Site Statistics

Atl-Connect is pleased to offer detailed statistics to our customers with most of our hosting accounts. We use a tool called AWStats to analyze the log files for your site and provide a wealth of information about who's visiting your site, how they found you, and what pages they're viewing. Following are some commonly-asked questions about the statistics:

How do I view my stats? When we set up your site in the stats system, you should have received a login code to view statistics. To view statistics, simply point your browser to http://atlas.atlcon.net/stats and enter your login code into the form. Click the "View Stats" button and you'll be taken to your site statistics page.

What if I don't have my login code? Simply send an email to support@atlcon.net and let us know your domain name and registration number, and we'll send your login code to you.

What's the difference between "Views" and "Hits"? Hits is a somewhat misleading figure, because it counts every single request against your site. When a web browser requests a page from your site, only the HTML for the page is sent to the browser. The browser then requests each of the elements on the page (primarily graphics files). If you have a page with many different graphic elements, it can require a huge number of hits to fully load the page. "Hits" is an indication of how much work our servers have to do to server up your site to visitors. "Views," on the other hand, is a pretty good measure of how much traffic you're actually getting. This statistic tells you how many PAGES have been requested, and discounts the hits that are required to complete the elements on the page.

Why does my stats page say that the last visit to my site was 5 hours in the future? Our web server maintains its log files using UTC (Universal, or Zulu, time). UTC generally corresponds with Greenwich Mean Time, which is usually about 4 or 5 hours ahead of Eastern Time (depending on whether or not we're in Daylight Saving Time).

How frequently are the stats updated? Every 30 minutes to an hour. The process that updates the stats pauses for 30 minutes between runs. Of course, if it takes 30 minutes for it to complete its processing, it may take up to an hour before it comes back around to your site. In any event, the stats for your site are updated several times a day, so you can get very current information, usually no more than an hour old.

What if I want to exclude certain directories from the stats on my site? Just contact us at support@atlcon.net. We'll be happy to adjust the configuration for you to exclude specific files or directories.

Where can I learn more about AWStats? AWStats is an Open Source project that's hosted on SourceForge. Check out the AWStats home page for more information on the software we're using.

Posted by WebWiz at January 17, 2003 05:37 PM