Help - Search - Member List - Calendar
Full Version: How to tell if mult. users or 1 user running mult. browsers are connecting to site?
WorkTheWeb Forums > Webmaster Resources > Webmaster - General Help
Support our Sponsors!
BGC
If users connecting to your site are behind the same firewall, is there a
way to tell if there are seperate users connecting to you or 1 user with
multiple browsers all connecting to you?

Thanks,
bgc

elyob
"BGC" <[Email Removed]> wrote in message
news:kP_xe.3249$Zt.131@okepread05...
QUOTE
If users connecting to your site are behind the same firewall, is there a
way to tell if there are seperate users connecting to you or 1 user with
multiple browsers all connecting to you?

I'd imagine the raw logs would have the individual internal IP addresses
listed.

Theg
elyob wrote:
QUOTE
"BGC" <[Email Removed]> wrote in message
news:kP_xe.3249$Zt.131@okepread05...

If users connecting to your site are behind the same firewall, is there a
way to tell if there are seperate users connecting to you or 1 user with
multiple browsers all connecting to you?


I'd imagine the raw logs would have the individual internal IP addresses
listed.




No, the logs would see all of the hits from the firewall/proxy/cache
device. The most reliable way to track those types of users is to make
them log in with a username/password. Cookies would be another
possibility for more accurate tracking.

--
Theg

rf
Theg wrote:

QUOTE
No, the logs would see all of the hits from the firewall/proxy/cache
device.  The most reliable way to track those types of users is to make
them log in with a username/password.

Thus skewing the results when those of us who refuse to "log in" to a random
website just to look at it move on elsewhere.

QUOTE
Cookies would be another
possibility for more accurate tracking.

See above.

Cheers
Richard.

Mark Parnell
Previously in alt.www.webmaster, BGC <[Email Removed]> said:

QUOTE
If users connecting to your site are behind the same firewall, is there a
way to tell if there are seperate users connecting to you or 1 user with
multiple browsers all connecting to you?
Tony
rf wrote:
QUOTE
Theg wrote:

No, the logs would see all of the hits from the firewall/proxy/cache
device.  The most reliable way to track those types of users is to
make them log in with a username/password.

Thus skewing the results when those of us who refuse to "log in" to a
random website just to look at it move on elsewhere.

Of course, nothing is perfect. Log the IP's, and track the users who do log
in.

It's all skewed anyways by those who mask their IP or use proxies.

QUOTE
Cookies would be another
possibility for more accurate tracking.

See above.

ditto

--
Tony Garcia
Web Right! Development
Riverside, CA
www.WebRightDevelopment.com

rf
Tony wrote

QUOTE
Of course, nothing is perfect. Log the IP's

There will possibly be only one hit for all those people behind the proxy
anyway, the proxy might just cache the page.

For a while my ISP had a proxy cache (commonly referred to as the poxy
cache). Every bigpond broadband user in Australia was behind it. Thousands
of people could visit a web site and the sites server would only see one
hit.

"Counting" stuff in a log file seems to me to be a futile exercise anyway,
especially something as detailed as determining if one user is using two
browser instances.

<aside>
In any case if one single user views a page with two browser instances there
is a good chance the second instance will read the page from the browsers
cache.
</aside>

<aside distance=further>
42 seperate individuals sequentially walk up to an internet cafe computer to
ask the BBC site if London won the olympic games. The server sees one hit.
</aside>

I only use my logs to determine trends. That is if I see 1000 hits last
month and 1500 hits this month then I have an average gain of 50%. I don't
care *what* those hits were.

That said it is a couple of years since I even looked at the logs. My
company site does not *need* hits. It is a service for my customers and
potential customers. They go there to download stuff when I tell them to.

Cheers
Richard.


PHP Help | Linux Help | Web Hosting | Reseller Hosting | SSL Hosting
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
Invision Power Board © 2001-2006 Invision Power Services, Inc.