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.
Sites:
Each request made to the server
comes from a unique 'site' (or
person), 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 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 timeout value for
our servers is 30 minutes, so if
a user visits your site at 1:00
in the afternoon, and then
returns at 3:00, two visits
would be registered.
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. (A kilobyte is
1024 bytes)
Top
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. |