statistics

[jch]

This is my first post to the Community, so hello all and please forgive my ignorance and dumb questions.My site, just in case anyone has the time or inclination to look at it, is http://www.etenerife.com/

I have some questions related to the stats provided...

If I compare Sessions (which FQ says is the most accurate way to tell unique visitors) with the stats I get from Hitslink, the numbers vary quite a lot. The FQ number is always higher. So far this month, FQ puts Sessions at 11,000+ while the Hitslink figure is about the 7,000 mark. Which figure could I report to potential advertisers as an accurate figure of my daily visitors?

Code 404: When I look at the Code 404 not found report, most of the files not found are ones I don´t even recognise. I can´t see the referrer either so I don´´t know how to track these mystery files down. I am guessing that these may be files somehow added by Frontpage?

Many thanks,

Julie

[Dunx]

Originally posted by jch:
This is my first post to the Community, so hello all and please forgive my ignorance and dumb questions.

Welcome. Hale and well met, or something equally orotund.

I'm afraid I don't know about Hitslink, not being that concerned about traffic levels myself. But...

Code 404: When I look at the Code 404 not found report, most of the files not found are ones I don´t even recognise. I can´t see the referrer either so I don´´t know how to track these mystery files down. I am guessing that these may be files somehow added by Frontpage?

What sort of files are they?

There are a few classes of 404s you're likely to get -

1/ files checked for which might be there as a standard feature

Usual things here are robots.txt (which give rules for automatic programs which scan the web on behalf of search engines and spammers) and favicon.ico (which is just a stupid cute feature, frankly - well, that's my view, anyway).

2/ files checked for by Bad People to try and break your site (including files checked for by viruses to aid in their propagation)

Usually things like CMD.EXE and various other common vulnerabilities in Windows systems.

Since both crackers and the viruses written by script kiddies will check whole blocks of IP addresses, it is quite common for machines which have only just been toruned on to get hits on these files.

Pay them no mind - FQ runs on Linux, and there's really nothing you can do to block the accesses.

3/ files which aren't there but are linked within your site
Well, you've already said that the files don't look familiar, so I assume you've checked all these.

I'm guessing mostly /2/ is what you're getting. Just ignore it.

I hope that's of help.

Welcome, once more.

[Wassercrats]

Since I started collecting IP's of those visiting my homepage (not to be nosey--it's necessary for my image gallery's memory), I noticed a discrepancy too. One too big to be explained by visits to other pages, I think. I haven't looked into it that deeply though, because I get so few sessions either way that it doesn't matter.

[jch]

Thanks for the replies...


So, you think the unfamiliar files are hackers trying to break into my website. Hmmm. Can´t see why they´d bother, but I have noticed a lot of weird email that is coming through since changing to FQ. I have three domainsup on FQ now, and I am getting a lot of odd email, unfamiliar senders, weird attachemtns. It all goes straight into the round file. I am STILL using Outlook Express, despite being told many times that it is an open door for viruses.

I guess that´s my job for the day - change to Eudora!

Best wishes,

Julie

[jeep]

Code 404: When I look at the Code 404 not found report, most of the files not found are ones I don´t even recognise. I can´t see the referrer either so I don´´t know how to track these mystery files down. I am guessing that these may be files somehow added by Frontpage?


A lot of those are actually generated by automated cracking tools. That is, script kiddies, crackers and black hats download a tool which surfs IP ranges looking for a set of vulnerabilities on each computer. They do this by trying to access certain URLS which can have special characters in or be an attempt to load a control file. When they find a server with the flaw the tool takes advantage and breaks in, alerting the user of the tool that they've had a positive hit.

So the 404s are attempts by the tools to break in. Ignore them... most of them only can break into IIS on Windows and the remainder... well that's FQ's job to worry about!

regards,
Jason