You are comparing apples and oranges. Your FrontPage counter is counting a visitor once (per day?) who comes to the front door. Analog analyzes the server log and delivers a report. The server log (under normal conditions) tracks all traffic to your site. If a visitor comes to the front door, then clicks on a link that leads him (or her) to another page within your site, the log will show 2 page requests. In that situation, Analog will show 2 requests and FrontPage will show only 1. But, they are not counting the same thing. So, you can't compare the numbers. The same is true with distinct hosts served. Analog is counting hosts for all requests. This means all pages (you control what is considered a page via your Analog configuration) and all non-pages (that is, anything not configured to be a page; images, video, and audio are common examples, but that could include office suite docs and PDF files). I make this point because a host can change in the course of a visit. You mentioned a cache server from AOL. Let's assume that your front page has 6 images (a navigation bar, for instance) and 10 links to other pages. One of AOL's servers can visit your page, see the 6 images and ask 6 of its cousins to each load 1 image. Voila! 7 distinct hosts served on one page. But, if AOL is caching your site, it won't stop there. It wants to do your entire site. AOL follows all of your links and it has many cache servers. Their ability to communicate with each other gives them the ability to distribute their load. They use a large quantity of caching servers to deliver pages to their 22 million customers. But, distinct hosts served and visitors aren't the same thing.
If you want to compare numbers between FrontPage's counter and Analog, the closest that you can get is to look at Analog's Request Report for your front page and compare that number with FrontPage's counter. BUT, they aren't the same thing. Analog analyzes all entries in your log. If a visitor browses your front page, then reloads your front page several times, Analog will count the initial browse and every reload that is in the server log. Meanwhile, your FrontPage counter will say only 1 visitor. But, most visitors don't reload pages over and over again. So, I would suspect that Analog's Request Report for your front page will show a number that is similar to FrontPage's counter. HTH, -- Duke Hillard Denis Duffy wrote: >It is a FrontPage counter - I have it set to count each visit to the home >page. 1 person = 1 visit, if the person comes back to the Home page it is >not counted as a new visit. > >I am interested in all the traffic to my site. Today I looked at Analog >early this morning which produced this summary report: > >Total successful requests: 854 >Average successful requests per day: 1,442 >Total successful requests for pages: 50 >Average successful requests for pages per day: 83 >Total redirected requests: 6 >Number of distinct files requested: 72 >Number of distinct hosts served: 122 >Total data transferred: 2,102 kbytes >Average data transferred per day: 3,553 kbytes > >How can I have 122 distinct hosts served yet only have 50 requests for >pages? The Analog host report shows about 60 AOL hosts (all look similar to >this: cache-da01.proxy.aol.com ), and about 60 from various other host >addresses. My FrontPage counter indicates about 15 visits. Is my FrontPage >counter more accurate than the # of hosts served? > >Thanks > >----- Original Message ----- >From: Duke Hillard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Sent: Thursday, May 23, 2002 3:23 PM >Subject: Re: [analog-help] front page counter vs. distinct hosts > > >>If you are interested in only those persons who enter through the front >>door, your front page counter (or is it a FrontPage counter?) might be >>all that you need. But, if you want to know about all traffic at your >> >site, > >>then Analog will provide information which is more comprehensive. >> >>Analog analyzes all activity recorded in the log file maintained by your >>Web server. Your front page counter records information only about >>visits to the page on which it resides. Thus, Analog is more thorough. >> >>Remember, some of your visitors might have been to your site before. >>If they bookmarked pages on an earlier visit, and go directly to those >>pages today (bypassing your front page counter), then your front page >>counter won't be able to record their visit to your site. And, some of >>your visitors might be referred by friends. So, even a person who has >>never been to your site might bypass your front page (and its counter) >>and go directly to one or more pages within your site. But, this activity >>is (normally) recorded in the Web server log and Analog can analyze it. >> >>BTW, since version 2.11, Stephen Turner has made many improvements >>to Analog and fixed at least one security issue as well. You might want >> >to > >>consider upgrading to the latest version. >> >>-- Duke Hillard >> >> >>Denis Duffy wrote: >> >>>My front page counter showed 59 visits yesterday. But Analog (I'm >>>using version 2.11/Unix) showed 214 distinct hosts served. Which do >>>you feel is the better gauge of my approximate daily visits? >>> >>> >>> >>>Thanks, Dan >>> +------------------------------------------------------------------------ | This is the analog-help mailing list. To unsubscribe from this | mailing list, go to | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/unsubscribe.html | | List archives are available at | http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/archives/ | http://www.tallylist.com/archives/index.cfm/mlist.7 +------------------------------------------------------------------------
