Web

Web Sites

Spector Client (Client) is configured to record Web Site events by selecting options within the Web Sites configuration tab. The Web Sites configuration tab can be found when:

Pre-configuring a Client installation file using the Spector CNE Deployment Utility

Figure 1: Web Sites Settings within Deployment Utility

Selecting a computer within the Configure Computers View of the Control Center

Figure 2: Settings within Configure Computers View

Selecting the Settings button within the Spector Viewer when viewing the recordings of a computer from the Monitor Computers View of the Control Center

Figure 3: Web Sites Settings within Viewer

Selecting the Settings button within the Spector Viewer if the Viewer was installed as part of the Client installation (only recommended for troubleshooting)

Capture Access to Web Sites

The Client provides the ability to record addresses (URLs) of Web sites visited on a computer. For each Web event, the Client will record:

The date and time it was visited
The total time the site was open
The time the site had focus
The time the user was active on the site
The type of site
The URL of the site
The window title of the site

If you wish to record Web sites that are accessed on the computer, select Capture Access to Web Sites to put a checkmark in the option box. To disable web site recording, clear the checkbox from the Capture Access to Web Sites box.

Selecting the Include Access to Network Folders will record all network folders accessed within Microsoft Explorer. Selecting the Include Access to Local Folders will record access to all folders on storage devices local to the computer when using Microsoft Explorer.

Note: Disabling the Include Access to Network Folders and Include Access to Local Folders will reduce the number of Web site events recorded by the Client, making review of the Web sites simpler, but consider that a network administrator may be interested in any network folders visited by the computer's user.

Inactivity Timeout

When a Web Site event is recorded, part of the information recorded about a visited page is how long a user was determined to view that Web page. This is called the Active Time. If a user is typing, clicking the mouse, or moving the mouse while viewing a Web page, then they are determined to be active in that Web page. The Programs Inactivity Timeout controls the amount of time the Client should wait after mouse or keyboard activity has stopped when viewing a Web page, before determining that the user is no longer active in the Web page. By default, this Inactivity Timeout is three minutes, which means a user will be determined NOT active on a Web page if typing or mouse activity stops after three minutes.

Note: When the Active Time is calculated for a Web page visit, if the inactivity time is exceeded, all continuing inactivity—including the inactivity setting time—is assumed to be inactive time. It is NOT counted as part of the Active Time for that Web page visit. Active time for a Web page visit is only considered that time when the Inactivity Timeout has not been reached.

Note: The Inactivity Timeout setting is shared by both the Programs and Web Site recording events. Changing this setting will change the timeout for both Program and Web Site recording.

Web File

When Web sites are recorded on the computer, the Client stores them in a data file that resides in the Data File Folder. If the Client is configured to upload recorded events to the Data Vault then this information will be frequently moved from the Web data file into the Data Vault. If the Client is configured to keep the recorded events on the computer or the Data Vault is unavailable for uploading of events, then the size of the Web data file is a consideration. In general, the size of the Web data file is not much concern because a very large number of events can be recorded in a relatively small data file size.

The following settings control the amount of storage space needed on the computer's hard drive to record Web site events.

Delete Data After … Days

Select the number of days that the Client should keep recorded Web site events on the computer. If a Web site has been recorded before this number of days, then the Web site events will be deleted. For example, if this setting is for ten days and today is August 11, the Client would keep all Web sites recorded on August 1 and later. This setting is not a concern if the Client is configured to move Web site events to the Data Vault. They would be moved frequently and would not reside for ten days on the computer.

The Default number of days is ten.

Maximum Data Size … Megabytes

Select the maximum number of megabytes that the Web data file should grow. When the Web data file has reached this size, the oldest recorded Web site events will be deleted to allow for the recording of new Web site events, and to keep the Web data file under the maximum size. This setting should not be a concern if the Client is configured to upload recorded events to the Data Vault. If the Client is NOT uploading recorded events to the Data Vault, this setting should still not be a concern unless the computer's user is accessing an enormous number of Web sites over a large number of days.

The default Web Data File size is one megabyte.

Web Site Access

Figure 4: Block Internet Access

The Client provides the ability to create a list of Web site domains that the computer's user will be BLOCKED from accessing, or the computer's user will ONLY be able to access.

The access list must first be created by entering the domain names manually using the New button, or by loading a list of domains using the Import button.

Only the host name and the domain name should be entered. A specific page on the Web site should not be entered. For example:

www.badsite.com Would match all pages on the Web site including http://www.badsite.com/badpage.html or http://www.badsite.com/badfolder/anotherbadpage.html. www.badsite.com would NOT match http://mail.badsite.com
badsite.com Would match all pages on the http://www.badsite.com or http://mail.badsite.com sites

When importing a list of domains, the file specified for importing should be a text file that has one domain name on each line.

If the Web site access list is changed while the Client is installed, the application used as the Web browser on the computer must be restarted before the access list changes will take effect.

Warning: There are potential performance issues of having large lists of domains being blocked. A list would be considered large when it reaches 1000 entries.

Block Web Sites In List

If this option is selected then ALL Web sites in the access list will be unavailable to the computer's user. This is sometimes known as a black list. If the computer's user attempts to access a Web site on the list, their Web browser program will tell them that the Web site is inaccessible. For example, if you enter "www.badsite.com" in the access list, and select Block Web Sites In List, all access to any site beginning with www.badsite.com will be blocked. This would include www.badsite.com/badpage.html or www.badsite.com/badfolder/anotherbadpage.html.

Note: When a Web site is blocked by the Client, the behavior of the Web browser will vary when it accesses that site, depending on the browser being used. Some will return a Page Not Found error when the blocked site is accessed. Others will just delay for a long period and eventually return with a timeout error (as if the Web site was having difficulties).

Allow Access ONLY to Web Sites in List

If this option is selected, the only Web sites the computer's user will be able to access are those in the access list. This is sometimes known as a white list. If the computer's user attempts to access a Web site that is NOT in the list, their Web browser program will tell them that the Web site is inaccessible.

Use of this setting may cause unintended consequences. For example: If you specify in the Client that the only site the computer's user can access is "cnn.com", you might expect that the user of the computer would be able to browse anything on the http://www.cnn.com Web site. For the most part, this is true, except that the http://www.cnn.com Web site automatically loads pages and information from other domain names in order to provide all of its content. As a result, only part of the http://www.cnn.com Web site might be displayed because the Client would block any content from domains outside cnn.com.