Recording Visitor Information

[zxk105]

Is it possible to save the end user IP address or their server name or other useful information into a text file or database? I would like to see who are the individuals visiting my web site. Are there any ethical issues involved with doing this? Thanks....

[anthonyon]

I'm not sure if you are hosting your own server or not. Or have access to the log files (which you would need). You can install a software such as WebLog Expert which will give you real-time stats on your web log activity.

WebLog Expert has a lite version which is FREE but it will do what you need it to do plus more:
[weblogexpert.com...]

As for ethical, you have every right to monitor traffic to your web site; but if you plan to use any of the information tracked for marketing purposes such as using IP's to broadcast, then you need to have a Terms of Service and Privacy Policy in place...and it would be unethical to use their information beyond viewing purposes without the visitors consent. Otherwise, just viewing who has visited your site and trying to get a better understaning of your visitors is completely ethical and is not violating anyone privacy or rights. It's your website and you have every right to know who is visiting.

Good luck!

[zxk105]

Actually the site is being hosted by Brinkster. Is it still possible to use this software or not? Do you suggest contacting Brinkster about this?

[anthonyon]

I'm not sure of the limitation with the free version. Though, you should be able to view the log files remotely. The pro version does allow this...and I do not think the free version put any limitations on viewing log files remotely...so you should be fine.

First, thing I would do is check with your hosting company and find out if they supply you with any logging and tracking data or if they provide any software for this. If you have to use your own software like WebLog Expert then get the full path to your log files or URL path so that you can map to it.

[giggle]

I use this bit of JavaScript to collect the visitors details then pass it into an ASP program to save to a database (if this is of any use):

var passinfo;
var lastpage = document.referrer.lastIndexOf("/");
var thissite = location.href;
var ipaddress = '<!--#echo var="REMOTE_ADDR"-->';
thissite = thissite.toUpperCase();
passinfo='&appname='+escape(navigator.appName)+
'&referrer='+escape(document.referrer)+
'&pathname='+escape(location.pathname)+
'&platform='+escape(navigator.platform)+
'&website='+escape(location.href);
'&ipaddress='+ipaddress;