Usage Statistics

Usage statistics are presented in two formats:

(1) A summary page displaying the last twelve months as a graph and as a table.

(2) A link from the name of each month in the table to additional information from that month's activity.

Terminology used on the summary page:

1. Pages. Total number of web pages accessed (excludes graphics). Generally, any HTML document, or anything that generates an HTML document, would be considered a page. This does not include the other pieces that go into a document, such as graphic images, audio clips, etc...
    
2. Files. This is the total number of files returned by the site. Some requests made to the server require that the server send something back to the requesting client, such as a web page or graphic image. When this happens, this is counted a 'file'. The relationship between 'hits' and 'files' can be thought of as 'incoming requests' and 'outgoing responses'. Many times if a page has not been modified since a previous visit, no new information is sent in the outgoing response.
    
3. Hits. This is the total number of files requested from the site. Any request made to the server which is logged, is considered a 'hit'. The requests can be for anything including html pages, graphic images, audio files, cgi scripts, etc...
    
4. Visits. This is an attempt to estimate the number of visits made. Whenever a request is made to the server from a given computer address (a site with a unique IP address), the amount of time since a previous request by the address is calculated (if any). If the time difference is greater than 30 minutes (or the site has never made a request before), the visit is considered a 'new visit'. If a user visits your site at 1:00 in the afternoon, and then returns at 3:00, two visits are registered.
    
5. Sites. Each request made by a web browser 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).
    
6. KBytes. The KBytes (kilobytes) value shows the amount of data, in KB, sent out by the server during the specified reporting period.
    
7. Avg. The average number of events on this site for the period. (e.g. Average Number of Hits per Day)
    
8. Max. The highest number of events on this site for this period. (e.g. Highest Number of Hits per Day).
    

Additional Terminology used on Monthly Summary Pages:

1. URLs. These are web pages addresses on your site.
    
2. Referrers/Referers. These are the web addresses (URL's) visitors were at just previous to your web site. Usually, but not always, those sites have a link to your web site.
    
3. Top Entry and Exit Pages. The Top Entry and Exit Pages give a rough estimate of what URL's (web addresses) on your site were the first pages viewed and what the last pages viewed are. This number should be considered a good "rough guess" of the actual numbers, but will give a good indication of the overall trend in where users come into and exit from your site.
    
4. Search String. These are words and phrases people entered in search engines to reach your site. Keep in mind that search words cannot be gleaned from all accesses resulting from search engines because some do not include the words in their requests.
    
5. UserAgents. UserAgents are "web browsers", the software visitors use to access your web site. Examples include MSIE 4 = Microsoft Internet Explorer 4 Mozilla/4 = Netscape 4