What is Web logging?

The Windows Embedded Compact Web Server can be configured to log all incoming requests. The log files can be used to check for suspicious activity or to track the most commonly requested pages.

Each log entry contains the time and date of the request in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the requestor's IP address, the URL they requested, the HTTP request type used, and the HTTP status code.

The following example shows a Web server log:

   Tue, 08 Oct 2002 22:17:12 192.168.0.2 GET /WebAdmin 401
   Tue, 08 Oct 2002 22:17:15 192.168.0.2 GET /WebAdmin 401
   Tue, 08 Oct 2002 22:17:12 192.168.0.2 GET /WebAdmin 401
   Tue, 08 Oct 2002 22:25:39 192.168.0.3 GET /WebAdmin 200
   Tue, 08 Oct 2002 22:25:40 192.168.0.3 POST /WebAdmin 200
   Tue, 08 Oct 2002 22:25:49 192.168.0.3 POST /WebAdmin 200

In this example, a user with an IP address 192.168.0.2 tried to access the / WebAdmin location on your Web server and was denied (401 error). Another user at IP address 192.168.0.3 has attempted the same request with success.

New log entries are written to the file current-httpd.log, which is located in the directory you specify on the Logging Configuration page. Once the current log file exceeds its maximum allowed size, the Web server deletes the previous log and moves the contents of current log to the previous log.