These pages are contributed to some small programs I made that might be userfull to other people as well.

Syslog Viewer
Reliable logfiles play an important role in detecting possible attacks of hackers. The Syslog Viewer is a small program that captures syslog messages sent by Linux (and other UNIX) machines via the UDP protocol. Having another machine listening to the messages of syslog deamon makes it more difficult for hackers to mess with the logging to hide their trails.


The Syslog Viewer runs on Windows 95/98 and Windows NT 4.0.

The logging tab



The logging tab contains the messages recieved from other machines. You can sort the data by clicking on the column headings. You can zoom in onto a message by double clicking on it.

The settings tab



Here you can fiddle with some settings. You can change the words in the Message types box by double clicking on them.

Configuring Linux to send syslog messages to another machine

To configure the syslog deamon to send syslog messages to another machine, edit the syslog.conf file. This file will probable reside in the /etc directory. Add the following line to the syslog.conf file:

*.*      @<logging host>

<logging host> is the IP-address or the hostname of the machine running the Syslog Viewer. *.* Indicates that all messages are forwarded.
More information about the syslog deamon and the syslog.conf file can be found in the Linux manual pages.

Future plans

Future plans for this program includes:
  • (Programmable) actions if a message of a certain type arrives. Like sending an E-mail message, showing a popup dialog, or start an external program.
  • Smarter message type detection.
  • Running syslogger as an NT service.

Click here to download Syslog Viewer version 1.0 Beta

 Syslog Viewer is freeware. You can use it at your own risk. Please let me know if you like it or if you have some suggestions to improve it.