Any request
made to the server which is logged, is considered
a 'hit'. The requests can be for anything...
html pages, graphic images, audio files, CGI scripts,
etc... Each valid line in the server log is counted
as a hit. This number represents the total number
of requests that were made to the server during the
specified report period.
Files
Some
requests made to the server, require that the
server then send something back to the requesting
client, such as a html page or graphic image.
When this happens, it is considered a 'file' and
the files total is incremented. The relationship
between 'hits' and 'files' can be thought of as
'incoming requests' and 'outgoing responses'.
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Pages
Pages
are, well, pages! Generally, any HTML document, or
anything that generates an HTML document, would be
considered a page. This does not include the other
stuff that goes into a document, such as graphic images,
audio clips, etc... This number represents the number
of 'pages' requested only, and does not include the
other 'stuff' that is in the page. What actually constitutes
a 'page' can vary from server to server. The default
action is to treat anything with the extension '.htm',
'.html' or '.cgi' as a page. A lot of sites will probably
define other extensions, such as '.phtml', '.php3'
and '.pl' as pages as well. Some people consider this
number as the number of 'pure' hits... I'm not sure
if I totally agree with that viewpoint. Some other
programs (and people :) refer to this as 'Pageviews'.
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Sites
Each request
made to the server comes from a unique 'site', which
can be referenced by a name or ultimately, an IP address.
The 'sites' number shows how many unique IP addresses
made requests to the server during the reporting time
period. This DOES NOT mean the number of unique individual
users (real people) that visited, which is impossible
to determine using just logs and the HTTP protocol
(however, this number might be about as close as you
will get).
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Visits
Whenever
a request is made to the server from a given IP address
(site), the amount of time since a previous request
by the address is calculated (if any). If the time
difference is greater than a pre-configured 'visit
timeout' value (or has never made a request before),
it is considered a 'new visit', and this total is
incremented (both for the site, and the IP address).
The default timeout value is 30 minutes (can be changed),
so if a user visits your site at 1:00 in the afternoon,
and then returns at 3:00, two visits would be registered.
Note: in the 'Top Sites' table, the visits total should
be discounted on 'Grouped' records, and thought of
as the "Minimum number of visits" that came from that
grouping instead. Note: Visits only occur on PageType
requests, that is, for any request whose URL is one
of the 'page' types defined with the PageType option.
Due to the limitation of the HTTP protocol, log rotations
and other factors, this number should not be taken
as absolutely accurate, rather, it should be considered
a pretty close "guess".
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KBytes
The KBytes
(kilobytes) value shows the amount of data, in KB,
that was sent out by the server during the specified
reporting period. This value is generated directly
from the log file, so it is up to the web server to
produce accurate numbers in the logs (some web servers
do stupid things when it comes to reporting the number
of bytes). In general, this should be a fairly accurate
representation of the amount of outgoing traffic the
server had, regardless of the web servers reporting
quirks.
Note: A kilobyte is 1024 bytes, not 1000 :)
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Entry and Exit Pages
The Top
Entry and Exit tables give a rough estimate of what
URL's are used to enter your site, and what the last
pages viewed are. Because of limitations in the HTTP
protocol, log rotations, etc... this number should
be considered a good "rough guess" of the actual numbers,
however will give a good indication of the overall
trend in where users come into, and exit, your site.
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Referrers
Referrers
take many shapes and forms. What is contained in the
referrer field varies depending on many factors, such
as what site did the referral, what type of system
it comes from and how the actual referral was generated.
For instance, a referrer may have your site bookmarked
in their browser, they may hae simply type your sites
URL field in their browser, they could have clicked
on a link on some remote web page or they may have
found your site from one of the many search engines
and site indexes found on the web.
If
the user just typed your URL into their browser or
clicked on a bookmark, there won't be any information
in the referrer field and will take the form "-"
(Direct Request). Referrers
that came from search engines, dynamic HTML documents,
CGI scripts and other external programs usually tack
on additional information that it used to create the
page. A common example of this can be found in referrals
that come from search engines and site indexes common
on the web. Sometimes, these referrers URL's can be
several hundred characters long and include all the
information that the user typed in to search for your
site. The Webalizer deals with this type of referrer
by stripping off all the query information, which
starts with a question mark '?'. The Referrer "http://search.yahoo.com/search?
p=usa%26global%26link" will be converted to just
"http://search.yahoo.com/search".
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Search
Strings
The
Webalizer will do an analysis on referrer strings
that it finds, looking for well known search string
patterns. Most of the major search engines are supported,
such as Yahoo!, Altavista, Lycos, etc... Unfortunately,
search engines are always changing their internal/CGI
query formats, new search engines are coming on line
every day, and the ability to detect _all_ search
strings is nearly impossible. However, it should be
accurate enough to give a good indication of what
users were searching for when they stumbled across
your site.
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Hits
by Response Codes
| Code
200 - OK |
The
request was fulfilled |
| Code
206 - Partial Content |
The
transfer was aborted, cancelled or there was an
internet error. |
| Code
304 - Not Modified |
Since
the document has not been modified since the last
date and time of the last request, the document
was not sent. |
| Code
404 - Not Found |
The
server has not found anything matching the URL given
The file is not found or was mis-spelled. |
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