Site Server edged out net.Analysis in import speed. It took approximately 31 minutes; by comparison, Hit List needed 3 hours and 14 minutes. After all importing is done, Site Server shows the exact length of import time, which could prove useful when a network administrator is making up a schedule. Site Server also generates MS Word reports right before your eyes.

WebTrends Enterprise Suite Version 2.1

WebTrends Enterprise Suite's biggest asset is its ease of use. From installation through report generation, the software makes log analysis look simple. Its interface isn't quite as overwhelming as Site Server's, and it may be a better bet for Web sites that don't have a need for all of Site Server's bells and whistles.

Enterprise Suite performs well across the board, but one or two missing features keep it a few steps behind Site Server. First, it lacks support for multiple physical servers. With many enterprise Web sites now employing several Web servers within the organization (for example, marketing.company.com and sales.company.com), it is increasingly important to track a user's visit across different Web servers. Site Server, net.Analysis and Hit List are all up to the task; Enterprise Suite merely allows a user to stitch together log files for analysis.

Alternatively, Enterprise Suite supports multiple Web sites reporting to one log file. If, for example, an ISP has multiple Web sites running on the same physical Web server, Enterprise Suite can differentiate between them and create customized reports for each site. The software's scheduling features let you create those reports and FTP them to your clients' accounts automatically.

Enterprise Suite includes ODBC connectivity along with WebTrends' proprietary FastTrends database. There's just one problem with the implementation: The only incentive to use FastTrends is its ability to track trends over time. Unlike the other products we tested, WebTrends does not cache the IP addresses and title lookups. On top of that, using SQL takes a toll on performance. It took 2 hours and 36 minutes to import a 100-MB log file into a SQL database without doing DNS and title lookups; the same log file under the same configuration took just eight minutes to analyze when a SQL database was not in use.

Enterprise Suite impressively breaks down every major search engine and reports on the top query strings from each. Enterprise Suite's reports are straightforward and comprehensive, and the software uses no additional filters.

Ease of use and fast analysis (without logging to a database) make Enterprise Suite well worth its $1,499 price tag. If you're looking for a software package to create quick, high-quality reports on Web-server activity, this one's for you.

net.Genesis Corp. net.Analysis Pro 3.5

net.Genesis' net.Analysis Pro 3.5 offers very robust filters, including some aimed squarely at the enterprise market, but the package carries a hefty price tag. The NT version lists for $4,495, and the Unix version (for Solaris 2.5 or 2.6 or AIX 4.1.x) is tagged at a whopping $7,495 (including an Informix database). Then again, net.Analysis is the only package we tested that even has a Unix release.

We found net.Analysis' Web-based interface annoying. For example, to change a configuration option, you have to make the change and then click on an "OK" button every time. When you do, a new screen loads and asks if you want to save your changes. At first, this may seem comforting, but after clicking on 10 separate configuration options, the redundancy began to get on our nerves. Further redundancy hit during import, when the software asks a series of questions pertaining to the location and type of your log files. There were times when we were answering the same question twice.

net.Analysis produced the best technical reports of the software packages we tested, and it is the only package to offer built-in reports that incorporate intelligent error checking. Hit List and Enterprise Suite report on the status code of errors, while Site Server can report only on errors using advanced filters. net.Analysis reports a status code, summary of errors and the pages on which users encountered the errors.

Like Site Server, net.Analysis has a wizard-based installation for the SQL Server, and it is intelligent enough to know how large the data store should be based on the size of your log files. Unfortunately, it seemed to take longer for net.Analysis to create the data store than if we had configured SQL Server manually.