The yearly (index) report shows statistics for a 12 month period, and
links to each month. The monthly report has detailed statistics for
that month with additional links to any URL's and referrers found.
The various totals shown are explained below.
Hits
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'.
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 totaly agree with that viewpoint.
Some other programs (and people :) refer to this as 'Pageviews'.
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).
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
preconfigured '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 "Minimium 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".
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
webserver 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
Top Entry and Exit Pages
The Top Entry and Exit Pages 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.
-What is the difference between 'HITS' and 'FILES'?
HITS is the total number of HTTP requests that the server received during the reporting
period. Any request made to the server is considered a hit. FILES is the number of hits
that actually resulted in something being sent back to the user, such as an HTML page or
image. 'Total Files' and '200 - OK' totals should be the same. If you add up the totals
in the 'Hits by Response Code' section, it should be the same as the 'Total Hits' figure.
- Why don't the daily visit totals add up to the monthly total?
You cannot add up the daily visit totals and compare them to the monthly total, they
are different reporting periods. For example, if someone visits your site at 11:45pm
and stays until 12:15am, the monthly total would show one visit, while the daily
totals will show two (one for each day).
