Forum Moderators: DixonJones
Just wonder if anyone might be able to help me here. what i'd like to know if it's possible to do this. I have a website. I'd like to know who has come to pay visit to my website for example i can trace who the visitors are. Is it doable to do this? this is just for interest because i'd like to know who's been interested in my website, not for other purpose than only that.
is it to do with apache2 or? if so, does apache2 have that capability to do that? how do i start?
Thank you very much in advance
We've used WebTrends. There's a good free one that we played around with for a while, but I can't remember the naem of it off hand. I'm sure it works with Apache.
Byt you're not going to get reports like "Joe Shmoe, married with 2 kids at 123 Main Street, came and visited your pages related to red widgets and white widgets."
You need to to do two key things to do in order to find out what brought visitors to your site and what they did once there:
1) Ensure that logging is enabled at your web site. Typically there are two ways to do this:
a) raw server logs (Apache, IIS for instance). For Apache, there are a few options, the key being that you are using combined format which captures not only requests, but also captures the refer (if available) and the browser (not as important); For IIS, if you are not sure, check all the options. Also personally, I'd suggest rotating the logs on a daily basis, as that gives you the most granualrity when it comes to how you want to analyze (daily, weekly, monthly).
Some web hosting companies make it a tad difficult to get to the raw logs, in which case option b might be better for you.
b) Page tagging (via Javascript or image beacons, etc). This method
requires you to add a script to your site's pages to run on the server (image beacons) or on the browser (Javascript), and captures the information typically at a third part site where you go for the reports. This method is closely tied to which analysis tool you select.
2) Find an analysis program to your liking for raw log analysis or pick the right tool for page tagging.
There is a library thread here on Web Master World that lists many of the most popular analytics programs: [webmasterworld.com...]
Each package has its own strengths and weakness, and depending upon the way you capture your visit data, that will help determine how you can best analyze your site's visitors.
Feel free to post more questions.
Larry
www.statcounter.com
They have a free version as well as paid version. I use free version and it is more than helpful :)
Digi
