System: Webalizer Numbers Explained
The Webalizer program produces several reports (html) and graphics for each month processed. In addition, a summary page is generated for the current and previous months (up to 12). The files produced, are:
| index.html | Main summary page |
| usage.png | Yearly graph displayed on the main index page |
| usage_YYYYMM.html | Monthly summary page |
| usage_YYYYMM.png | Monthly usage graph for specified month/year |
| daily_usage_YYYYMM.png | Daily usage graph for specified month/year |
| hourly_usage_YYYYMM.png | Hourly usage graph for specified month/year |
The yearly (index) report shows statistics for a 12 month period, and links to each month. The monthly report has detailed statistics for that month with additional links to any URL's and referrers found. The various totals shown are explained below.
Webalizer Terms
- Hits:
- Any request made to the server which is logged, is considered a 'hit'. The requests can be for anything... html pages, graphic images, audio files, CGI scripts, etc... Each valid line in the server log is counted as a hit. This number represents the total number of requests that were made to the server during the specified report period.
- Files:
- Some requests made to the server require that the server then send something back, such as a html page or graphic image. When this happens, it is considered a 'file'. The relationship between 'hits' and 'files' can be thought of as 'incoming requests' and 'outgoing responses'.
- Pages:
- Pages are, well, pages! Generally, any HTML document, or anything that generates an HTML document, would be considered a page. This does not include the other stuff that goes into a document, such as graphic images, audio clips, etc... This number represents the number of 'pages' requested only, and does not include the other 'stuff' that is in the page. What actually constitutes a 'page' can vary from server to server.
- Sites:
- Each request made to the server comes from a unique 'site', which
can be referenced by a name or ultimately, an IP address. The 'sites'
number shows how many unique IP addresses made requests to the server
during the reporting time period.
This DOES NOT mean the number of unique individual users (real people) that visited, which is impossible to determine using just logs and the HTTP protocol (however, this number might be about as close as you will get). - Visits:
- Whenever a request is made to the server from a given IP address
(site), the amount of time since a previous request by the address is
calculated. If the time difference is greater than a pre-configured
'visit timeout' value, it is considered a 'new visit', and this total is
incremented. The default timeout value is 30 minutes, so if a user
visits your site at 1:00 in the afternoon, and then returns at 3:00, two
visits would be registered.
Due to the limitation of the HTTP protocol, log rotations and other factors, this number should not be taken as absolutely accurate, rather, it should be considered a pretty close "guess". - KBytes:
- The KBytes (kilobytes) value shows the amount of data, in KB, that
was sent out by the server during the specified reporting period. This
value is generated directly from the log file, so it is up to the web
server to produce accurate numbers in the logs.
In general, this should be a fairly accurate representation of the amount of outgoing traffic the server had, regardless of the web servers reporting quirks. - Note: A kilobyte is 1024 bytes, not 1000
- Top Entry and Exit Pages:
- The Top Entry and Exit tables give a rough estimate of what URL's
are used to enter your site, and what the last pages viewed are.
Because of limitations in the HTTP protocol, log rotations, etc... this number should be considered a good "rough guess" of the actual numbers, however will give a good indication of the overall trend in where users come into, and exit, your site. - Referers:
- Referrers are those URLs that lead a user to your site or caused
the browser to request something from your server. The vast majority of
requests are made from your own URLs, since most HTML pages contain
links to other objects such as graphics files.
Typical referers would be: a webpage linking to your site; a search engine results page; or another site including one of your images in their content.