When you install a Visual Intercept Web application, the installer will configure the web site with default web site options that are ideal for most environments. However, there are several settings you may want to change based on how your users use Visual Intercept Web. This TechTip reviews some settings you may want to modify to optimize performance based on the way your organization uses Visual Intercept Web. If you have any questions about any of these suggestions, please contact Elsinore Technologies' technical support at: .

Increase each web site's session timeout value.

Each web application within Internet Information Server has session timeout value. This value determines how long the application will maintain session information for each user of the web application. By default the session timeout is set to 20 minutes. In practical terms this means that a user can keep Visual Intercept Web open and remain on a single page for 20 minutes before having that session time out. Once the session does time out the user will need to logon again to start a new session.

In many environments 20 minutes may be too short. If your users prefer to keep Visual Intercept web open for long periods of time you may want to consider increasing the time out value from 60 to 120 minutes. In fact, our experience has shown that in most environments the timeout value can be set to several hours with no degradation of performance.

To increase the web session timeout value:

1. Open the Internet Services Manager on the web server running Visual Intercept Web
2. Right click on the Visual Intercept Web site application and select Properties
3. In the Directory tab of the Properties dialog click on the Configuration button
4. In the Application Configuration dialog click on the App Options tab
5. In the App Options tab you will be able to edit the current Session timeout value to one more appropriate to your organizationOnce you have increased the session timeout value your users will be able to leave Visual Intercept Web open for longer periods of time.
6. Set each Visual Intercept Web site's default query to something other than "All Incidents".
   When a user logs on to Visual Intercept Web the application fetches incidents based on the last query the user executed. However, if the user is visiting the web site for the first time, the default query set by the Visual Intercept Web Manager will be used. This default query is set to "All Incidents" during installation. A query that fetches all incidents is a good choice when you are just starting to use the product and have few incidents. However, as the number of incidents grow from a handful to thousands it is wise to switch to something more practical.

To change the default incident query:

1. Open the Visual Intercept Web Manager on the web server running Visual Intercept Web from the Visual Intercept Enterprise program group
2. Select the Defaults tab
3. Choose a new default query from the Queries combobox
4. Select the Apply button
5. In the App Options tab you will be able to edit the current Session Timeout value to one more appropriate to your organizationYou can choose one of the queries that ships with the product or you can create your own. For example, a query that would make an ideal default would fetch only those incidents either assigned to the current user or in an active status. To look at an example of this kind of query, open the "My Working Incidents Query" that ships with Visual Intercept from the Query Builder in the Visual Intercept Manager.
   
   To use your own query simply create and save a query in the Visual Intercept Manager, take the .imf file you saved the query as, and place the file in the Queries directory used by the web site. The location of the queries directory is specified in the Integration tab of the Visual Intercept Web Manager. Once you have placed the new query in the Queries directory you will be able to select it as the default query for the web site. You will need to stop and start IIS before the newly selected default query becomes available to Visual Intercept Web users.
6. Configure each Visual Intercept Web site to use a different ODBC data source name.
   Every Visual Intercept application stores a separate set of preferences for each ODBC DSN "data source name" for which it is configured. An ODBC DSN is a collection of settings maintained by the operating system that tell an application how to connect to a particular ODBC compliant data source. Because of this feature you can maintain an entirely different set of preferences for each Visual Intercept Web site you are running by configuring each Visual Intercept Web site to use a different ODBC DSN. For example if you are running a Visual Intercept Web Relay site for beta testers and a Visual Intercept Web Enterprise site for developers, it is likely that you will want to have different options set for each. These options include, for example: the default query, default incident attributes, the web site banner text, and logon options.

To configure a web site to use a different DSN do the following:

1. In the ODBC Data Source Administrator in the Control Panel create a new system DSN that connects to your Visual Intercept database.
2. In the Directory tab of the Visual Intercept Web Manager select the new DSN in the DSN box, and then select the Visual Intercept Web application you want to use for that DSN in the Application box.
3. Click Apply.
4. Restart the Internet Information Service services from the Control Panel.Once you have completed the steps outlined above you will be able to configure the options for this site independently from all of your other Visual Intercept Web applications.
5. Increase the ASP script timeout value for each Visual Intercept Web site. If you have users who need to work with large numbers of incidents over a very low bandwidth connection, you may want to increase the ASP script timeout value. This value determines how long the web application will attempt to process a request before giving up. If you have users who are accessing the site under unusual conditions increasing the timeout value will help ensure that the web site has adequate time to process their requests. In typical environments Visual Intercept Web will process and display approximately 1,000 incidents per second. Thus, changing the script time out value is seldom necessary, but can be useful in some specific circumstances.

To increase the ASP script timeout value:

1. Open the Internet Services Manager on the web server running Visual Intercept Web
2. Right click on the Visual Intercept Web site application and select Properties
3. In the Directory tab of the Properties dialog click on the Configuration button
4. In the Application Configuration dialog click on the App Options tab
5. In the App Options tab you will be able to edit the current ASP Script timeout value to one more appropriate to your organizationOnce you have increased the ASP script timeout value your Visual Intercept Web site will have more time available to process user's requests. The default ASP script timeout value is 90 seconds. You will need to decide what value is right for your users based on the performance you observe in your environment