All Hail Windows Grep - The King of Raw Log Tools!

[Vin DSL]

Heh! Every once in a while you run across a proggie that changes your life, and this is one of them!

Ever tried to open a 1.1GB raw log file with a text editor? I did an hour ago and it wasn't pretty. My W2K machine still hasn't recovered -- probably have to reboot to release the memory, but first things first...

After surfing the web, looking for an editor that would open this huge log file, I ran across a utility called Windows Grep 2.3. Technically, while it isn't an editor, it did do the job I wanted -- searched and found all occurrences of '/prc0/' in my 1GB log file in a matter of seconds!

Source: http://www.wingrep.com/index.htm

Windows Grep searches the contents of one or more files on your PC for occurrences of text strings you specify and displays the results.

Once you've found what you're looking for, you can open the files found for viewing or editing, or you can replace the text found with something else.

The best way to find out what it does and what it looks like is to download it for yourself and try it for free. But, if you want to read about it first, here's a feature list:

• Support for beginning and expert users: In beginner mode, the Search Assistant guides you though the process of setting up and executing a search.
• Searches plain text and UNIX-style text files: Program source code, batch files, HTML, RTF and so on can be searched.
• Searches all binary files such as Word Processor documents, spreadsheets, unencrypted databases, EXEs, DLLs and so on.
• Replacing as well as searching: Once you have performed a search you can change the matches found to another string in all files or a single file, quickly, easily and safely. In beginner mode, the Replace Assistant gently guides you through the process.
• Saving and printing of search results: Search results are displayed using HTML which allows printed output to be generated exactly the same as it appears on-screen, and results can be saved to disk in plain text or HTML format.
• Command line interface: A powerful UNIX-like command line interface allows Windows Grep to be driven from a DOS box or other Windows shell.
• Saving and retrieval of search criteria: Complex search criteria can be saved to disk for later recall to ease their repetition.
• Fully multi-tasking: Windows Grep can be minimised while a search is in progress. An icon is displayed on Windows' Taskbar icon tray to indicate when the search is complete. Searches can at any time.
• 'Search again': Files found to contain matches can be easily searched again to see if they contain another, different, string.
• ZIP file searching - look in zip archives for matching files and search them
• Delimited and fixed width data file searching at field-level.
• Explorer Extension - Launch Windows Grep directly from Windows Explorer
• Easy setup and un-installation

Here's a screenshot for you...

[Vin DSL]

Just did a Class C 255 ban on Turkish hacker scums!

85.98.144.0 - 85.98.255.255

Windows Grep uncovered 1000's of UNION sql injection attempts coming from this IP range during the last two months.

Gotta love it!

[rainboy]

Vin, you could also just use grep on the system it self, to get the information, assuming you have shell access. Or even building an automatic blocker to write a small shell script which automaticly bans those ******. Just use cron if you are not allowed to do it interactivly grep -f

Kind regards,
Patrick

[Vin DSL]

Yeah, I know, but I like to do stuff like that locally. Besides, this proggie does ALL SORTS of other things besides manipulate log files... like search executables, for instance.

I can already see this is gonna be one of those 'how did I ever live without it' utilities, like Resource hacker!

[Vin DSL]

Or even building an automatic blocker to write a small shell script which automaticly bans those ******

I already have autoban measures in effect, however, these guys are flying under the radar.

They really aren't doing anything wrong, that I can see, except for some occasional referer spamming. I just get nervous when I see stuff like this coming from Israel and AOL, and nowhere else...

[Vin DSL]

Oops! Maybe I should take the hint...

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/banned...5.188.242.2/32

http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/banned...114.168.147/32

*edit* Okay, banned:

• 205.188.242.2
• 192.114.168.14

[Vin DSL]

Heh! What's this 'Field blocked by Outpost' stuff in my referers?

I get it! Someone's firewall software is blocking the referer in their referer spam, e.g. they're banning themselves. That's different!

[rainboy]

I see,

i use a set of command line utilities like grep and awk for dos for ages, maybe this GUI version is something to look at atleast but don't know if i can let the shell slip out of my hands that easy

Kindest regards,
Patrick

[Vin DSL]

LoL! Have you moved up to VGA yet?

[rainboy]

Hahah.. I am so used to shell scripting that analyzing log files with these tools goes so much faster as with any windows application i keep using it. Why going back in time instead of forward, not all GUI's are a step forward, and certainly not contributing to the speed of it. This tool looks like fun, so i will give it a try.

[Vin DSL]

Atta boy!

[jason]

I used to use Windows Grep ages ago (or something similar, I don't know if it was the same program as you've posted). I haven't used it in so long that I doubt it is installed on any of my current computers, though.

I remember it being a very good program, I'm not sure why I stopped using it.

--Jason