions more precisely, extract and report on specific additional fields from the message, and add a link to Log Detail to pop up their custom script for viewing additional information about a particular event. In addition, we spent a few hours helping them debug and tune their NAS and virtual machines to work best with Sawmill, and to set up a Sawmill cluster for high-availability. We've done this in a fraction of the time it would have taken them to learn to do it themselves, while training them to maintain it and make similar modifications in the future, which has made our Professional Services a highly cost-effective choice for them. If you'd like something different from Sawmill, we can do it--Sawmill is infinitely customizable, and our experts can design and implement any customization you want. So if Sawmill does most of what you want, but not all, why not get the rest, using Professional Services? Contact sales@sawmill.net for more information.


2008-07-25: Adobe Flash vs. Macromedia Flash

Sawmill 7.2.15 (the current shipping version) expected Flash Media Server to report itself as "Macromedia Flash." That's right for older versions, but with Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia, the latest Flash Media Server logs now report themselves as "Adobe Flash." Sawmill's plug-in will be updated to reflect this in version 7.2.16, but until then, you'll need to manually select Flash as the format, when analyzing and reporting very recent Adobe Flash logs. You can also contact Sawmill support if you'd like an updated plug-in immediately.


2008-07-24: Sawmill 8 Licensing Tiers

If you're considering purchasing Sawmill 7 with the intent of upgrading to Sawmill 8 when it becomes available, please note that Sawmill 8 will have four license tiers (Lite, Professional, Advanced, and Enterprise), rather than the three tiers in Sawmill 7 (Lite, Professional, and Enterprise). The Sawmill 8 "Advanced" tier is the equivalent of the Sawmill 7 "Enterprise" tier, and a new high-end Enterprise tier has been added with the new and powerful Sawmill 8 enterprise features (Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, ODBC, RBAC, real-time, and more). So the upgrade path from Sawmill 7 Enterprise will be to Sawmill 8 Advanced (which has all the features of Sawmill 7 Enterprise)--there will be an additional licensing charge to upgrade from Sawmill 7 Enterprise to the more powerful Sawmill 8 Enterprise.


2008-07-23: Sawmill 8 Status

Sawmill 8 alpha phase continues at a nice clip; we are getting ever closer to "beta." Sawmill 8 is nearly ready for internationalization, and we continue to resolve all major issues in preparation for beta. We have a very limited alpha test list; if you'd like to be on it, and if you have experience testing software, please email alpha@sawmill.net.


2008-07-22: Running Sawmill As An Ubuntu Service

We have created an Ubuntu startup script (init.d script) for Sawmill. This allows users of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution to easily install Sawmill to run when the system starts, and turn down cleanly when it shuts down. This script will be part of all future distributions of Sawmill; if you want it immediately, please contact Sawmill Support.


2008-07-21: July Newsletter: Adding Users Automatically

The Sawmill Newsletter, July 2008 edition, discusses adding users to a Sawmill installation automatically, which is useful when integrating Sawmill into a larger automated multi-user environment. The newsletter includes a script written in Salang (the Sawmill Language), and includes a detailed line-by-line explanation of the script's functionality, so it is also useful for anyone interested in learning Salang (Sawmill is almost infinitely configurable using Salang). If you didn't get the newsletter and would like to read it, or if you would like to join the newsletter mailing list, please email support@sawmill.net.


2008-07-18: Sawmill 8 Reaches Alpha Stage

We are pleased to announce that Sawmill 8, the next major release of Sawmill, has reached the "alpha" stage of development. This means that in our internal version of Sawmill 8, all features have been implemented. Now, we begin work on beta, which will become publicly available when all major bugs in Sawmill 8.0.0a1 are fixed. Major features of Sawmill 8 include support for Oracle and MS SQL, role-based authentication, real-time reporting, and a completely redesigned web interface. If you'd like a very early look at Sawmill 8, contact support@sawmill.net.


2008-07-17: Improving the performance of database updates

There are ways that you can improve the performance of Sawmill during the nightly updates. If your dataset gets very large or has a large number of files, you can make this update faster by: Using a local log file source, use a local drive, turn on "skip processed files on update by pathname", keep the new data in a separate directory, turn off active virus scanning of Sawmill's directories, and of course, the faster the CPU, the better! For more information, please email support@sawmill.net.


2008-07-16: Spider Traffic

We get questions all the time about filtering out certain types of traffic. One the main types of traffic is from spiders. You may want to exclude spider traffic from your reports, to get real data showing the number of humans who access your website. You can do this by using a log filter or a report filter. More information about how to do this can be found within our Technical Manual, under "Using Log Filters".


2008-07-15: Monthly newsletters

On the 15th of every month, we send out a newsletter to our customers. These newsletters deal with many topics, including questions from our forum and support emails. Recent newsletters have addressed: Showing usernames in reports, percentages for unique values, excluding your own traffic, using the zoom feature and how to create a rolling database, to name a few. If you would like to be added to the newsletter, please email newsletter@sawmill.net, with the subject line of "SUBSCRIBE".


2008-07-14: Enhancement to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 CSV reporting

We have enhanced our Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 CSV plug-in for Sawmill. The new version reports multiple recipient information, making it possible to see the total number of recipients for a particular message, for a particular domain, or for anything else. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-07-11: Let us host and manage your Sawmill

To get the best performance out of Sawmill, you need a high-end, 64-bit, Linux- or Unix-based, multiprocessor system; and to get the best information out of it, you need someone experienced in Sawmill configuration. If you want to run Sawmill at full power, but don't have the budget for the dedicated hardware or the dedicated expert, consider letting us host and manage it for you. Our state-of-the-art servers are ready to deliver Sawmill statistics faster and better than your own in-house systems. We'll manage the server for you, and help you configure your Sawmill installation to get all the information you want and need. Our Sawmill experts can coax amazing reports from Sawmill in a short time, using its sophisticated customization features. Why stick with the standard reports when you can have exactly the reports you want? To purchase Managed Sawmill, contact sales@sawmill.net.


2008-07-10: How many profiles do I need?

We often get this question from our customers, before they purchase Sawmill. What is a profile and how many do I need? A profile is one type of log format and this builds into a report with information about that log format. If you want to track two different log formats, they would each have two different profiles. If you are an ISP managing multiple sites, you will create a profile for each site, with each customer seeing only their site's statistics. In this case, you would use the "create many profiles" feature, to set up each profile for a particular domain. There is more in depth information on our website, about cloning profiles and working with templates. But hopefully, you will have a better idea of where to start answering the question of how many profiles do I need for my organization.


2008-07-09: Upgrade to Enterprise at half price, July only!

If you're using Sawmill Lite, or Sawmill Pro, but want some of the advanced features provided by Sawmill Enterprise, the Sawmill July Sale is your ticket to ride. Sawmill Professional is vastly more powerful than Lite, due to the extensive configuration capabilities available only in Professional; and Sawmill Enterprise supports MySQL, multi-processor builds for higher performance, and "open source" customization of the entire user interface through Salang. If you yearn for features more advanced than your current tier provides, July is the month to buy--because in July, all upgrades are 50% off.


2008-07-08: July Sale

Don't miss the Sawmill July sale! For the month of July only, all upgrades are 50% off. Upgrading from an earlier version of Sawmill, to Sawmill 7, is half price for this month, and so is upgrading from a smaller license to a larger one (e.g., adding more profiles, or moving up a tier). If you're considering expanding the capabilities of your Sawmill installation by adding more profiles or more features, this is the month to do it.


2008-07-07: PCI compliance via email alerting

We've heard recently from several customers asking about PCI compliance with Sawmill. As described in our PCI white paper (in the White Papers section of the Downloads page on sawmill.net), Sawmill can be used to implement the network-related components of PCI compliance. Sawmill can examine log data (like Windows Event Log data) as it is generated, looking for violations based on rules you specify, and sending email when the rules are triggered. This is a specific application of Sawmill's general capability to do alerting based on a real-time log data stream.


2008-07-04: Enhancement to Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 W3C parsing

We have enhanced our Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 W3C plug-in for Sawmill. The new version handles email addresses better when they contain apostrophes and other special characters, providing better support for non-English log data. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-07-03: Sawmill July Sale!

During the month of July, we are offering a sale to our current customers.... We are cutting the cost in half for upgrading, adding new profiles and upgrading from Lite to Professional or Professional to Enterprise. If you are receiving our monthly newsletters, you will be receiving an email from us. If you're not on our mailing list, but would like to take advantage of this offer, please email us at sales@sawmill.net.


2008-07-02: IronPort C-Series Reporting Enhanced

We have enhanced support for IronPort C-Series logs, to track aborted messages better. Previously, these messages were tracked with single events in Sawmill's database, but did not include information about the recipients. Now, the plug-in adds a separate event for each recipient, tracking it with a new numerical field, "message deliveries aborted." This allows for easy reporting of recipient information for messages filtered by the anti-spam or anti-virus filters on IronPort devices.


2008-07-01: Adjusting for Daylight Savings Time

We have added a new advanced Log Filter example to the Sawmill Technical Manual (version 7.2.16 or later, or prerelease). This example illustrates the power of the built-in Salang language, by computing the DST date range for each year in the log data, and automatically offsetting the date/time value for each line of log data, depending on whether it's during Daylight Savings Time. The "Using Log Filters" chapter in the technical manual contains other advanced examples of log filtering using Salang.


2008-06-30: New Support For Radware DefensePro

We have added support in Sawmill for analyzing log files, and generating reports, from Radware DefensePro. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-06-27: Enhanced support for Kerio Mailserver

In response to many requests for improved Kerio Mailserver support, we have enhanced our Kerio plug-in. The new version supports Mailserver 6.5 logs, which provide more detailed reporting of multi-recipient messages, including the number of messages delivered, delayed, bounced, spam-filtered, etc. The new plug-in also recognizes and reports on the security and spam logs (previous versions reported only the main mail log). The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-06-26: Sawmill works with SafeSquid

We have joined forces with SafeSquid to augment their enterprise-caliber HTTP firewall with our enterprise-caliber Sawmill reporting solution. If you use SafeSquid and want reports on your firewall traffic, Sawmill is your solution.


2008-06-25:

Sawmill now supports processing of Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) web server log files, which have been forwarded to a syslog server. Sawmill has always supported standard IIS logs, but for those who are forwarding their IIS log data to a separate syslog server (we recommend Kiwi Enterprises Kiwi Syslog Daemon on Windows), Sawmill will now recognize the format as IIS W3C logged through syslog, and recognize the particular syslog server (Sawmill recognizes and supports all major syslog servers), and generate reports containing all syslog fields, and web server fields and reports.


2008-06-24:

We have enhanced Sawmill's existing support for analyzing log files and generating reports from Symantec Mail Security. The new plug-in handles a new type of log file from Symantec Mail Security version 5, and reports on additional fields, including returned disposition, policy query, filtering policy name, description, and destination. The new plug-in is available for free through Sawmill technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-06-23: Sawmill can be your SaaS solution!

Sawmill can be your software as a service solution. We offer hosting services, support and customization. We can reduce your up-front costs for hardware, training and ongoing maintenance by allowing us to host your Sawmill configuration. Sawmill is easily scalable and can serve you and your customers' needs. For more information, please contact support@sawmill.net.


2008-06-20: New Support For TrendMicro InterScan VirusWall 6

We have added support for analyzing log files from TrendMicro InterScan VirusWall 6 with Sawmill, and generating reports. The new plug-in reports on the urlaccesslog format, with other formats to be implemented if requested. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-06-19:

We have added support in Sawmill, for analyzing the logs of SmarterTools SmarterMail, and generating reports from them. The new plug-in reports on sender, recipient, server domain, number of messages and bytes queued and delivered, number of messages failed (and associated error messages) and more. The new plug-in is available for free through Sawmill technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-06-18: Support for Astaro Security Gateway

In response to multiple requests, we have added support for Astaro Security Gateway format, to analyze the logs from Astaro Security Gateway devices, and generate reports. The new plug-in reports on both proxy and firewall events. The new plug-in is available for free through technical support, and will be included in future releases of Sawmill.


2008-06-17: Sawmill Training at Wichita State University

Our trainer, Derrick Freeman will be offering Sawmill training during June at Wichita State University. If you're going to be in the area between the 19th or 20th, contact Derrick for more information. You can email him at derrick@geniusdv.com. Derrick will be doing his Video Streaming and Compression class and show you how you can use Sawmill to analyze your log data.


2008-06-17: Enhanced support for Ipswitch IMail

We have significantly enhanced Sawmill's support for Ipswitch IMail log analysis and reporting. The new version of our Imail plug-in now reports delivery errors in a separate Error Messages report, reports relay hosts and IPs, and includes the number of errors in every report (for instance, the number of errors per day in the Days report). It also reports separately on messages (and bytes) delivered and relayed.


2008-06-16: Using Sawmill Professional Services

Sawmill Professional Services can help you get the most out of Sawmill. Sawmill is a highly flexible product, really an application server with its own built-in language, database, and reporting engine, which makes it possible to do almost anything with Sawmill. Many customizations can be done by novice users, but really advanced custom work requires a high level of Sawmill expertise. If there's something you'd like Sawmill to do, and you don't know how to configure it, we can help. Contact us at support@sawmill.net, and ask for Professional Services. For a fee, our experts can make Sawmill do whatever type of analysis you require. The most frequent paid service is the creation of a new plug-in, so Sawmill can analyze new log formats, even proprietary ones, but the possibilities are unlimited. Want a new type of report? Want Sawmill's reports to integrate with an external data source? Want advanced graphs or charts? Our experts can do it all.


2008-06-12: Become a Sawmill Reseller!

If you are a Sawmill user, you already know the benefits....but if you are also a reseller, then add Sawmill to your product line. We have worldwide opportunities for resellers, and sales incentives to keep you and your customers happy. For more information please email us, sales@sawmill.net.


2008-06-11: Accessing log data from remote drives

A customer asked us about using UNC paths (or mapped drives) to access log data which is on a different Windows system. Sawmill supports that in several ways. You can use a mapped drive letter, but if Sawmill is running as a service, that is not recommended--Microsoft recommends against using mapped drives from a service. Instead, you can use UNC paths (\\server\share\...). If the share is password-protected, Sawmill's "Manage Drives" window lets you authenticate to it from the service. From then on, you can refer to the log files by UNC path, for seamless processing of remote logs.


2008-06-10: Page Tagging vs. Log Analysis White Paper

Please see our new white paper on the pros and cons of page tagging versus using log file analysis. All of our white papers can be found under the menu, Download.


2008-06-09: Intel or SPARC?

A customer contacted us, asking whether they should use an UltraSPARC Solaris system, or an Intel Solaris system. Sawmill runs on either, and if you have a SPARC system already, it can be an acceptable system for Sawmill. But if you have a choice, there's no comparison: Intel (or AMD) always beats SPARC for Sawmill. SPARC systems are great for certain types of tasks, especially for slamming through huge numbers of transactions per second. They are highly parallel, and for multi-threaded integer-based work, they outperform Intel. But Sawmill's work involves floating point calculations, and tends to come in huge batches, not many small transactions; and the work is not easily split across multiple processors. For that type of work, the slower clock rate and shared floating point units severely hurt performance, versus a comparably priced Intel system. Intel is always the better choice for Sawmill, and the performance difference is often 4x.


2008-06-06: Internal database, or MySQL?

Which database should you use, the internal or MySQL database? If you don't have Enterprise licensing, you must use the internal database. But if you do, should you always use MySQL? No, in fact, you should usually use the internal database. Contrary to expectation, MySQL is slower than the internal database, so if it's performance you're after, go internal. MySQL is necessary if you're on a 32-bit system, and your database is too large to fit into a 32-bit address space (100GB+). It's also necessary if you need to run SQL queries against the collected data. But MySQL is slow, especially for building xref tables. So if you have 64-bit, or a small dataset, internal is usually best.


2008-06-05: Continuous disk defragmentation can interfere with Sawmill

We frequently see customers using Windows, whose antivirus software is mangling Sawmill's database, by modifying files there or by deleting them, or even just by pulling out of the way long enough that Sawmill can't find them when it needs them. Recently, we've seen a similar situation with the continuous defragmentation feature of Diskeeper. Like antivirus software, Diskeeper apparently grabs Sawmill's database files and makes them inaccessible to Sawmill while it's defragmenting them, resulting in errors ("file does not exists," "permission denied," and others) during database builds or report generation. If you're using Diskeeper or another automated defragmentation system, configure it to ignore Sawmill's installation directory (e.g., C:\Program Files\Sawmill 7), to avoid these errors. This affects only Windows installations of Sawmill.


2008-06-04: Merging databases

A customer asked how they could "archive" old data, when keeping a 12-month database. One possibility is to just keep the log data forever (always a good idea anyway, and relatively small if compressed); if the old statistics are needed, the log data can then be imported into a new profile. But for this dataset (over 1TB of log data), that could be hours or days of import time. A more sophisticated option is to keep a profile or database for each month of data, compress the one-month databases, and merge them together to create a complete history, when archived statistics are required. Merging databases is faster than re-processing the log data, so this would allow for quicker turnaround. The fastest solution is to simply keep a profile with all data in it. That will be a large and slow profile, but it can be queried immediately when required. For past-12-month queries, a separate profile with a separate database provides the quicker queries.


2008-06-03: Session Analysis for Flash Media Server Logs

Session Analysis has been added to the Flash Media Server log format plug-in and is available in Sawmill 7.2.15. We have been adding session analyis to media server plug-ins as they are requested. The reason for the request is most often an interest in the maximum number of concurrent connections to the server. This is tricky with most media server log formats, including Flash, because they don't have a session id or any other way to distinguish among simultaneous connections by the same user. The way around this, so far, has been to examine the disconnect event and use the session duration to determine when the session began, ignoring the actual connect event even if it is available.


2008-06-02: Train the Trainer series

We are now offering training in Sawmill! We have a new Train the Trainer series going on, for experienced Sawmill customers. If you are interested, please send us an email, with your specific experience administering and using Sawmill. You will be certified in using Sawmill, and we will work with you in setting up local trainings with our customers.


2008-05-30: Train the Trainer series

We are now offering training in Sawmill! We have a new Train the Trainer series going on, for experienced Sawmill customers. If you are interested, please send us an email, with your specific experience administering and using Sawmill. You will be certified in using Sawmill, and we will work with you in setting up local trainings with our customers.


2008-05-30: Sawmill Trainer

We would like to introduce Derrick Freeman, our Sawmill trainer, located in Florida. Derrick's expertise is with streaming video and he uses Sawmill to analyze his log files. Derrick will be running Sawmill 2 day courses in June. Please stay posted for the dates. Derrick can also come to your business to help you set up or learn more about Sawmill. Derrick's company is geniusdv.com.


2008-05-29: Instability and poor performance due to antivirus scanning

We regularly see customers with error or performance problems due to conflicts between Sawmill and anti-virus programs. Active-scanning anti-virus programs keep hold of Sawmill's database files, cause errors when Sawmill tries to write to them; sometimes they even change or delete the files, corrupting the database. The solution is to disable scanning of Sawmill's installation folder (C:\Program Files\Sawmill 7). It is also worth noting that only Windows has this problem, so using Linux, MacOS, or some other non-Windows operating system eliminates the anti-virus problem entirely.


2008-05-28: Fixing database bloat with "maximum main table segment size"

We saw another customer today who was seeing a huge database from a not-so-huge dataset. Something like 200GB of database, from 50GB of log data (uncompressed). This happens with the internal database when the main table segment size (in Database Tuning) is set to too small a value. The default value (100MB) is too small for really large datasets, so if your dataset is more than 10GB or so, you should set this value to a higher value, like 2GB (or the size of physical RAM, if you have less than 2GB). That will keep the database closer to the expected size (which is about the size of the uncompressed log data). If this value is set too low, the database will become exponentially larger as the log data gets larger, due to an inefficiency in the way Sawmill 7 represents indices. This inefficiency will be fixed in Sawmill 8, but for now, make sure that value is set high. However, don't set it above 2GB if you're using Sawmill 7.2.14 or earlier on 64-bit Windows, because there's a bug which causes problems when Sawmill deals with files over 2GB, in some cases. So on 64-bit Windows with 7.2.14, set it to 2GB; with later versions, you can set it higher, if you have that much RAM.


2008-05-22: Sawmill 8 Status

Sawmill 8 is nearing alpha stage (i.e., almost all features are complete now). After a period of internal alpha testing, we will reach beta stage (all crashing and major bugs fixed). At that point, we will begin to seed our beta program. If you are interested in becoming a beta tester, please contact beta@sawmill.net and we can give you seeding instructions. Major features in 8.0 include support for Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle, as back-end databases, major improvements to the web interface, real-time log analysis, and role-based authentication.

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