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What does N/A in the usernames view mean?
Question asked by Peter S - 7/19/2024 at 12:52 PM
Answered
Hello, when we do 'data mining' into a specific URL in SmarterTools, often there is a N/A in the list of the usernames that have accessed the resource.

Does anyone know what this means?  Sometimes the count is so high, that the concern becomes that the stats are skewed in a big percentage, and thus not very reliable.

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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post Marked As Answer
NA in the username column indicates the connected user did not authenticate using a valid username/password and likely stems from bot traffic that isn't built to actually engage with basic forms authentication (or at least that is where I see it usually.) If you can submit a ticket with an example log file where you've seen these entries though we can verify that for you :-)
Kyle Kerst IT Coordinator SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com
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Peter S Replied
It would be strange for there to be bot traffic, unless it's a heartbeat request from the local server itself, as all our requests run under a service account.  Where can I send a sample log?
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Kyle Kerst Replied
Employee Post
Bots regularly attempt password guessing attacks on IMAP/POP/SMTP/etc so if those protocols are exposed to the internet you'll likely see this pretty consistently. The webmail NA's though could just mean someone landed on the web interface but then never logged in. Sample logs can be submitted on a support ticket where we can work with you to get to the bottom of this. Thanks Peter!
Kyle Kerst IT Coordinator SmarterTools Inc. www.smartertools.com

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