Same session id, different AOL IPs, same request

[transistor]

I'm confused, I don't know how AOL works (or is supposed to) but just today I got a user that requested 17 pages on my server (I know it is the same user because it uses the same session_id) and each request comes from a slightly different IPs (152.163.189.234, then 152.163.189.202, 152.163.188.165, etc.).
Is this common with AOL?

Another strange behaviour is that this user requested the index page 13 or the 17 times! (probably because I have a section that updates with random links every time you load it...)

Thank you.

[bobriggs]

AOL uses cache proxy servers. The IP addresses are from the servers (not the actual IP address that the visitor came from) acting as intermediary between the user and your website.

You are probably correct about the 13 hits to the index page. But I've seen a lot of users who don't know how to hit the back button, this could account for some of the hits. (Instead of hitting back to get back to the home page, they click a link back to the home page)

[transistor]

Thank you bobriggs for your quick response!
:)

[bobriggs]

I should have added that if you have someone connecting from aol, and you see an ip address that resolves to something like ipt-aol.com-xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (I think it looks like that, didn't check but the xxx.xx.. is the actual IP.) then they're using a regular browser like MSIE or NS - the IP will remain constant. You don't see too many of those because most of the AOLers won't leave AOLland.

Accounting for the extra hits to the index page is difficult. Not returning a last-modified header is possible, reloading the page...many possible explanations.

Anyway, it's easy for the AOL proxy cache hits to mess up your stats. But I've also seen it done on some cable networks (@home before they went bust for example.)

[skiguide]

FWIW, Urchin is supposed to handle AOL proxy servers differently from the other stats packages out there, so it's supposed to be more accurate.

[transistor]

Thanks again bobriggs.
And thank you skiguide for that tip!