From: eldy <> Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2002 13:52:36 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Updated documentation X-Git-Tag: AWSTATS_5_0_BETA~110 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=705032cfbf5eb7c22d7d365f0ca770b873a95bf2;p=thirdparty%2FAWStats.git Updated documentation --- diff --git a/docs/awstats_faq.html b/docs/awstats_faq.html index e23630b3..2780b359 100644 --- a/docs/awstats_faq.html +++ b/docs/awstats_faq.html @@ -1,684 +1,684 @@ - - - - - - - -AWStats Documentation - FAQs - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
-AWStats logfile analyzer 5.0 Documentation
-
-		 -  -
- - -

Frequently Asked Questions + Troubleshooting

- - -
-ABOUT QUESTIONS:
- -
- -SETUP or ERROR QUESTIONS:
-Here, you can find the most common questions and answers users have to install/setup AWStats.
- -
- -COMMON SUPPORT QUESTIONS:
-Here, you can find the most common questions and answers users have when using AWStats.
- -
- -SECURITY QUESTIONS:
-Here, you can find the common questions about security problems when setting or using AWStats.
- -
- -
-

-
-FAQ-ABO100 : WHICH WEB SERVER OR OS ARE SUPPORTED ?
-AWStats can works with all web server able to write log file with a combined log format (XLF/ELF) like Apache, -a common log format (CLF) like Apache or Squid, an W3C log format like IIS 5.0 or higher (Some users have -reported that you can setup your log format to W3C with IIS 4.0 but you need a service pack 6), and a lot of others -Web/Wap/Proxy servers.
-Because AWStats is in Perl, it can works on all Operating Systems.
-Examples of used platforms (bold means 'tested by author', others were reported by AWStats users to work correctly) :
-
-OS:
-Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Linux, Macintosh, Solaris, Aix, BeOS, ...
-Web/Wap/Proxy servers
-Apache, IIS 5.0, WebStar, WebLogic, WebSite, Squid, Roxen, IPlanet, IceCast, Zope, www4mail, ...
-Perl interpreters:
-ActivePerl 5.6, Perl for unix 5.0, mod_perl for Apache, ...
-
-
- -
-FAQ-ABO150 : WHICH LOG FORMAT CAN AWSTATS ANALYZE ?
-AWStats setup knows predefined log format you can use to make AWStats config easier. However, -you can define your own log format, that's the reason why AWStats can analyze nearly all web, wap -and proxy server log files. Some FTP servers are also supported.
-The only requirement is "Your log file must contain required information".
-This is example of possible log format:
- -Apache combined log format (known as NCSA combined log format or XLF or ELF format) (See FAQ for this format)
-IIS 5.0+ log format (known as W3C format)
-Webstar native log format
-ProFTP server
-...
-Apache common log format (AWStats can now analyze such log files but such log files does not contain all information -AWStats is looking for. The problem is in the content, not in the format). I think analyzing common log files is not -interesting because there is a lot of missing information: no way to filter robots, find search engines, keywords, os, browser. -But a lot of users asked me for it, so AWStats support it. However, a lot of interesting advanced features can't work: browsers, os's, keywords, robot detection...). -
-See also F.A.Q.: LOG FORMAT SETUP OR ERRORS .
-
- - -
-FAQ-ABO200 : WHICH LANGUAGES ARE AVAILABLE ?
-AWStats can make reports in 28 languages. This is a list of all of them, for last version, in alphabetical order (with the code you can use -for Lang and ShowFlagLinks parameter) :
- -
-Bosnian=ba, Chinese (Taiwan)=tw, Chinese (Traditional)=cn, Czech=cz, -Danish=dk, Dutch=nl, English=en, Finnish=fi, French=fr, German=de, -Greek=gr, Hungarian=hu, Indonesian=id, Italian=it, Japanese=jp, Korean=kr, -Latvian=lv, Norwegian (Nynorsk)=nn, Norwegian (Bokmal)=nb, Polish=pl, -Portuguese=pt, Portuguese (Brazilian)=br, Romanian=ro, Russian=ru, -Spanish=es, Swedish=se, Turkish=tr, Ukrainian=ua -
- -However, AWStats documentation is only provided in English.
-But, you can find some documentation made by contributors:
-In French: How to install AWStats and Webalizer
-
- -
-FAQ-ABO250 : CAN AWSTATS BE INTEGRATED WITH PHP NUKE ?
-I don't know any plan to make an Add-On for PHPNuke to include AWStats, for the moment. -But this can change. You should ask to have a such Add-On to PHPNuke authors, and on PHPNuke forums.
-
- - -

- - -
-FAQ-SET050 : ERROR "MISSING $ ON LOOP VARIABLE ..."
-PROBLEM:
-When I run awstats.pl from command line, I get:
-"Missing $ on loop variable at awstats.pl line xxx"
-SOLUTION:
-Problem is in your Perl interpreter. Try to install or reinstall a more recent/stable Perl interpreter.
-You can get new Perl version at ActivePerl (Win32) -or Perl.com (Unix/Linux/Other).
-
- -
-FAQ-SET100 : I SEE PERL SCRIPT'S SOURCE INSTEAD OF ITS EXECUTION
-PROBLEM:
-When I try to execute the Perl script through the web server, -I see the Perl script's source instead of the HTML result page of its execution !
-SOLUTION:
-This is not a problem of AWStats but a problem in your web server setup. -awstats.pl file must be in a directory defined in your web server to be a "cgi" directory, -this means, a directory configured in your web server to contain "executable" files and -not to documents files. -You have to read your web server manual to know how to setup a directory to be an -"executable cgi" directory (With IIS, you have some checkbox to check in directory -properties, with Apache you have to use the "ExecCGI" option in the directory "Directive").
-
- -
-FAQ-SET150 : INTERNAL ERROR 500 IN MY BROWSER
-FAQ-SET200 : ERROR "... COULDN'T CREATE/SPAWN CHILD PROCESS..."
-PROBLEM:
-AWStats seems to run fine at the command prompt but when ran as a CGI from a browser, I get an "Internal Error 500".
-I also also might have the following message in my Apache error log file (or in browser with Apache 2.0+):
-...couldn't create/spawn child process: c:/mywebroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl
-SOLUTION:
-First, try to run awstats.pl from command line to see if file is correct. If you get some -syntax errors and use a Unix like OS, check if your file is a Unix like text file (This -means each line end with a LF char and not a CR+LF char).
-If awstats.pl file runs correctly from command line, this is probably because your -web server is not able to known how to run perl scripts. This problem can occur with Apache web -servers with no internal Perl interpreter (mod_perl not active). To solve this, you must -tell Apache where is your external Perl interpreter.
-For this, you have 2 solutions:
-1) Add the following directive in your Apache httpd.conf config (or remove the # to uncomment it if line is already available)
-ScriptInterpreterSource registry
-Then restart Apache. This will tell Apache to look into the registry to find the program associated to .pl extension.
-2) Other solution (not necessary if first solution works): Change the first line of awstats.pl file with the full path of your Perl interpreter.
-Example with Windows OS and ActivePerl Perl interpreter (installed in C:\Program Files\ActiveState\ActivePerl), -you must change the first line of awstats.pl file with:
-#!c:/program files/activestate/activeperl/bin/perl
-
- -
-FAQ-SET220 : IE6 CRASH WHILE RUNNING AWSTATS.PL
-PROBLEM:
-Sometimes IE6 crash while running awstats.pl with some AWStats configuration. Other versions or browsers works fine.
-SOLUTION:
-A lot of users had experienced problems with IE6. It seems that this browser is not able to load a 60k text -served by perl script which would read the 60k text file and then display the html page. -The only solution is to wait of fix from MS or use another version (5.0, 5.5...) or browser (Netscape, Opera...).
-
- -
-FAQ-SET250 : LOG FORMAT SETUP OR ERRORS
-PROBLEM:
-Which value do I have to put in the LogFormat parameter to make AWStats working with my log file format ?
-SOLUTION:
-The AWStats config file give you all possible values for LogFormat parameter. -To help you, this is some common cases of log file format, and -the corresponding value for LogFormat you must use in your AWStats config file:
- -
-If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA combined/XLF/ELF log format):
-62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234 "http://www.from.com/from.htm" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)"
-You must use : LogFormat=1
-This is same than: LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %refererquot %uaquot"
-
- -If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA combined with several virtualhostname sharing same log file).
-virtualserver1 62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234 "http://www.from.com/from.htm" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)"
-You must use : LogFormat="%virtualname %host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %refererquot %uaquot"
- -
-If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA combined with Apache using mod_gzip format 1):
-62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234 "http://www.from.com/from.htm" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)" mod_gzip: 66pct.
-You must use : LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %refererquot %uaquot %other %gzipratio"
-
- -If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA combined with Apache using mod_gzip format 2):
-62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234 "http://www.from.com/from.htm" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)" mod_gzip: DECHUNK:OK In:11393 Out:3904:66pct.
-You must use : LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %refererquot %uaquot %other %other %gzipin %gzipout"
- -
-If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA common CLF log format):
-62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234
-You must use : LogFormat=4
-Note: Browsers, OS's, Keywords and Referers features are not available with a such format.
-
- -If your log records are EXACTLY like this (With some Squid versions):
-200.135.30.181 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET http://www.mysite.com/page.html HTTP/1.0" 200 456 TCP_CLIENT_REFRESH_MISS:DIRECT
-You must use : LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %other"
- -
-If your log records are EXACTLY like this (IIS W3C log format):
-yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss 62.161.78.73 - GET /page.html 200 1234 HTTP/1.1 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+5.01;+Windows+NT+5.0) http://www.from.com/from.html
-You must use : LogFormat=2
-
- -If your log records are EXACTLY like this (With some providers):
-62.161.78.73 - - [dd/Month/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" "-" 200 1234
-You must use : LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %other %code %bytesd"
-Note: Browsers, OS's, Keywords and Referers features are not available with a such format.
- -
-If your log records are EXACTLY like this (With some WebSite versions):
-yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss 62.161.78.73 - 192.168.1.1 80 GET /page.html - 200 11205 0 0 HTTP/1.1 mydomain.com Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+5.5;+Windows+98) - http://www.from.com/from.html
-You must use : LogFormat="%time2 %host %logname %other %other %method %url %other %code %bytesd %other %other %other %other %ua %other %referer"
-
- -If your log records are EXACTLY like this (Webstar native log format):
-05/21/00 00:17:31 OK 200 212.242.30.6 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98; DigExt) http://www.cover.dk/ "www.cover.dk" :Documentation:graphics:starninelogo.white.gif 1133
-You must use : LogFormat=3
- -
-If you use ProFTP server:
-See Next FAQ.
-
- -
-There is a lot of other possible log formats.
-You must use a personalized log format LogFormat ="..." as described in config file to -support other various log formats.
-
-
- -
-FAQ-SET260 : SETUP FOR FTP SERVER LOG FILES
-PROBLEM:
-What do I have to do to use AWStats to analyze some FTP server log files.
-SOLUTION:
-AWStats was built to analyze web,wap or proxy server's log files. However it can be used with some FTP server log files.
-This is example for ProFTP:
-Modify the proftpd.conf file. At the very top add two new defines.
-LogFormat awstats "%t %h %u GET %f 200 %b"
-ExtendedLog /var/log/xferlog read,write awstats
-Turn off Transfer log (optional)
-TransferLog none
-Copy config awstats.conf file to "awstats.proftp.conf".
-Modify this new config file:
-LogFile="/var/log/xferlog"
-LogFormat="%time1 %host %logname %method %url %code %bytesd"
-DNSLookup=0
-ShowLinksOnUrl=0
-ShowAuthenticatedUsers=1
- -Warning: This tip doesn't work for FTPed files that contains spaces in them (they are not reported). You can still convert your -log file to replace 'space' char into '_'...
-
- -
-FAQ-SET280 : ERROR "NOT SAME NUMBER OF RECORDS OF..."
-PROBLEM:
-When I run AWStats from command line (or as a cgi from a browser), I get -a message "Not same number of records of ...".
-SOLUTION:
-This means your AWStats reference database files (operating systems, browsers, robots...) are not correct. -First try to update to 4.0. Then check in your disk that you have only ONE of those files. They should be -in 'lib' directory ('db' with 4.0) where awstats.pl is installed:
-browsers.pl
-operating_systems.pl
-robots.pl
-domains.pl
-search_engines.pl
-
- -
-FAQ-SET300 : ERROR "COULDN'T OPEN FILE ..."
-PROBLEM:
-I have the following error:
-"Couldn't open file /workingpath/awstatsmmyyyy.tmp.9999: Permission denied."
-SOLUTION:
-This error means that the web server didn't succeed in writing the working temporary file (file ended by .tmp.9999 -where 9999 is a number) because of permissions problems.
-First check that the directory /workingpath has "Write" permission for
-user nobody (default user used by Apache on Linux systems)
-or user IUSR_SERVERNAME (default used user by IIS on NT).
-With Unix, try with a path with no links.
-With NT, you must check NTFS permissions ("Read/Write/Modify"), if your directory is on a NTFS partition.
-With IIS, there is also a "Write" permission attribute, defined in directory properties -in your IIS setup, that you must check.
-With IIS, if a default cgi-bin directory was created during IIS install, try to -put AWStats directly into this directory.
-If this still fails, you can change the DirData parameter to say AWStats -that you want to use another directory (A directory you are sure that the default -user, used by web server process, can write into).
-
- -
-FAQ-SET350 : EMPTY OR NULL STATISTICS REPORTED
-PROBLEM:
-AWStats seems to work but I'm not getting any results. i get a statistics page that looks like i have no hits.
-SOLUTION:
-That's the one of the most common problem you can have and reason is simple: Your log file format setup is wrong.
-If you use Apache web server
-The best way of working is to use the "combined" log format (See the Setup and Use page -to know the way to change your Apache server log from "common" log format into "combined"). -Don't forget to stop Apache, reset your log file and restart Apache to make change into combined -effective. Then you must setup your AWStats config file with value LogFormat=1.
-If you want to use another format, read the next FAQ to have examples of LogFile value according -to log files format.
-If you use IIS server or Windows built-in web server
-The Internet Information Server default W3C Extended Log Format will not work correctly with AWStats. -To make it work correctly, start the IIS Snap-in, select the web site and look at it's Properties. -Choose W3C Extended Log Format, then Properties, then the Tab Extended Properties and uncheck everything -under Extended Properties. Once they are all unchecked, check off the list given in -the Setup and Use page ("With IIS Server" chapter).
-You can also read the next FAQ to have examples of LogFormat value according to log files format.
-
- -
-FAQ-SET400 : PIPE REDIRECTION TO A FILE GIVE ME AN EMPTY FILE
-PROBLEM:
-I want to redirect awstats.pl output to a file with the following command :
-> awstats.pl -config=... [other_options] > myfile.html
-But myfile.html is empty (size is 0). If i remove the redirection, everythings works correctly.
-SOLUTION:
-This is not an AWStats bug but a problem between perl and Windows.
-You can easily solve this running the following command instead:
-> perl awstats.pl -config=... [other_options] > myfile.html
-
- -
-FAQ-SET450 : NO PICTURES/GRAPHICS SHOWN
-PROBLEM:
-AWStats seems to work (all data and counters seem to be good) but I have no image shown.
-SOLUTION:
-With Apache web server, you might have troubles (no picture shown on stats page) if you use a directory called "icons" (because of Apache -pre-defined "icons" alias directory), so use instead, for example, a directory called "icon" with -no s at the end (Rename your directory physically and change the DirIcons parameter in config file -to reflect this change).
-
- -
-FAQ-SET500 : HOW TO ROTATE MY LOGS WITHOUT LOOSING DATA
-PROBLEM:
-I want to archive/rotate my logs using my web server system options or a third software (rotatelog, -cronolog) but don't want to loose any visits information during the rotate process.
-SOLUTION:
-If you use a rotate system (internal web server feature or third software), this means you probably not use -AWStats PurgeLogFile nor ArchiveLogRecords parameter.
-* If your config file is setup to process current log file (because you want to use the AllowToUpdateStatsFromBrowser -option), if you don't want to loose any records during the rotate process, you can just run the AWStats update process -on the archived log file just after the update process using the -logfile option (This will avoid you to change the config file).
-* If you choose (for security reason, to avoid CPU abuse on large web site or other) to make updates by your scheduler only on archive files, this means -you don't use the AllowToUpdateStatsFromBrowser "real-time" feature of AWStats. -In this case all you have to do is to run the update process just after the rotate was done using a config/domain file configured to -process the archived log files (using date tags of LogFile for examples).
-Note: For Apache users, use of cronolog seems to be a better choice -than rotatelog (cronolog is available for Unix/Linux and Windows and is more flexible).
-To use cronolog or rotatelog you must setup your web server log file name using a pipe like this example:
-CustomLog "|/usr/sbin/cronolog [cronolog_options] /var/logs/access.%Y%m%d.log" combined
-
- - - -
-FAQ-SET550 : HOW TO RUN AWSTATS FREQUENTLY
-PROBLEM:
-AWStats must be ran frequently to update statistics. How can I do this ?
-SOLUTION:
-
-With Windows, you can use the internal task scheduler. -The use of this tool is not an AWStats related problem, so please take a look at your Windows manual. -Warning, if you use "awstats.pl -config=mysite -update" in your scheduled task, you might -experience problem of failing task. Try this instead
-"C:\WINNT\system32\CMD.EXE /C C:\[awstats_path]\awstats.pl -config=mysite -update"
-or
-"C:\[perl_path]\perl.exe C:\[awstats_path]\awstats.pl -config=mysite -update"
-A lot of other scheduler (sharewares/freewares) are very good.
-
-With unix-like operating systems, you can use the "crontab".
-This is examples of lines you can add in the cron file (see your unix reference manual for cron) :
-To run update every day at 04:00, use :
-0 4 * * * /opt/awstats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=mysite -update
-To run update every hour, use :
-0 * * * * /opt/awstats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=mysite -update
-
- -
-FAQ-SET600 : HOW CAN I EXCLUDE MY IP ADDRESS (OR WHOLE SUBNET MASK) FROM STATS ?
-PROBLEM:
-I don't want to see my own IP address in the stats or I want to exclude counting visits from a whole subnet.
-SOLUTION:
-You must edit the config file to change the SkipHosts parameter.
-For example, to exclude:
-- your own IP address 123.123.123.123, use SkipHosts="123.123.123.123"
-- the whole subnet 123.123.123.xxx, use SkipHosts="123.123.123"
-- all sub hosts xxx.myintranet.com, use SkipHosts=".myintranet.com" (This one works only if DNS lookup is already done in your -log file).
-
- - -

- - -
-FAQ-COM100 : AWSTATS SPEED/TIMEOUT PROBLEMS ?
-PROBLEM:
-When I analyze large log files, processing times are very important (Update process from a browser -returns a timeout/internal error after a long wait). -Is there a setup or things to do to avoid this and increase speed ?
-SOLUTION:
-You really need to understand how a log analyzer works to have good speed. -There is also major setup changes you can do to decrease your processing time.
-- Launch AWStats more often (from crontab or a scheduler). More often you launch -AWStats, more faster is AWStats (because the less is the number of NEW lines in -log, since last run, to process). See the Benchmark page to -get examples of launching frequency according to your web traffic
-- You can disable DNSLookup in configure file (set DNSLookup=0) -but this requires that hosts addresses in your log file are already resolved (need to setup your web server to do so) or that -you don't need the domain/country report. -Log analyze speed can be increased by 2 to 50 times but your web server will be slowed.
-If you don't understand what is an "already resolved reverse DNS lookup", keep -this parameter to 1.
-- If you use Apache, set PurgeLogFile to 1 (By default, to avoid bad surprise, -PurgeLogFile is 0 in configure file, but you can set it to 1 to ask AWStats -to purge the log file after processing it. This increase speed for next run).
-- Use last AWStats version.
-
- -
-FAQ-COM150 : BENCHMARK / FREQUENCY TO LAUNCH AWSTATS TO UPDATE STATISTICS
-PROBLEM:
-What is AWStats speed ?
-PROBLEM:
-What is the frequency to launch AWStats process to update my statistics ?
-SOLUTION: -All benchmarks information and advice on frequency for update process are related into -the Benchmark page.
-
- -
-FAQ-COM200 : HOW REVERSE DNS LOOKUP WORKS, UNRESOLVED IP ADDRESSES
-PROBLEM:
-The reported page AWStats shows me has no hostnames, only IP addresses, countries reported are all "unknown".
-SOLUTION:
-When AWStats find an IP address in your log file, it tries a reverse DNS lookup to find -the hostname and domain if the DNSLookup parameter, in your AWStats config file, is DNSLookup=1 -(Default value). So, first, check if you have the good value. The DNSLookup=0 -must be used only if your log file contains already resolved IP address. For example, -when you set up Apache with the HostNameLookups=on directive. When you -ask your web server to make itself the reverse DNS lookup to log hostname instead -of IP address, you will still find some IP addresses in your log file because -the reverse DNS lookup is not always possible. But if your web server fails in -it, AWStats will also fails (All reverse DNS lookups use the same system API). -So to avoid AWStats to make an already done lookup (with success or not), you -can set DNSLookup=0 in AWStats config file. -If you prefer, you can make the reverse DNS lookup on a log file before running -your log analyzer (If you only need to convert a logfile with IP Addresses into a -logfile with resolved hostnames). You can use for this logresolvemerge tool -provided with AWStats distribution (This tools is an improved version of logresolve provided with Apache).
-
- -
-FAQ-COM250 : DIFFERENT RESULTS THAN OTHER ANALYZER
-PROBLEM:
-I also use webalizer (or another log analyzer) and it doesn't report the same results than AWStats. Why ?
-SOLUTION:
-If you compare AWStats results with an other log file analyzer, you will found some differences, -sometimes very important. In fact, all analyzer (even AWStats) make "over reporting" because of the -problem of proxy-servers and robots. However AWStats is one the most accurate and its "over reporting" -is very low where all other analyzers, even the most famous, have a very high error rate (10% to 2x more than reality).
-This is the most important reasons why you will find differences:
-- Some dynamic pages generated by CGI programs are not counted by some analyzer (ie Webalizer) like -a "Page" (but only like a "Hit") if CGI prog has not a .cgi extension, so they are not included -correctly in their statistics. AWStats does not make this error and all CGI pages are pages.
-- AWStats is the alone analyzer (that i know for the moment) able to detect robots visits. -All other analyzers think it's a human visitor. This error make them to report more visits and visitors -than reality. This does not happen with AWStats. When it tells "1 visitor", it means "1 human visitor". -All robots hits are reported in the "Robots/Spiders visitors" chart.
-- A lot of analyzer (ie webalizer) use the "Hits" to count visitors. This is not a good way of working : -Some visitors use a lot of proxy servers to surf (ie: AOL users), this means it's possible that several -hosts (with several IP addresses) are used to reach your site for only one visitor (ie: one proxy server download -the page and 2 other servers download all images). Because of this, if stats of unique visitors are made on "hits", -3 users are reported but it's wrong. So AWStats, like HitBox, considers only HTML "Pages" to count unique visitors. -This decrease the error, not completely, because it's always possible that a proxy server download one HTML frame and -another one download another frame, but this make the over-reporting of unique visitors less important.
-There is also differences in log analyzers databases and algorithms that make details of results less or more accurate:
-- AWStats has a larger browser, os and search engine database, so reports concerning this are more accurate.
-- AWStats has url syntax rules to find keywords or keyphrases used to find your site, but AWStats has also -an algorithm to detect keywords of unknown search engines with unknown url syntax rule.
-
- -
-FAQ-COM300 : DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOCAL HOURS AND AWSTATS REPORTED HOURS
-PROBLEM:
-I use IIS and there's a difference between local hour and AWStats reported hour. For example I made a hit on a page -at 4:00 and AWStats report I hit it at 2:00.
-SOLUTION:
-This is not a problem of time in your local client host. -AWStats use only time reported in logs by your server -and all time are related to server hour. The problem is that IIS in some foreign -versions puts GMT time in its log file (and not local time). So, you have also -GMT time in your statistics.
-You can do nothing, for the moment, but waiting that Microsoft change this in next -IIS versions. However, Microsoft sheet Q271196 "IIS Log File Entries -Have the Incorrect Date and Time Stamp" says:
-The selected log file format is the W3C Extended Log File -Format. The extended log file format is defined in the W3C -Working Draft WD-logfile-960323 specification by Phillip -M. Hallam-Baker and Brian Behlendorf. This document defines -the Date and Time files to always be in GMT. This behavior -is by design.
-So this means this way of working might never be changed.
-
- -
-FAQ-COM350 : HOW CAN I PROCESS OLD LOG FILE ?
-PROBLEM:
-I want to process an old log file to include its data in my AWStats reports.
-SOLUTION:
-You must change your LogFile parameter to point to the old log file and run -the update (or use the -logformat option on command line to overwrite LogFile parameter). -The update process can only accept files in chronological order, so if you have already processed a recent file, -you must before reset all your statistics (see next FAQ) and restart all the update process for all past log files -and in chronological order.
-
- -
-FAQ-COM400 : HOW CAN I UPDATE MY STATISTICS WHEN I USE A LOAD BALANCING SYSTEM THAT SPLITS MY LOGS ?
-PROBLEM:
-How can I update my statistics when i use a load balancing system that split my logs ?
-SOLUTION:
-The best solution is to merge all split log files resulted from all your load balanced servers into one. For this, you can use -the logresolvemerge tool provided with AWStats :
-logresolvemerge.pl file1.log file2.log ... filen.log > newfiletoprocess.log
-And setup the LogFile parameter in your config file to process the newfiletoprocess.log file or use -the -logfile command line option to overwrite LogFile value.
-
- -
-FAQ-COM500 : HOW CAN I RESET ALL MY STATISTICS ?
-PROBLEM:
-I want to reset all my statistics and restart my stats from now.
-SOLUTION:
-All analyzed data are stored by AWStats in files called awstatsMMYYYY.[site.]txt (one file each month). -You will find those files in directory defined by DirData parameter (same directory than awstats.pl by default).
-To reset your stats for a month, you just have to delete the file for the required month/year.
-To reset all your stats, delete all files awstats*.txt
-Warning, if you delete those data files, you won't be able to recover your stats back, unless you kept old log files somewhere. -You will have to process all past log files (in chronological order) to get old statistics back.
-
- -
-FAQ-COM550 : CAN I SAFELY REMOVE A LINE IN HISTORY FILES (awstatsMMYYYY*.txt) ?
-PROBLEM:
-After processing a log file I want to change my statistics -without running AWStats update process but changing directly data in AWStats historical database files.
-SOLUTION:
-If you remove a lines starting with "BEGIN_" or "END_", AWStats will find your file "corrupted" so you must not change those -kind of lines. All lines that are not in any "section" (between a BEGIN_xxx and END_xxx line) should also not be removed. -However you can change any line that is a "section record", but you do this at your own risk. Your reported stats -might have wrong values after that.
-
- -

- -
-FAQ-SEC100 : CAN AWSTATS BE USED TO MAKE CROSS SITE SCRIPTING ATTACKS ?
-PROBLEM:
-If a bad user use a browser to make a hit on an URL that include a < SCRIPT > ... < /SCRIPT > -section in its parameter, when AWStats will show the links on the report page, does the script will be executed ?
-SOLUTION:
-No. AWStats use a filter to remove all scripts codes that was included in an URL to make a Cross Site Scripting Attack using a -log analyzer report page.
-
- -
-FAQ-SEC150 : HOW CAN I PREVENT SOME USERS TO SEE STATISTICS OF OTHER USERS ?
-PROBLEM:
-I don't want a user xxx (having a site www.xxx.com) to see statistics of user yyy (having -a site www.yyy.com). How can i setup AWStats for this ?
-SOLUTION:
-Take a look at the security page.
-
- -
-FAQ-SEC200 : HOW TO MANAGE LOG FILES (AND STATISTICS) CORRUPTED BY 'CODE RED VIRUS LIKE' ATTACKS ?
-PROBLEM:
-My site is attacked by some Code Red Viruses. This make my log file corrupted -and full of 404 errors. So my statistics are also full of 404 errors. This make AWStats slower and my history files very large. -Can I do something to avoid this ?
-SOLUTION:
-Yes.
-'Code Red virus like' attacks are infected browsers or robots that make hits on your site using a very long unknown URL -like this one (hoping your server is IIS):
-/default.ida?XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX%40%50...%40%50
-URL is generated by the infected robot and the purpose is to exploit a vulnerability of the web server (only IIS is concerned by Code Red worm). -So you will often find a 'common string' in those URLs. For example, with Code Red worm, there is always default.ida in the URL string. -So, you should edit your config file to add in the SkipFiles parameter the following value:
-SkipFiles="default.ida"
-
- - -
- - - - + + + + + + + +AWStats Documentation - FAQs + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+
+AWStats logfile analyzer 5.0 Documentation
+
+		 +  +
+ + +

Frequently Asked Questions + Troubleshooting

+ + +
+ABOUT QUESTIONS:
+ +
+ +SETUP or ERROR QUESTIONS:
+Here, you can find the most common questions and answers users have to install/setup AWStats.
+ +
+ +COMMON SUPPORT QUESTIONS:
+Here, you can find the most common questions and answers users have when using AWStats.
+ +
+ +SECURITY QUESTIONS:
+Here, you can find the common questions about security problems when setting or using AWStats.
+ +
+ +
+

+
+FAQ-ABO100 : WHICH WEB SERVER OR OS ARE SUPPORTED ?
+AWStats can works with all web server able to write log file with a combined log format (XLF/ELF) like Apache, +a common log format (CLF) like Apache or Squid, an W3C log format like IIS 5.0 or higher (Some users have +reported that you can setup your log format to W3C with IIS 4.0 but you need a service pack 6), and a lot of others +Web/Wap/Proxy servers.
+Because AWStats is in Perl, it can works on all Operating Systems.
+Examples of used platforms (bold means 'tested by author', others were reported by AWStats users to work correctly) :
+
+OS:
+Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Linux, Macintosh, Solaris, Aix, BeOS, ...
+Web/Wap/Proxy servers
+Apache, IIS 5.0, WebStar, WebLogic, WebSite, Squid, Roxen, IPlanet, IceCast, Zope, www4mail, ...
+Perl interpreters:
+ActivePerl 5.6, Perl for unix 5.0, mod_perl for Apache, ...
+
+
+ +
+FAQ-ABO150 : WHICH LOG FORMAT CAN AWSTATS ANALYZE ?
+AWStats setup knows predefined log format you can use to make AWStats config easier. However, +you can define your own log format, that's the reason why AWStats can analyze nearly all web, wap +and proxy server log files. Some FTP servers are also supported.
+The only requirement is "Your log file must contain required information".
+This is example of possible log format:
+ +Apache combined log format (known as NCSA combined log format or XLF or ELF format) (See FAQ for this format)
+IIS 5.0+ log format (known as W3C format)
+Webstar native log format
+ProFTP server
+...
+Apache common log format (AWStats can now analyze such log files but such log files does not contain all information +AWStats is looking for. The problem is in the content, not in the format). I think analyzing common log files is not +interesting because there is a lot of missing information: no way to filter robots, find search engines, keywords, os, browser. +But a lot of users asked me for it, so AWStats support it. However, a lot of interesting advanced features can't work: browsers, os's, keywords, robot detection...). +
+See also F.A.Q.: LOG FORMAT SETUP OR ERRORS .
+
+ + +
+FAQ-ABO200 : WHICH LANGUAGES ARE AVAILABLE ?
+AWStats can make reports in 28 languages. This is a list of all of them, for last version, in alphabetical order (with the code you can use +for Lang and ShowFlagLinks parameter) :
+ +
+Bosnian=ba, Chinese (Taiwan)=tw, Chinese (Traditional)=cn, Czech=cz, +Danish=dk, Dutch=nl, English=en, Finnish=fi, French=fr, German=de, +Greek=gr, Hungarian=hu, Indonesian=id, Italian=it, Japanese=jp, Korean=kr, +Latvian=lv, Norwegian (Nynorsk)=nn, Norwegian (Bokmal)=nb, Polish=pl, +Portuguese=pt, Portuguese (Brazilian)=br, Romanian=ro, Russian=ru, +Spanish=es, Swedish=se, Turkish=tr, Ukrainian=ua +
+ +However, AWStats documentation is only provided in English.
+But, you can find some documentation made by contributors:
+In French: How to install AWStats and Webalizer
+
+ +
+FAQ-ABO250 : CAN AWSTATS BE INTEGRATED WITH PHP NUKE ?
+I don't know any plan to make an Add-On for PHPNuke to include AWStats, for the moment. +But this can change. You should ask to have a such Add-On to PHPNuke authors, and on PHPNuke forums.
+
+ + +

+ + +
+FAQ-SET050 : ERROR "MISSING $ ON LOOP VARIABLE ..."
+PROBLEM:
+When I run awstats.pl from command line, I get:
+"Missing $ on loop variable at awstats.pl line xxx"
+SOLUTION:
+Problem is in your Perl interpreter. Try to install or reinstall a more recent/stable Perl interpreter.
+You can get new Perl version at ActivePerl (Win32) +or Perl.com (Unix/Linux/Other).
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET100 : I SEE PERL SCRIPT'S SOURCE INSTEAD OF ITS EXECUTION
+PROBLEM:
+When I try to execute the Perl script through the web server, +I see the Perl script's source instead of the HTML result page of its execution !
+SOLUTION:
+This is not a problem of AWStats but a problem in your web server setup. +awstats.pl file must be in a directory defined in your web server to be a "cgi" directory, +this means, a directory configured in your web server to contain "executable" files and +not to documents files. +You have to read your web server manual to know how to setup a directory to be an +"executable cgi" directory (With IIS, you have some checkbox to check in directory +properties, with Apache you have to use the "ExecCGI" option in the directory "Directive").
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET150 : INTERNAL ERROR 500 IN MY BROWSER
+FAQ-SET200 : ERROR "... COULDN'T CREATE/SPAWN CHILD PROCESS..."
+PROBLEM:
+AWStats seems to run fine at the command prompt but when ran as a CGI from a browser, I get an "Internal Error 500".
+I also also might have the following message in my Apache error log file (or in browser with Apache 2.0+):
+...couldn't create/spawn child process: c:/mywebroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl
+SOLUTION:
+First, try to run awstats.pl from command line to see if file is correct. If you get some +syntax errors and use a Unix like OS, check if your file is a Unix like text file (This +means each line end with a LF char and not a CR+LF char).
+If awstats.pl file runs correctly from command line, this is probably because your +web server is not able to known how to run perl scripts. This problem can occur with Apache web +servers with no internal Perl interpreter (mod_perl not active). To solve this, you must +tell Apache where is your external Perl interpreter.
+For this, you have 2 solutions:
+1) Add the following directive in your Apache httpd.conf config (or remove the # to uncomment it if line is already available)
+ScriptInterpreterSource registry
+Then restart Apache. This will tell Apache to look into the registry to find the program associated to .pl extension.
+2) Other solution (not necessary if first solution works): Change the first line of awstats.pl file with the full path of your Perl interpreter.
+Example with Windows OS and ActivePerl Perl interpreter (installed in C:\Program Files\ActiveState\ActivePerl), +you must change the first line of awstats.pl file with:
+#!c:/program files/activestate/activeperl/bin/perl
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET220 : IE6 CRASH WHILE RUNNING AWSTATS.PL
+PROBLEM:
+Sometimes IE6 crash while running awstats.pl with some AWStats configuration. Other versions or browsers works fine.
+SOLUTION:
+A lot of users had experienced problems with IE6. It seems that this browser is not able to load a 60k text +served by perl script which would read the 60k text file and then display the html page. +The only solution is to wait of fix from MS or use another version (5.0, 5.5...) or browser (Netscape, Opera...).
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET250 : LOG FORMAT SETUP OR ERRORS
+PROBLEM:
+Which value do I have to put in the LogFormat parameter to make AWStats working with my log file format ?
+SOLUTION:
+The AWStats config file give you all possible values for LogFormat parameter. +To help you, this is some common cases of log file format, and +the corresponding value for LogFormat you must use in your AWStats config file:
+ +
+If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA combined/XLF/ELF log format):
+62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234 "http://www.from.com/from.htm" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)"
+You must use : LogFormat=1
+This is same than: LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %refererquot %uaquot"
+
+ +If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA combined with several virtualhostname sharing same log file).
+virtualserver1 62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234 "http://www.from.com/from.htm" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)"
+You must use : LogFormat="%virtualname %host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %refererquot %uaquot"
+ +
+If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA combined with Apache using mod_gzip format 1):
+62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234 "http://www.from.com/from.htm" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)" mod_gzip: 66pct.
+You must use : LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %refererquot %uaquot %other %gzipratio"
+
+ +If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA combined with Apache using mod_gzip format 2):
+62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234 "http://www.from.com/from.htm" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.01; Windows NT 5.0)" mod_gzip: DECHUNK:OK In:11393 Out:3904:66pct.
+You must use : LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %refererquot %uaquot %other %other %gzipin %gzipout"
+ +
+If your log records are EXACTLY like this (NCSA common CLF log format):
+62.161.78.73 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234
+You must use : LogFormat=4
+Note: Browsers, OS's, Keywords and Referers features are not available with a such format.
+
+ +If your log records are EXACTLY like this (With some Squid versions):
+200.135.30.181 - - [dd/mmm/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET http://www.mysite.com/page.html HTTP/1.0" 200 456 TCP_CLIENT_REFRESH_MISS:DIRECT
+You must use : LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %code %bytesd %other"
+ +
+If your log records are EXACTLY like this (IIS W3C log format):
+yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss 62.161.78.73 - GET /page.html 200 1234 HTTP/1.1 Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+5.01;+Windows+NT+5.0) http://www.from.com/from.html
+You must use : LogFormat=2
+
+ +If your log records are EXACTLY like this (With some providers):
+62.161.78.73 - - [dd/Month/yyyy:hh:mm:ss +0x00] "GET /page.html HTTP/1.1" "-" 200 1234
+You must use : LogFormat="%host %other %logname %time1 %methodurl %other %code %bytesd"
+Note: Browsers, OS's, Keywords and Referers features are not available with a such format.
+ +
+If your log records are EXACTLY like this (With some WebSite versions):
+yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss 62.161.78.73 - 192.168.1.1 80 GET /page.html - 200 11205 0 0 HTTP/1.1 mydomain.com Mozilla/4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+5.5;+Windows+98) - http://www.from.com/from.html
+You must use : LogFormat="%time2 %host %logname %other %other %method %url %other %code %bytesd %other %other %other %other %ua %other %referer"
+
+ +If your log records are EXACTLY like this (Webstar native log format):
+05/21/00 00:17:31 OK 200 212.242.30.6 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 98; DigExt) http://www.cover.dk/ "www.cover.dk" :Documentation:graphics:starninelogo.white.gif 1133
+You must use : LogFormat=3
+ +
+If you use ProFTP server:
+See Next FAQ.
+
+ +
+There is a lot of other possible log formats.
+You must use a personalized log format LogFormat ="..." as described in config file to +support other various log formats.
+
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET260 : SETUP FOR FTP SERVER LOG FILES
+PROBLEM:
+What do I have to do to use AWStats to analyze some FTP server log files.
+SOLUTION:
+AWStats was built to analyze web,wap or proxy server's log files. However it can be used with some FTP server log files.
+This is example for ProFTP:
+Modify the proftpd.conf file. At the very top add two new defines.
+LogFormat awstats "%t %h %u GET %f 200 %b"
+ExtendedLog /var/log/xferlog read,write awstats
+Turn off Transfer log (optional)
+TransferLog none
+Copy config awstats.conf file to "awstats.proftp.conf".
+Modify this new config file:
+LogFile="/var/log/xferlog"
+LogFormat="%time1 %host %logname %method %url %code %bytesd"
+DNSLookup=0
+ShowLinksOnUrl=0
+ShowAuthenticatedUsers=1
+ +Warning: This tip doesn't work for FTPed files that contains spaces in them (they are not reported). You can still convert your +log file to replace 'space' char into '_'...
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET280 : ERROR "NOT SAME NUMBER OF RECORDS OF..."
+PROBLEM:
+When I run AWStats from command line (or as a cgi from a browser), I get +a message "Not same number of records of ...".
+SOLUTION:
+This means your AWStats reference database files (operating systems, browsers, robots...) are not correct. +First try to update to 4.0. Then check in your disk that you have only ONE of those files. They should be +in 'lib' directory ('db' with 4.0) where awstats.pl is installed:
+browsers.pl
+operating_systems.pl
+robots.pl
+domains.pl
+search_engines.pl
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET300 : ERROR "COULDN'T OPEN FILE ..."
+PROBLEM:
+I have the following error:
+"Couldn't open file /workingpath/awstatsmmyyyy.tmp.9999: Permission denied."
+SOLUTION:
+This error means that the web server didn't succeed in writing the working temporary file (file ended by .tmp.9999 +where 9999 is a number) because of permissions problems.
+First check that the directory /workingpath has "Write" permission for
+user nobody (default user used by Apache on Linux systems)
+or user IUSR_SERVERNAME (default used user by IIS on NT).
+With Unix, try with a path with no links.
+With NT, you must check NTFS permissions ("Read/Write/Modify"), if your directory is on a NTFS partition.
+With IIS, there is also a "Write" permission attribute, defined in directory properties +in your IIS setup, that you must check.
+With IIS, if a default cgi-bin directory was created during IIS install, try to +put AWStats directly into this directory.
+If this still fails, you can change the DirData parameter to say AWStats +that you want to use another directory (A directory you are sure that the default +user, used by web server process, can write into).
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET350 : EMPTY OR NULL STATISTICS REPORTED
+PROBLEM:
+AWStats seems to work but I'm not getting any results. i get a statistics page that looks like i have no hits.
+SOLUTION:
+That's the one of the most common problem you can have and reason is simple: Your log file format setup is wrong.
+If you use Apache web server
+The best way of working is to use the "combined" log format (See the Setup and Use page +to know the way to change your Apache server log from "common" log format into "combined"). +Don't forget to stop Apache, reset your log file and restart Apache to make change into combined +effective. Then you must setup your AWStats config file with value LogFormat=1.
+If you want to use another format, read the next FAQ to have examples of LogFile value according +to log files format.
+If you use IIS server or Windows built-in web server
+The Internet Information Server default W3C Extended Log Format will not work correctly with AWStats. +To make it work correctly, start the IIS Snap-in, select the web site and look at it's Properties. +Choose W3C Extended Log Format, then Properties, then the Tab Extended Properties and uncheck everything +under Extended Properties. Once they are all unchecked, check off the list given in +the Setup and Use page ("With IIS Server" chapter).
+You can also read the next FAQ to have examples of LogFormat value according to log files format.
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET400 : PIPE REDIRECTION TO A FILE GIVE ME AN EMPTY FILE
+PROBLEM:
+I want to redirect awstats.pl output to a file with the following command :
+> awstats.pl -config=... [other_options] > myfile.html
+But myfile.html is empty (size is 0). If i remove the redirection, everythings works correctly.
+SOLUTION:
+This is not an AWStats bug but a problem between perl and Windows.
+You can easily solve this running the following command instead:
+> perl awstats.pl -config=... [other_options] > myfile.html
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET450 : NO PICTURES/GRAPHICS SHOWN
+PROBLEM:
+AWStats seems to work (all data and counters seem to be good) but I have no image shown.
+SOLUTION:
+With Apache web server, you might have troubles (no picture shown on stats page) if you use a directory called "icons" (because of Apache +pre-defined "icons" alias directory), so use instead, for example, a directory called "icon" with +no s at the end (Rename your directory physically and change the DirIcons parameter in config file +to reflect this change).
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET500 : HOW TO ROTATE MY LOGS WITHOUT LOOSING DATA
+PROBLEM:
+I want to archive/rotate my logs using my web server system options or a third software (rotatelog, +cronolog) but don't want to loose any visits information during the rotate process.
+SOLUTION:
+If you use a rotate system (internal web server feature or third software), this means you probably not use +AWStats PurgeLogFile nor ArchiveLogRecords parameter.
+* If your config file is setup to process current log file (because you want to use the AllowToUpdateStatsFromBrowser +option), if you don't want to loose any records during the rotate process, you can just run the AWStats update process +on the archived log file just after the update process using the -logfile option (This will avoid you to change the config file).
+* If you choose (for security reason, to avoid CPU abuse on large web site or other) to make updates by your scheduler only on archive files, this means +you don't use the AllowToUpdateStatsFromBrowser "real-time" feature of AWStats. +In this case all you have to do is to run the update process just after the rotate was done using a config/domain file configured to +process the archived log files (using date tags of LogFile for examples).
+Note: For Apache users, use of cronolog seems to be a better choice +than rotatelog (cronolog is available for Unix/Linux and Windows and is more flexible).
+To use cronolog or rotatelog you must setup your web server log file name using a pipe like this example:
+CustomLog "|/usr/sbin/cronolog [cronolog_options] /var/logs/access.%Y%m%d.log" combined
+
+ + + +
+FAQ-SET550 : HOW TO RUN AWSTATS FREQUENTLY
+PROBLEM:
+AWStats must be ran frequently to update statistics. How can I do this ?
+SOLUTION:
+
+With Windows, you can use the internal task scheduler. +The use of this tool is not an AWStats related problem, so please take a look at your Windows manual. +Warning, if you use "awstats.pl -config=mysite -update" in your scheduled task, you might +experience problem of failing task. Try this instead
+"C:\WINNT\system32\CMD.EXE /C C:\[awstats_path]\awstats.pl -config=mysite -update"
+or
+"C:\[perl_path]\perl.exe C:\[awstats_path]\awstats.pl -config=mysite -update"
+A lot of other scheduler (sharewares/freewares) are very good.
+
+With unix-like operating systems, you can use the "crontab".
+This is examples of lines you can add in the cron file (see your unix reference manual for cron) :
+To run update every day at 04:00, use :
+0 4 * * * /opt/awstats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=mysite -update
+To run update every hour, use :
+0 * * * * /opt/awstats/wwwroot/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=mysite -update
+
+ +
+FAQ-SET600 : HOW CAN I EXCLUDE MY IP ADDRESS (OR WHOLE SUBNET MASK) FROM STATS ?
+PROBLEM:
+I don't want to see my own IP address in the stats or I want to exclude counting visits from a whole subnet.
+SOLUTION:
+You must edit the config file to change the SkipHosts parameter.
+For example, to exclude:
+- your own IP address 123.123.123.123, use SkipHosts="123.123.123.123"
+- the whole subnet 123.123.123.xxx, use SkipHosts="123.123.123"
+- all sub hosts xxx.myintranet.com, use SkipHosts=".myintranet.com" (This one works only if DNS lookup is already done in your +log file).
+
+ + +

+ + +
+FAQ-COM100 : AWSTATS SPEED/TIMEOUT PROBLEMS ?
+PROBLEM:
+When I analyze large log files, processing times are very important (Update process from a browser +returns a timeout/internal error after a long wait). +Is there a setup or things to do to avoid this and increase speed ?
+SOLUTION:
+You really need to understand how a log analyzer works to have good speed. +There is also major setup changes you can do to decrease your processing time.
+- Launch AWStats more often (from crontab or a scheduler). More often you launch +AWStats, more faster is AWStats (because the less is the number of NEW lines in +log, since last run, to process). See the Benchmark page to +get examples of launching frequency according to your web traffic
+- You can disable DNSLookup in configure file (set DNSLookup=0) +but this requires that hosts addresses in your log file are already resolved (need to setup your web server to do so) or that +you don't need the domain/country report. +Log analyze speed can be increased by 2 to 50 times but your web server will be slowed.
+If you don't understand what is an "already resolved reverse DNS lookup", keep +this parameter to 1.
+- If you use Apache, set PurgeLogFile to 1 (By default, to avoid bad surprise, +PurgeLogFile is 0 in configure file, but you can set it to 1 to ask AWStats +to purge the log file after processing it. This increase speed for next run).
+- Use last AWStats version.
+
+ +
+FAQ-COM150 : BENCHMARK / FREQUENCY TO LAUNCH AWSTATS TO UPDATE STATISTICS
+PROBLEM:
+What is AWStats speed ?
+PROBLEM:
+What is the frequency to launch AWStats process to update my statistics ?
+SOLUTION: +All benchmarks information and advice on frequency for update process are related into +the Benchmark page.
+
+ +
+FAQ-COM200 : HOW REVERSE DNS LOOKUP WORKS, UNRESOLVED IP ADDRESSES
+PROBLEM:
+The reported page AWStats shows me has no hostnames, only IP addresses, countries reported are all "unknown".
+SOLUTION:
+When AWStats find an IP address in your log file, it tries a reverse DNS lookup to find +the hostname and domain if the DNSLookup parameter, in your AWStats config file, is DNSLookup=1 +(Default value). So, first, check if you have the good value. The DNSLookup=0 +must be used only if your log file contains already resolved IP address. For example, +when you set up Apache with the HostNameLookups=on directive. When you +ask your web server to make itself the reverse DNS lookup to log hostname instead +of IP address, you will still find some IP addresses in your log file because +the reverse DNS lookup is not always possible. But if your web server fails in +it, AWStats will also fails (All reverse DNS lookups use the same system API). +So to avoid AWStats to make an already done lookup (with success or not), you +can set DNSLookup=0 in AWStats config file. +If you prefer, you can make the reverse DNS lookup on a log file before running +your log analyzer (If you only need to convert a logfile with IP Addresses into a +logfile with resolved hostnames). You can use for this logresolvemerge tool +provided with AWStats distribution (This tools is an improved version of logresolve provided with Apache).
+
+ +
+FAQ-COM250 : DIFFERENT RESULTS THAN OTHER ANALYZER
+PROBLEM:
+I also use webalizer (or another log analyzer) and it doesn't report the same results than AWStats. Why ?
+SOLUTION:
+If you compare AWStats results with an other log file analyzer, you will found some differences, +sometimes very important. In fact, all analyzer (even AWStats) make "over reporting" because of the +problem of proxy-servers and robots. However AWStats is one the most accurate and its "over reporting" +is very low where all other analyzers, even the most famous, have a very high error rate (10% to 2x more than reality).
+This is the most important reasons why you will find differences:
+- Some dynamic pages generated by CGI programs are not counted by some analyzer (ie Webalizer) like +a "Page" (but only like a "Hit") if CGI prog has not a .cgi extension, so they are not included +correctly in their statistics. AWStats does not make this error and all CGI pages are pages.
+- AWStats is the alone analyzer (that i know for the moment) able to detect robots visits. +All other analyzers think it's a human visitor. This error make them to report more visits and visitors +than reality. This does not happen with AWStats. When it tells "1 visitor", it means "1 human visitor". +All robots hits are reported in the "Robots/Spiders visitors" chart.
+- A lot of analyzer (ie webalizer) use the "Hits" to count visitors. This is not a good way of working : +Some visitors use a lot of proxy servers to surf (ie: AOL users), this means it's possible that several +hosts (with several IP addresses) are used to reach your site for only one visitor (ie: one proxy server download +the page and 2 other servers download all images). Because of this, if stats of unique visitors are made on "hits", +3 users are reported but it's wrong. So AWStats, like HitBox, considers only HTML "Pages" to count unique visitors. +This decrease the error, not completely, because it's always possible that a proxy server download one HTML frame and +another one download another frame, but this make the over-reporting of unique visitors less important.
+There is also differences in log analyzers databases and algorithms that make details of results less or more accurate:
+- AWStats has a larger browser, os and search engine database, so reports concerning this are more accurate.
+- AWStats has url syntax rules to find keywords or keyphrases used to find your site, but AWStats has also +an algorithm to detect keywords of unknown search engines with unknown url syntax rule.
+
+ +
+FAQ-COM300 : DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOCAL HOURS AND AWSTATS REPORTED HOURS
+PROBLEM:
+I use IIS and there's a difference between local hour and AWStats reported hour. For example I made a hit on a page +at 4:00 and AWStats report I hit it at 2:00.
+SOLUTION:
+This is not a problem of time in your local client host. +AWStats use only time reported in logs by your server +and all time are related to server hour. The problem is that IIS in some foreign +versions puts GMT time in its log file (and not local time). So, you have also +GMT time in your statistics.
+You can do nothing, for the moment, but waiting that Microsoft change this in next +IIS versions. However, Microsoft sheet Q271196 "IIS Log File Entries +Have the Incorrect Date and Time Stamp" says:
+The selected log file format is the W3C Extended Log File +Format. The extended log file format is defined in the W3C +Working Draft WD-logfile-960323 specification by Phillip +M. Hallam-Baker and Brian Behlendorf. This document defines +the Date and Time files to always be in GMT. This behavior +is by design.
+So this means this way of working might never be changed.
+
+ +
+FAQ-COM350 : HOW CAN I PROCESS OLD LOG FILE ?
+PROBLEM:
+I want to process an old log file to include its data in my AWStats reports.
+SOLUTION:
+You must change your LogFile parameter to point to the old log file and run +the update (or use the -logfile option on command line to overwrite LogFile parameter). +The update process can only accept files in chronological order, so if you have already processed a recent file, +you must before reset all your statistics (see next FAQ) and restart all the update process for all past log files +and in chronological order.
+
+ +
+FAQ-COM400 : HOW CAN I UPDATE MY STATISTICS WHEN I USE A LOAD BALANCING SYSTEM THAT SPLITS MY LOGS ?
+PROBLEM:
+How can I update my statistics when i use a load balancing system that split my logs ?
+SOLUTION:
+The best solution is to merge all split log files resulted from all your load balanced servers into one. For this, you can use +the logresolvemerge tool provided with AWStats :
+logresolvemerge.pl file1.log file2.log ... filen.log > newfiletoprocess.log
+And setup the LogFile parameter in your config file to process the newfiletoprocess.log file or use +the -logfile command line option to overwrite LogFile value.
+
+ +
+FAQ-COM500 : HOW CAN I RESET ALL MY STATISTICS ?
+PROBLEM:
+I want to reset all my statistics and restart my stats from now.
+SOLUTION:
+All analyzed data are stored by AWStats in files called awstatsMMYYYY.[site.]txt (one file each month). +You will find those files in directory defined by DirData parameter (same directory than awstats.pl by default).
+To reset your stats for a month, you just have to delete the file for the required month/year.
+To reset all your stats, delete all files awstats*.txt
+Warning, if you delete those data files, you won't be able to recover your stats back, unless you kept old log files somewhere. +You will have to process all past log files (in chronological order) to get old statistics back.
+
+ +
+FAQ-COM550 : CAN I SAFELY REMOVE A LINE IN HISTORY FILES (awstatsMMYYYY*.txt) ?
+PROBLEM:
+After processing a log file I want to change my statistics +without running AWStats update process but changing directly data in AWStats historical database files.
+SOLUTION:
+If you remove a lines starting with "BEGIN_" or "END_", AWStats will find your file "corrupted" so you must not change those +kind of lines. All lines that are not in any "section" (between a BEGIN_xxx and END_xxx line) should also not be removed. +However you can change any line that is a "section record", but you do this at your own risk. Your reported stats +might have wrong values after that.
+
+ +

+ +
+FAQ-SEC100 : CAN AWSTATS BE USED TO MAKE CROSS SITE SCRIPTING ATTACKS ?
+PROBLEM:
+If a bad user use a browser to make a hit on an URL that include a < SCRIPT > ... < /SCRIPT > +section in its parameter, when AWStats will show the links on the report page, does the script will be executed ?
+SOLUTION:
+No. AWStats use a filter to remove all scripts codes that was included in an URL to make a Cross Site Scripting Attack using a +log analyzer report page.
+
+ +
+FAQ-SEC150 : HOW CAN I PREVENT SOME USERS TO SEE STATISTICS OF OTHER USERS ?
+PROBLEM:
+I don't want a user xxx (having a site www.xxx.com) to see statistics of user yyy (having +a site www.yyy.com). How can i setup AWStats for this ?
+SOLUTION:
+Take a look at the security page.
+
+ +
+FAQ-SEC200 : HOW TO MANAGE LOG FILES (AND STATISTICS) CORRUPTED BY 'CODE RED VIRUS LIKE' ATTACKS ?
+PROBLEM:
+My site is attacked by some Code Red Viruses. This make my log file corrupted +and full of 404 errors. So my statistics are also full of 404 errors. This make AWStats slower and my history files very large. +Can I do something to avoid this ?
+SOLUTION:
+Yes.
+'Code Red virus like' attacks are infected browsers or robots that make hits on your site using a very long unknown URL +like this one (hoping your server is IIS):
+/default.ida?XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX%40%50...%40%50
+URL is generated by the infected robot and the purpose is to exploit a vulnerability of the web server (only IIS is concerned by Code Red worm). +So you will often find a 'common string' in those URLs. For example, with Code Red worm, there is always default.ida in the URL string. +So, you should edit your config file to add in the SkipFiles parameter the following value:
+SkipFiles="default.ida"
+
+ + +
+ + + +