tvDebug Log Files

[herme3]

The ZoneAlarm firewall keeps a log file at C:/Windows/Internet Logs/tvDebug.log and this file becomes larger every day. Whenever the log file reaches 20 megabytes, it is placed into a zip folder and a new log file is created. Many people have asked what exactly is being logged, but all the creators of ZoneAlarm will say is that they are debug files.

 

Whenever anyone e-mails the ZoneAlarm technical support, they ask that you attach all of the tvDebug files to your e-mail. I would like to know what exactly is in these files. When I open the file in Notepad, all I see is this:

 

 

If I printed an entire tvDebug file in text format, it would print thousands of pages! I have no idea how ZoneAlarm products are programmed, but this seems like more than a simple debug file. I trust that ZoneAlarm is a good security product, but this file could easily contain information about everything that I do on my computer.

 

Does anyone know the exact contents of the tvDebug files, or where I can download a program that will allow me to see the contents of these files?

[5614]

What you are seeing there will not be what they're interested in because it's meaningless crap, basically! See here:

http://www.scienceforums.net/forums/showthread.php?t=14331

 

So what exactly is it?

 

I could guess!

 

Maybe if you convert that .txt into a different file format it will all work. I mean, convert .exe to .txt and you get that stuff like what you screen shot, so it could work in reverse.

[the tree]

I imagine the files use a character set made specifically for what they want to log, plenty of things aren't made to be human-readable.

[herme3]

Thank you for the replies.

 

I've tried changing the extension and opening the file with every program I can think of. All of the programs say the file is unreadable, or it just displays the strange characters that show when I open the file in Notepad.

 

The file must be readable, because the creators of ZoneAlarm seem to be able to open and read the file. Otherwise, their technical support wouldn't request the file. Does anybody know a program I can use to open this file, or do you think the creators of ZoneAlarm are the only people with a program that is capable of reading this file?

[5614]

It is quite possible that that is the case.

 

Alternatively it could be their own character set or maybe even an encrypted version of english... from the sounds of your 1st post you have done a lot of google searching and the results contained all the questions and no answers, is that right?

[Dave]

More likely, they have their own data file format which they won't release to the public.

[5614]

That is what I thought herme3 meant when he said that possibly Zone Labs were the only people who could open it.

[herme3]

Ok, this is very weird! A while ago, I created a thread asking about tvDebug on the ZoneAlarm official forum. I just went back to see if there were any replies, and my thread was deleted! When I go to the link where my thread used to be I see this:

 

 

I don't understand this. The forum has all of the other threads that were created since the day that the forum opened. What could ZoneAlarm be hiding? This seems like very big news since ZoneAlarm is a very popular firewall.

[5614]

Maybe this is something they use to debug their software and they can't be bothered to answer questions about it and don't want people decrypting it, maybe because to them it's business and they can charge for help or anything.

 

I mean, if I made a program no one else needs to see the debug file, there's no need and if people kept asking how to access the debug file I might not be bothered to answer because they have no need to access it so I don't need to tell them.

 

In a big company like Zone Labs they will not was their time answering questions which are not necessary, they'd rather improve their software than telling people how to use their debug files.

 

Alternatively it's all a conspiracy and they're collecting IPs, email address and passwords from you and Zone Labs will take over the world, which I somehow doubt is the case!

[herme3]

Yes, you are probably right. However, the forum isn't where Zone Labs answers questions. It is mainly for discussion between the people that use ZoneAlarm products. It is very rare for them to delete a thread. There have been many people that create threads that just talk about how much they hate ZoneAlarm, and these threads are never deleted. There have even been some threads that advertise Zone Lab's competitors, and even these threads are never deleted. Why would they delete a thread that simply asks what is logged in the tvDebug file?

 

Also, the tvDebug file grows about 1 megabyte every day. That seems like a lot for a simple debug file, doesn't it?

[5614]

So if you've been using ZA for say 2 years the debug will be hitting 700MB ??? You sure it doesn't delete old data after a month or something?