Usage Statistics
Detailed usage statistics are generated for all of our customers' accounts. These detailed statistics can show you what domains are accessing your site, how many "hits" you are getting, how much data is being transferred, what type of browser people are using to look at your site, and more.
To use our built-in analysis programs on UNIX:
Our UNIX web hosting customers may use one of our built-in analysis programs to view their usage statistics, or they may use a third-party usage stats analysis program to analyze the raw log files generated in their account.
Select 'Edit Account Information' in your Control Panel. Then choose which program you want as your "Preferred Stats" program:
- MkStats v1.0 (Note: MkStats analyzes only the past 90 days worth
of stats. more...)
- MkStats v2.1
- Analog v2.11
You will not be able to view any usage statistics for your account until approximately 48 hours after choosing one of the above programs. Also, these programs are system-wide programs and cannot be custom configured for one customer.
To view your usage statistics using the 'preferred stats' program you chose, go to your Control Panel and select 'View your web usage statistics & logs'.
To use a third-party analysis program:
All customers have access to the raw log files. Therefore, you can use third-party log analysis programs on your local PC to get in-depth analysis of your web site usage. If needed, you can download the raw log files to your local computer for analysis and use gzip to uncompress them if you need to run custom queries against the data. We use standard GNU "gzip" format without any special options. Mac users who have trouble unzipping the logs with Stuffit Expander should try using MacGzip.
Note: You have access to the raw log files whether or not you choose one of our built-in analysis programs. Therefore, you can choose to use our programs, your programs, or both.
Important note regarding log files:
Due to physical disk space limitations statistics logs are maintained for a period of 3 months. Log files which are 3 months old are removed from the system and cannot be retrieved. If you would like to maintain a copy of your log files, please remember to retrieve those log files before their 3 month lifespan has passed. Log files may be downloaded using FTP, they are found in the /stats directory and named according to year and month, for Example: "old_access_log.2000.Feb.gz"
Monitoring Data Transfer
Although only a relatively small number of accounts exceed the allotted data transfer each month, we would like to point out that several web-based interfaces exist which allow you to monitor data transfer and be alerted when a certain amount of data transfer is used.
To determine how much data transfer has been used at anytime:
To determine how much data transfer has been
used at anytime:
- Access your account Control Panel
( www.yourdomain.com/stats/ )
- Select the Edit Account Information (EAI) link
- Click the "Show usage statistics" button in
EAI
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To receive an e-mail (or suspend an account)
when a certain amount of data transfer is used:
- Access your account Control Panel (e.g.
www.yourdomain.com/stats/ )
- Select the Edit Account Information (EAI) link
- Locate the field option which reads:
- Enter the data transfer amount (in MBs) in the empty field
to specify the time at which you should be alerted
- Click the desired radio button to specify that you wish to
either receive an e-mail or suspend the account. By
default, the "Don't bug me!" option is selected.
If you have any concerns about exceeding the allotted
data transfer and merely wish to receive an alert, you can
do so here.
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*There seem to be many questions on how MKSTATS compiles statistics. One of the most confusing aspects of this statistical package is why hits from past months decline as time progresses. You may have noticed as an example, hits from a previous month was X amount. Now a month later, those hits have dropped. The reason is as follows:
MKSTATS compiles statistics for a 90 day span. This means that as time progresses, the data early in that span begins to drop off as new data for the current month is added. Imagine it as a sliding window, only the most current 90 days are kept.
For an example, let's look at this from the first of the year. When we hit day 95 in the year, the package compile statistics for days 5-95, a span of 90 days. Day 5 is still January, but, as you can see, the data for January's days 1-4 have dropped off. When stats compile the next day, days 6-96, more of the January data is being dropped. This is why the hit total for the last trailing month (January in this example) declines.
If you wish to not limit your stats to a 90 day sliding window, we suggest switching your statistical package to ANALOG. ANALOG does not have this behavior and will compile statistics for all the data in your gz log files. If the data is in there, ANALOG will compile it all.
BIGSEA
A metaphor. A philosophy. A way of doing business.
Copyright 1997-2001 - Last update: Wednesday, March 21, 2001 at 2:02:59 PM
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