Why do they charge more for referrer logging?

$10 setup fee??

[physics]

Anyone know why WestHost charges extra just for referrer logging?
Here is a quote from their users manual:
"
Referrer Logs
$10 Setup Fee
Referrer logs are extra entries in your access-log file telling you what site your visitors came from. This new information will also show in your WUSAGE stats.
"

[chiyo]

no reason other than adding some "hidden costs" to your bill. That is fairly common for hosts - they do charge for things that if automated and if the system was set up correctly dont need any extra effort at all

I understand that Apache (used to) need 2 sets of user raw logs, (one extra for refereers). However any fiddling around to make it work (for all) would be minimal. And as far as analysis goes, configuring WSUSAGE to auto provide a report on referrers, would take about 10 secs.

They are probably assuming not many customers needs or ask for refferer logs, so they are charging you extra because you are asking for something "special". Normally you would expect this to be standard if they are offering raw logs and an automated analysis program.

[Brett_Tabke]

Because it takes more resources to track referrals. It takes more time during each request to write it to the log (thus takening resources during a very critical part of the page delivery process). It also takes more disk space during the week to save the logs. It is significant enough to warrant an extra fee.

<added>oops sorry chiyo - you posted while I was composing</added>

[chiyo]

ok i stand corrected!