Analyzing Log Files

With Analog

[madcat]

How does this work?

Do I have to ask my hosting company for the .log files? How does Analog retrieve the stats once downloaded? And how often should I be running the logs (daily, weekly, monthly)?

If you have to extract the .log files from your site; is it possible to automate the whole process somehow?

Thanks for any tips-
M

[bill]

Do I have to ask my hosting company for the .log files?

That's probably the best way. There are ways you could possibly run Analog on their server, but I find it works best to have the logs on my machine.

is it possible to automate the whole process somehow?

Sure, you can write a batch file and then schedule it to run whenever you want. I believe there are sample batch file examples given in the help files for Analog.

[madcat]

I've asked them for the files- but they directed me to just find them on the server- I can't find any .log files - Is that the correct extension?

I've made CuteFTP show all file extensions too.

Thanks for your help...

[nancyb]

didn't they tell you the name of the file? My experience is that log files don't have any extension, but they should have told you the name and where to look.

[madcat]

Yeah, they directed me to a non-existing folder...I did find a folder containing Monthly, Weekly, Yearly, etc...but they are empty?

[Ash]

Hi Madcat, what happened with your logfiles? Did you find them?

[petertdavis]

Some web hosting control panels make it very easy for you to get access to logs. I use cpanel, and it has a link you click which downloads the raw log file in .gz format. Couldn't be easier. If your host isn't providing you the service you need, find a better one. ;)

[Mike_O]

(Hi all -- my first post.) :)

Once you do get the logs from your hosting service you may find they're a confusing jumble of information. I know mine (from PowWeb) are.

Something that might help is a program called "Happy Log". I'm sure a Google search will find it. It runs on Windows machines and organizes the log file you downloaded in various ways for clarity.

It certainly could use improving -- it's a pretty bare-bones program. But it's only around $35 and has a 15-day free trial period. I tried it and ended up buying it.

I have no financial connection to the Happy Log folks. But it's sure been a real time-saver for me in figuring out what's going on at my site from the log files.

-- Mike

[Robert Charlton]

>>I can't find any .log files - Is that the correct extension?<<

The default settings on many web servers hide files beginning with a period... I understand for security reasons. I couldn't find .htaccess at first for this reason. To be able to see these files, on WS_FTP Pro, at least, you need to enter "-la" or "-al" (no quotes) in the View option.

I'm sure there are others out there who can go into more depth than I can about this... but it sounds like that's what you're running into.

If you have a cooperative hosting company, they can also assign a different name to the log file. I've observed that these files can grow incredibly large... and I don't know what needs to be done to refresh them.

[madcat]

In CuteFTP, when I click on the directories to access my log files, a browser window opens up and starts spitting them out- even though I can't actually get into the directories within CuteFTP. Same with my error logs.

I am having troubles downloading the files to their own directory. How can I go about simply taking these files and putting them into a directory on my hard drive? Do I need to change the settings to gain access?

[rharri]

Madcap,
Have you found your files yet? If not what OS and server are you using? If, its Apache, do a search for "access_log", "access_log.1"...

[madcat]

windows xp. but i can't download the files off the server without problems so they won't be searchable...