Logging Microsoft NNTP Service Transactions

Microsoft NNTP Service logs transaction data to the IIS logs. Examine the transaction logs to understand who is using your news site and how they are using it, and then extract the information you need from the logs. Then archive or delete the logs so they do not use too much disk space.

Microsoft NNTP Service writes a log record each time a user connects, retrieves an article, posts an article, or disconnects. Although you can read a log file written as text, log files are usually analyzed using software that creates summaries of the data. You can write log records in one of four formats:

Comma-separated value (CSV) text file in IIS log format.
CSV text file in NCSA common log format.
CSV text file in W3C extended log format.
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) database format. Writing to an ODBC database creates additional processing overhead that can reduce performance.

For more information on logging in IIS, see Logging Web Site Activity.

To enable logging:

In either Internet Service Manager or Internet Service Manager (HTML), select the News Site property sheet.
Select the Enable logging check box.
In the Active log format box, select the format for writing the transaction log records.
Choose Properties, and then enter the required properties for the selected log format. (For information on specific properties, choose Help.)
Select the Home Directory property sheet, and then select the Log access check box to log transactions for newsgroups in the home directory hierarchy.
Select each virtual directory, and from the Action menu, choose Properties.
In the Virtual Directory property sheet, select the Log access check box to log transactions for newsgroups in the virtual directory hierarchy.