LogViewPlus Support » LogViewPlus Support » Help & Support » Using UDP log source

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 07:05:11 GMT

Hi Richard,

We have just released LogViewPlus v2.4.41 as a BETA release available here: https://www.logviewplus.com/download.html

The problem seems to be that we were doing a poor job of selecting which network to listen on. In v2.4.41, we solve this problem by listening across all available networks on the UDP port provided. I believe that this is the correct thing to do in most situations and has the advantage of keeping the configuration simple.

Note however, that when I netstat on the process, the service was showing up as listing on the loopback address. This is true, but it was also listening on for data from remote machines. Just FYI.

Also, this release includes support for accessing log files via HTTP/S. No configuration is necessary - just paste the URL into the 'Open File' settings as the target file. If your web page requires authentication, you can provided network credentials for the web request by configuring the HTTPS service. You will find this in Settings -> Data Access -> Remote Servers. This workflow is very similar to how SCP works.

If you have any questions or issues regarding the HTTPS feature, can you please start a new forum thread? This thread is getting a bit long and I would like to keep the two issues separate if possible.

Hope that helps,

Toby

Using UDP log source

richard — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 06:48:41 GMT

Hello,

I noticed today that LogView Plus now supports UDP.- A feature that would be really useful to
There is NO documentation for this yet! I assumed this functions by listening on a UDP port for an incoming data stream.
I have tried it and nothing seems to happen. Does the incoming stream have to have a particular format?

Thanks,
Richard.

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:51:54 GMT

HTTP support a really good idea. I will try and get this into the next release.

Thanks again Richard. I will post back here when we have a beta release available.

Toby

RE: Using UDP log source

richard — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:46:30 GMT

No problem, Toby. Happy to help. I have been using LVP for a while now to help debug our ERP customisations and it has proved very useful.

Also can i add a feature request to also support a simple http listener with GET and POST support??

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:39:41 GMT

Ok - let me take closer look on my end and get back to you.

I don't think adding LogViewPlus to the list of allowed apps is something that we will do on install. We are a small company and trust is an issue. Also, this feature will not be needed by everyone. However, we will highlight this issue in the application settings and documentation.

Thanks Richard - I really appreciate you taking the time to investigate this one. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Toby

RE: Using UDP log source

richard — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:22:43 GMT

LVP is only bound to the loopback adapter - Can't be used for remote logging
Need to make sure that the LVP installer correctly adds itself to the Windows Firewall allowed apps list

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 08:16:18 GMT

How is LogViewPlus not behaving as expected? Is it just not receiving the data when listening on the IPv4 address?

RE: Using UDP log source

richard — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 07:57:59 GMT

My PC; AD joined Windows 10 Pro Build 1909 18363.778
I have now made sure LVP and packet sender are in firewall allowed apps
I have succesfully sent UDP packets from packet sender to packet sender ( 2 running instances) on my PC using both loop back and my local IPv4 addresses
I have now got LVP to respond when receiving a packet on 127.0.0.1
I have tested sending to my local IPv4 address. LVP does not respond as expected.

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 07:40:35 GMT

I think you may be right. Antivirus might also be interfering.

It's also possible that this is a bug in LogViewPlus. Binding to the loopback for the UDP port is strange.

RE: Using UDP log source

richard — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 07:26:33 GMT

The Windows Firewall is definitely causing an issue, I believe. Binding to loopback will mean packets can only originate from an app on the same machine as LVP

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 17:13:14 GMT

I wouldn't expect Windows Firewall to block traffic from your local machine to your local machine.

Is it binding to the loopback adapter on the configured UDP port? The loopback adapter is used to run LogViewPlus in single instance mode. It should be unrelated to the UDP listener.

RE: Using UDP log source

richard — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:49:09 GMT

I am wondering if windows firewall is blocking traffic.
I also notice that the LVP process only seems to bind to the loopback adapter

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:26:56 GMT

Hi Richard,

The 'test' button does not do much more then validate your configuration. A socket is opened, but then it is very quickly closed.

Opening the file is what causes a persistent connection to be opened. It is only when this connection receives data that LogViewPlus can create the actual file - which will be written to %temp%\LogViewPlus.

Hope that helps,

Toby

RE: Using UDP log source

richard — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:20:34 GMT

UPDATE
I now have got LVP to show in the netstat list - not sure what i have done differently to make this happen. :/

RE: Using UDP log source

richard — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:02:20 GMT

I must be missing something, Toby.

I have created a listener, choosing port 1000. Pressed "test". It says "UDP listener created successfully"
I have done a "netstat -n -a -o" and process listening on 1000 shows
I have done a local hdd search for "localhost_1000.log", which i assume is the filename. No filename found.

Used utility "Packet Sender" to send "Hello World" :)

Richard.

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 15:40:21 GMT

A special format is not required.

The way this works is that all data in the stream will be written to a file. The file can then be opened and parsed as normal. The name of the log file will be the Friendly Name that you set for the service. If a name is not set, the server + port will be combined to generate a file name.

Hope that helps,

Toby

RE: Using UDP log source

richard — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 15:35:20 GMT

Thanks Toby for your reply.

I did wonder if that might be the case. Does the incoming data stream need any formatting or terminators in order for LVP to display anything?

RE: Using UDP log source

LogViewPlus Support — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 15:29:38 GMT

Hi Richard,

Thanks for reporting this issue.

Sorry about the lack of documentation on this one. This is something we are actively working on. The documentation will be fully up to date for the next release - v2.5. Hopefully, this will be out in a few weeks time.

The UDP listener should be straight-forward - you just need to configure the port and open the 'file' that is available in the File Browser. There is a known bug with the UDP service where, if there is no data incoming, LogViewPlus doesn't seem to 'do anything'. I wonder if that could be the issue here?

We have already resolved this issue, but unfortunately, this fix will not be available for a few more weeks.

Thanks again,

Toby