Hosting Company Won't Provide Log Files

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Hosting Company Won't Provide Log Files

The will give me Analog and Webalizer

mhildebr

1:42 am on Sep 17, 2002 (gmt 0)

Is it too much to expect your hosting company to provide you access to the ASCII log files (Apache NCSA Extended Log Format)? I am told that the only access I am allowed are the files used by Analog and Webalizer which are both graphic image files, not the raw data. I need the raw data to do my own analyses. I would like to do some real time analysis. It seems to me it should be a piece of cake to place the ASCII log files in a subdirectory called /log off of the root from my domain. Please help!

littleman

1:47 am on Sep 17, 2002 (gmt 0)

Dump your host, they are being lazy.

mhildebr

2:02 am on Sep 17, 2002 (gmt 0)

Is it easy for the host to provide the raw ASCII log files accessible to you via FTP?

Woz

2:12 am on Sep 17, 2002 (gmt 0)

It should be very easy. The logs are being generated otherwise analog could not do it's stuff. So they must be there somewhere.

Log files take up hard disk space which, on machines with high traffic sites or a lot of sites, can quickly add up to a significant portion of available space. So hosts generally only keep logs for a vertain time to allow you to download them before they are purged.

Even so, if they are there, you should be able to get access to them. Logs are a vital part of site success. If you cannot resolve this issue with you current host, then I would echo Littleman's sentiments and advise moving hosts post haste.

Onya
Woz

deejay

2:14 am on Sep 17, 2002 (gmt 0)

I just had the same fight with my host. Their techs told me they "couldn't" get the extended server logs off the NT box (? from memory) they are running.

End result: they're not my host anymore.

Moved to Westhost and I'm happy as Larry... if a bit daunted by the size of the raw logs.

In my old host's case, they have a bit of captive audience and just aren't interested in providing the information and resources a progressive webmaster needs. They don't want an educated clientele because it means more work for them, and they would rather have clients move on than extend their services. With that sort of attitude I wasn't going to waste my breath trying to change their minds.

Key_Master

2:19 am on Sep 17, 2002 (gmt 0)

My experience with hosting companies is that often they don't know what they need to do to solve a problem. Some hosting companies outsource technical support to people that probably never had a Web site.

It's pretty easy to set up log files on a server. I would keep trying until you reach somebody who knows how to do it. If you are hesitant about leaving your host and can't get any help from them, you might want to consider installing a server side tracking script to log your site traffic.

mhildebr

2:37 am on Sep 17, 2002 (gmt 0)

Please tell me where I can get more information on setting up a server side hosting script. Thanks for all the support and help!

Key_Master

2:50 am on Sep 17, 2002 (gmt 0)

You'll probably get lots of suggestions but this site is a good place to start:

[hotscripts.com...]

Don't forget to dig around for info in the forums here.

TheSadmaster

10:32 pm on Sep 18, 2002 (gmt 0)

Have you used a scripting language, (PHP, ASP, etc), to build you site? If so you could easily stuff referrer strings and other interesting stuff into an SQL database and probably get more informative information than through raw log file analysis.

Mat.

[edited by: rcjordan at 10:35 pm (utc) on Sep. 18, 2002]
[edit reason] no sigs please [/edit]