What syslogger and small howto please

Hi, I'm fooling around with my home network and I'd like some opinions on what syslogger to use with mandrake 9.1 and some ideas on how to use it. Syslog-ng comes packaged with mandrake and I'm having trouble understanding how to configure it.
Why?
I've got a netgear router with 1 winXP and 1 (mostly)mandrake9.1 boxes and I'm interested in this stuff.
syslogd is running on mandrake for local system logging, and I installed syslog-ng just to read the logs off the router remotely, even though I can read the logs of the router on the configuration browser screen. (I just checked and syslogd is no longer running, only syslog-ng)

I tried to follow the concepts in the syslog-ng.conf file but I must have totally mis-understood them because it didn't work.
I created a file in /var/log called netgear.log to log to it, I've set the router to syslog to the ip address of the linux box.

has anyone any experience with sysloggers and their configuration.
If I can get this right I'll then try it in windows.

thanks.

I'd recommend the Kiwi Syslogger service (www.kiwisyslog.com).

It runs as a service in NT/XP and seems to work really well. I'm using it at home to capture data from my linksys box and at work we use it to capture data from our firewalls, routers, and printers.

I can't answer anything on the mandrake question, I'm a linux newb still. Kiwi in XP or NT is a snap to install and configure though.

thanks for your input Jeff, I'll keep kiwi in mind when I try it in windows.
I am more interested in linux at the moment, the windows box is more for work related stuff and the linux box is for fooling around with this kinda stuff.

I think Kiwi also has a linux or unix version. Good luck with your explorations

Never used it before, but....
There's a rather comprehensive ref manual at
http://www.balabit.hu/products/syslo...nce/book1.html
Looks pretty idiot proof to me

trekker, what you probably don't realise is that I am an idiot :dunce:
I can get the log from the router to the linux box, in ethereal I can see the messages coming in. I can't seem to get the messages into the file eg. /var/log/fw_log that I'd like to. I have specified the filename etc in syslog-ng.conf but it wont log there.???
I have to point out here this is only a learning excersise for me :confused: , I feel a need to learn this stuff.

cheers.