WebChallenger consists of six components: Web Alarm, Web Benchmark, Web Diagnosis, Web Explorer, Web Statistics and Web Verify. We concentrated our testing on the Web Verify component, as it was the most complex and useful. Web Benchmark, Diagnosis and Explorer perform rather simple tasks such as generating client load, monitoring network traffic (on nonswitched networks only) and searching IP ranges for standard services such as HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP, gopher, News and DNS, and other WebChallenger components. Web Verify is very similar in function to WebTrends, LinkBot Pro and Astra SiteManager.

The WebChallenger interface is completely contained within the Web browser of your choice. All that it needs is a Java- and JavaScript-enabled browser for all administrative tasks. The benefit is a completely platform-independent solution. But we quickly realized it was going to take quite a long time for a complete scan of our test server. WebChallenger is not multithreaded; WebTrends, Linkbot Pro and Astra SiteManager are. Its report is generated in HTML format and is quite large. Information is scattered across one Web page using tables and reference links. Unlike WebTrends and Linkbot Pro, which use frames for easy navigation of the report, WebChallenger uses reference tags and one frame. The interface as a whole is rather cluttered and, at times, confusing.

WebChallenger does make extensive use of Java for easy-to-read 2-D/ 3-D graphs. Printing the generated report is the only way to create a hard copy. As with Astra SiteManager, Linkbot Pro and WebTrends, WebChallenger's reports can be saved and reviewed later. Similar to WebTrends, WebChallenger has an extensive scheduling mechanism and can automate many tasks to be completed later at regular intervals.

Send your comments on this article to Gregory Yerxa at gyerxa@nwc.com.

How We Tested
Our test environment included a reference Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 running on a Micron Millenia Pro2 Pentium Pro 200 MHz with 128 MB of RAM. When necessary, a Dell PowerEdge 220 dual Pentium II 300 MHz with 256 MB of RAM running Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 was also used.

The test environment for this review included two Web sites: one large local site with approximately 50,000 links and a second smaller remote site with approximately 2,000 links. Each of the tested products was used to analyze the content of our two sites and generate a report. When possible, reports were verified by hand in order to ensure proper analysis.

Through our testing, we found that system requirements for larger sites have practical limitations, adding time and fuss when generating reports. For example, Astra SiteManager, Linkbot Pro, WebTrends and WebChallenger all required the use of our 256-MB system to finish the scan of our larger Web site--128 MB of RAM did not cut the mustard on our 50,000-link site. Administrators may find workarounds, including partial scans and filters, but we think these concessions are tedious and difficult to use. Of the vendors whose products we tested, only Mercury Interactive Corp. has announced plans to improve the scanning portion of its content analyzer, Astra SiteManager.