web site counter.

[alkscd]

I wound like to know, what is a good web site counter. I'm while to pay.

[Christoph]

Most counters do not really work that well. It makes more sense to look at the log files of your web hosting account. A good web hosts offers you access to the files or even a tool like Webalizer oder AWStats to analyze the logs.

That way you can see where people come from, what did they look at at your site and which page is the most popular on your account.

Christoph

[DrZaius]

Also check out eXTReMe Tracking.

http://www.extreme-dm.com/tracking/?home

[Fuze]

webtrends

I'm not sure if they still do free tracking.

[Psychodic_Greak]

http://www.Bravenet.com - Free, and mostly easy to use.

[Hot Rod]

I use Microsoft's Fastcounter on some of my sites. Works well for me. http://www.bcentral.com/products/fc/default.asp

[Force Flow]

Counters on websites never show an accurate count. You know, there could be some idoit who refreshes the page 271 times to get the count up to 500 just for fun.

Counters are usually java applets or activeX. The java ones fail half the time.

Counters, I think, are just annoying little things that serve almost no purpose. If you want to advertise how many visitors you have had in say, the past week, just add a line somewhere that says: "There have been 523 visitors between 11/13 - 11/20." Or, "A record breaking number of visitors this week total at 523."

[Christoph]

Webtrends is more into analyzing the web server log files. AWStats does that for free - usually enough for most people. If you have an extreme busy site and make money with it - then spend money on Webtrends.

Christoph

[alkscd]

I was thinking about using AWStats, But it look to be very hard to setup. Is there any body that can help me understand the set up procedures. Thanks

[Christoph]

Your web host should be able to assist you with that.

There is also a good FAQ here:

http://www.taltos.org/awstats_4_1_docs/awstats_faq.html

http://www.gnacademy.org/src/cgi-bin...ats_setup.html

http://freshmeat.net/projects/awstat...43%2C148%2C245

What exactly are you seeing when you install it? What's the error?

Christoph

[alkscd]

I downloaded AWSTATS 5.1 ZIP file, after unzipping the file all the file are in the unzipped folder. When checking out the awstats fold there are three other folder 1 doc, 2 wwwroot, 3 tool after reveiwing the content most of the folders have doc,notebook and explorer files. I read the setup/install procedures I have no idea were to start. I wrote to my hosting company they said they don't support instruction this serive. I wrote to awstats no answer. I hope someone has done it before. I'm sure it's quite easy after doing it once??

[Christoph]

I am sorry to hear that your web host refuses to help. I usually try to help my customers when they get stuck with these things. Of course they should at least try first and I cannot guarantee that I get 3rd party scripts to work. But your host should at least try ....

I just updated my awstats to 5.1 from 4.61 - your question actually inspired me to move to the latest version.

Do the following:

1) Copy the contents of the awstats cgi-bin folder from your hard drive to your server's cgi-bin directory (this includes awstats.pl, awstats.model.conf, and the lang, lib and plugins sub-directories).

2) Copy awstats.model.conf file into a new file named awstats.conf (copy/rename)

Copy the icon folder to your "public_html folder

create a folder called "awlog" in your main directory

3) Edit the new config file with your own setup :
- Change LogFile value with full path of your web server log file. In my case that is:

LogFile="/usr/local/apache/domlogs/mydomainname.com"

- Check if LogFormat has the value "1" (it means "NCSA apache combined/ELF/XLF log format").

- Change DirData parameter to reflect relative path

DirData="/home/username/public_html/awlog"

- Edit SiteDomain parameter with the main domain name or the intranet web server name used to reach the web site to analyze (Example: SiteDomain="www\.domain\.com").

- You can change other parameters if you want but I would try this first.

4) CHMOD your awstats.pl file to 755

5) Call the awstats.pl file in a browser window

6) You should see the statistic page but no data

7) You will need a cronjob to copy the log file to your domain folder

/home/username/www/cgi-bin/awstats/awstats.pl -config=domainname.com -update

+ the time settings of course. I did had it run every 2 minutes until the system worked. Now it runs every 24 hours one time.

Now call the awstats.pl file in your browser again. You should now see your stats and charts populated!

Ok, now if it still does not work check the FAQ and error code page here:

http://awstats.sourceforge.net/docs/awstats_faq.html

If you still have problems you need to verify the path names. They might be different at your web host.

Let me know if that works! Good Luck!

Christoph

[Christoph]

I forgot one thing to mention - in my cgi-bin directory I created an awstats folder. You need to adjust your path if you use my cronjob example - otherwise just remove the awstats from the path in the cronjob.

Let me know how things go.

Christoph

[alkscd]

Christoph
The only thing I been able to do is Copy the contents of the awstats cgi-bin folder from your hard drive to your server's cgi-bin directory (this includes awstats.pl, awstats.model.conf, and the lang, lib and plugins sub-directories).


The other procedures from step (2) on problem. I'm trying to figure out, how to make a new folder. I can't find the public_html folder

[Christoph]

If you do not have a public_Html folder your web host has a different setup. What I have as the public_html folder that should be your main directory then. So, do not worry about the name. It is just very common that hosts use a setup that has a public_html folder.

What ftp software are you using? Can you make right clicks on the server side? Does a menue appear?

If you do not have a decent ftp software try this one:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla

It's free! It's fast! It's sufficient!

Install it and log on to your account. Make a right click and it will show "create directory". Or you create that folder on your local hard drive and upload the whole folder.

Let's do this one step at a time.

Let me know how far you get!

Christoph

PS: Who is your web host if I may ask?

[alkscd]

Web host is www.mijnhost.com

[alkscd]

I have WS FTP limited edition ver. 4.04

[Christoph]

Try the steps I described above. That looks like a normal hosting account - so, you should be able to do all this. If it still does not work we have to figure out something else ...

Christoph

[alkscd]

I made a awstats.conf folder. I put awstats.modle.conf in that folder.

[Christoph]

Allright. You are on your way.

Just follow my instructions listed above - step by step.

Christoph

[alkscd]

I'M UP TO COPing THE ICON FOLDER TO YOUR "PUBLIC_HTML FOLDER. THE ONLY FOLDERS I HAVE ARE .

BORDERS
DERIVED
FPCCLASS
OVERLAY
PRIVATE
THEMES
VTI_BIN
VTI_CNF
VTI_LOG
VTI_PVT
VTI_TXT
AWSTATS.CONF
IMAGES
INDEX.HTML_FI
WEBSTAT

[Christoph]

Put it into your main folder - the one that holds your index file.

Christoph

[alkscd]

I'm at number 3 I have no glue were to start.

[Christoph]

Open the file in wordpad, go to "edit" and "find". Do a search for " LogFile= " and put in the path for your server. I would try it by just replacing the mydomain.com with your domain name. After you have made all the changes and it does not work you will need to ask your host for the path to the log files.

Then search for the other items listed and change them accordingly.

Christoph

[alkscd]

I can't find LogFile= and I tried to get the path from my host no anwser. At a stand still.

[Christoph]

You should have this in your awstats.conf file:

# "LogFile" contains the web server logfile to analyze. # Possible values: A full path, or a relative path from awstats.pl directory. # Example: "/var/log/apache/access.log" # Example: "../logs/mycombinedlog.log" # You can also use tags in this filename if you need a dynamic file name # depending on date or time (Replacement is made by AWStats at the beginning # of its execution). This is available tags : # %YYYY-n is replaced with 4 digits year we were n hours ago # %YY-n is replaced with 2 digits year we were n hours ago # %MM-n is replaced with month we were n hours ago # %DD-n is replaced with day we were n hours ago # %HH-n is replaced with hour we were n hours ago # %NS-n is replaced with number of seconds at 00:00 since 1970 # %WM-n is replaced with the week number in month (1-5) # %Wm-n is replaced with the week number in month (0-4) # %WY-n is replaced with the week number in year (1-52) # %Wy-n is replaced with the week number in year (0-51) # %DW-n is replaced with the day number in week (1-7, 1=sunday) # use n=24 if you need (1-7, 1=monday) # %Dw-n is replaced with the day number in week (0-6, 0=sunday) # use n=24 if you need (0-6, 0=monday) # Use 0 for n if you need current year, month, day, hour... # Example: "/var/log/access_log.%YYYY-0%MM-0%DD-0.log" # Example: "C:/WINNT/system32/LogFiles/W3SVC1/ex%YY-24%MM-24%DD-24.log" # You can also use a pipe if log file come from a pipe. # Example: "gzip -d # LogFile="/usr/local/apache/domlogs/mydomainname.com"

Do another search. If you do not have it something is wrong with your conf file.

How long are you waiting already for a response from your web host?

Christoph

[alkscd]

In the host awstats.conf folder I only have one file awstats.model
and in my awstats.conf folder on my hard drive is empty.

[Christoph]

Rename

awstats.model.conf

to

awstats.conf

and use that file to make all the changes as needed! That is step number "2" that I listed above. Come on - you can do it. Just follow the instructions and also take a look at the URLs I provided. It is not that difficult.

Christoph

[alkscd]

Your good Christoph! you know that I'm giving up. I'll try again thanks

[Christoph]

Don't give up so easily. You have been pretty persistent so far!

Christoph