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Webalizer - Frequently Asked Questions
Where do the Webalizer reports come from? All of the Webalizer reports are generated on one computer. This computer has many different names, but most people know it as www.camden.rutgers.edu. This is the name of the Rutgers-Camden campus web server. If you'd like to know more about the terminology used on the Webalizer reports, we have an explanation of the headings and some definitions of terms available online. What is a virtual host name? First, let's explain what a host name is. All of the computers connected to the Internet must be given a unique numerical address. While computers prefer working with numbers, most people prefer working with words. Each computer connected to the Internet is given a unique host name that corresponds to its unique numerical address. This allows people to refer to networked computers by name instead of by number. Most computers are only given one host name, and all references to that computer use the one host name. In the past, our web server computer only had one host name, so all of the addresses that referred to sites on our web server had to contain that name. As more and more sites were added to our web server, their addresses became long and unwieldly. Say you were in the Computer Science department, and you had a web page for your course, you could end up with an address that looked like: http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/dept-pages/computer_science/c/110/s/40/index.html Not only was that a lot to remember (which increases the chance of someone making a typo in their browser), it's not immediately clear what group or department the address is referring to. So the question becomes, how can we make the address easier to read and more meaningful? The answer to that question arrived in the form of virtual host names. The protocols that govern how the Internet works allow for a single computer to have many different host names, even if that computer only has one numerical address. A virtual host name is simply an additional host name assigned to a computer. The word virtual is used to describe how one computer appears to be multiple computers, each running a web server, through the use of multiple host names assigned to that one computer. When your department or organization is assigned a virtual host name, our web server is reconfigured to associate the new host name with a particular directory. For example, if the Computer Science department web site sat in the directory: /services/WWW/dept-pages/computer_science ...and they requested a virtual host name of compsci.camden.rutgers.edu, then the web server administrator would change the configuration of the server so that it mapped the new host name to their particular directory. This is similar to the way in which the primary host name of our web server works. The primary host name, www.camden.rutgers.edu, maps to the lowest point in our web directory structure. It is important to note that a host name can not be mapped to a specific file on the web server, only to a specific directory. What is the address for my web site? A good question. A better question would be What are the addresses for my web site? If your department or organization has a virtual host name, then there are at least two valid addresses for every page on your site. Using our Computer Science department example from above, say that the department now has a virtual host name. The address in the example above is still valid, but now there is another valid address: http://compsci.camden.rutgers.edu/c/110/s/40/index.html People who have bookmarked or linked to the original address can still access the page without any trouble. However, the maintainers of this site are now free to use the shortened virtual host address in advertisements and announcements, and in new web pages that they create. Why can I only get Webalizer reports for a virtual host? Some people have asked why they can not get a report for a web site that doesn't have a virtual host name. The reason has to do with the way the web server logs are formatted and the way Webalizer was designed. The web server creates a log entry for every single request it receives, whether that request is for an HTML document, an image, a sound file, etc. It tags each log entry with the hostname that was used in the request. So if someone typed this address into their browser: http://www.camden.rutgers.edu/dept-pages/computer_science/c/110/s/40/index.html The web server will create a log entry like this: www.camden.rutgers.edu <remote host IP address> - - [timestamp] <file requested> <browser information> If that very same page is viewed using the virtual host address, then the log entry would look like this: compsci.camden.rutgers.edu <remote host IP address> - - [timestamp] <file requested> <browser information> When Webalizer processes the log file each night, it organizes all of its reports according to that first field. Webalizer has no other way to know how it should organize the reports, because it was designed and written as a host-based reporting tool. Why do my statistics look so low? (AKA - my web counter is higher) If you have a web page hit counter on your main web page, and you also check your site statistics using a Webalizer report, you may notice a discrepancy between the hit counter and Webalizer. Remember, Webalizer organizes all of its reports according to host name, and if you have a virtual host name, there are at least two valid addresses for every page on your site. A web page hit counter is much simpler than Webalizer, operating only on the HTML document upon which it appears. Webalizer generates statistics for every file available under your virtual host name. Hit counters increment every time a particular web page is sent from the server to a browser, regardless of the address by which the web page was referred to. This means that the hit counter will increment whether someone viewed your page using the virtual host name address or not. If your site has been active for any length of time prior to obtaining a virtual host name, then your old web page addresses are more than likely already in wide circulation across the Internet. You may also be linked from many other sites using your old non-virtual host name address(es). In time, as you advertise your virtual host name, and links to your site are updated, the Webalizer statistics will become a more accurate reflection of the traffic to your site. Still, the non-virtual host name addresses for your site will always be accessible, and any time someone uses them, Webalizer will lump that activity under the main host name for the Rutgers-Camden campus - www.camden.rutgers.edu. |
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Questions/comments regarding Camden Computing Services or this web site can be directed to: help@camden.rutgers.edu. Last updated: November 28, 2005, 12:20 EST. © 2005-2010 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. All rights reserved. |