Web Stats

Best free web site tracking service ?

[Jube]

I have my site hosted with a cheap hosting company. They normally provide web stats using Webalizer but unforuntately the server is apparently having trouble following a system fix and the stats program will not work. It has been this way since the end of April and I cannot get any joy from the hosting company as to when they can fix it.

In the mean time I am using the free service from Site Meter which provides on fairly limited reporting.

What should I do with my hosting company ?

Can anyone suggest a better (non public) stats service that I could use ?

Regards

Jube

[bill]

Can you get access to your log files? If so, there's a great free application called analog [analog.cx] that generates stats on your PC.

[Jube]

Unfortunately the server isn't even saving the log !

Jube

[Nick_W]

How come jube, what's the deal?

Nick

[Jube]

This is the reply my host support has given me most recently. The frustrating thing is they keep closing my support requests once they have sent this kind of non committal response !

"After recently upgrading our server O/S, stats have not been functioning, we contacted Cobalt and they are working on a new patch to resolve this error.

Sorry for any inconvenience."

Jube

[JamesR]

Thought about a new hosting provider or are you tied up in a contract?

[Nick_W]

yeah, ditch 'em. They sound like a bunch of clowns to me. (reseller?)

Nick

[habitat675]

I always use stats4all.com, the best I've found yet for free.

[Crazy_Fool]

sounds to me like they screwed up when they applied a patch or something. i run cobalt raq servers with webalizer and i got no problems.

[Brad]

If you are asking about free remotely hosted stats trackers it is a tough call as to which of the free ones is best. If you put any two on the same page they will never quite agree - some misses some hits.

sitemeter is decent and nedstats always seemed to work too.

[richlowe]

I've never really found a good stats package. I depend upon the logs files as I've found the stats packages add extra overhead which makes pages load much slower. I think the best solution, if you had to use a package, would be a script which runs locally on your server.

Richard Lowe

[pat_s]

I use remotely hosted stats. I don't know why. My host provides logs and stats served every which way, but I use sitemeter on a couple of sites so that the owners can check their stats easily and they like it. PHP logger is another one I like for myself because it gives me the screen resolution and visitor path at a glance. You can get a free beta account and you can also download the script from the site. I don't know if I'm allowed to post a URL but a Google search would turn it up, I'm sure. It might also turn up other sites that are offering it as a free service. Interestingly, I've used it and Site Meter on the same pages and they pretty much agree, so I figure they're two of the better ones.

One really important tip if you're using remotely hosted stats is to place the code below the main tables in your site. I don't know if the same would apply to divs if you're using them instead, but it might. You might miss some hits that way, but it won't slow down your site. Site meter, however, never does seem to slow sites down.