How to obtain traffic logs

[itrainu]

My host appears to be wiping out traffic logs before the month is over - I downloaded mine May 31 in the AM and it only had data from May 30 morning onwards.

A colleague who hosts with the same company had a similar result.

Is there any way that I can obtain the desired data without relying on my host? I obviously don't have access to the server...but was wondering about a database that I could upload?

Is this where Web Trends, etc. come in? I still want a raw log file that I can analyze with whatever software I choose...

Thanks,
itrainu

[mnorton]

Speak to your host and see if they can send the logs to you or ask them at what time they rotate the logs and set up an automated ftp proccess to run just before they rotate the logs

Alternatively if your site run's on php/perl/asp or something like that you could add some tracking code to the top of each page to generate some tracking information in a database or a script to generate a file just like an access log.

Another alternative would be to use tracking such as webtrends live where you insert a tracking image into each of the pages you want tracked and then they analyse this information and produce a report for you, if your traffic is fairly low you could use one of the many free pixel tracking softwares such as sitemeter sticky mail me for the web site address if you want it.

Mike

[edited by: mnorton at 11:47 am (utc) on June 2, 2003]

[outrun]

There are simple scripts that writes to file just like an access.log and you can use whatever program to analyse the file, it good if the webhost doesnt allow access logs, I have a simple PHP one for one of my clients, if you want to have a look it sticky mail me.

regards,
Mark

[balam]

And if PHP isn't your style (or it's not available to you from your host), I've got a small perl script... Sticky if interested.

balam