I have noted that the number of guests have been quite high latley, usually higher than the number of registered users. Are we getting many new members?

/Claes

Until I switched servers recently, other than the 'stats' hacks I had installed for a while on the last vB version, I really don't know what the over all visitors numbers were. Heck, I had server logs turned off in Apache for almost 2 years - got tired of continually analyzing them - I did nothing with the data. I remember sorta benchmarking 1500 different visitors a day to the site as a whole.

I *could* go back to the old system by pulling an old database copy out and bringing up the old forums on my computer here. But I'm too lazy. So - I don't have anythng long term to compare what's happening now to. I do know we're getting tons of google hits.

We get a lot of new 'members' (registered users), but few opt for attachments. But not complaining - beats a blank as we said in high school. Few stay around long - they get what they want and go on.

vB does have a stats function now - it's in the administrator's panel. It's real clumsy but better than nothing. But again - it's short term data because its only been present since the version 3 release - what, 6 weeks ago? Hopefully a decent 'stats' hack will surface.

A lot fewer spiders now. Over July 4th they practically attacked the site. There were sometimes as many as 80 spiders going at it at about the same time.

Marc,

What's a spider? (aside from the 8 legged freaks).

Carol

Spiders? Basically they crawl all over the internet (Search it) and return the information to the search engine indexes. That data is then used when we access the search engines.

/Claes

From the stats in the admin panel:

Registrations:
July 13, 2003 - 4
July 14, 2003 - 8
July 15, 2003 - 7
July 16, 2003 - 6
July 17, 2003 - 12
July 18, 2003 - 8
July 19, 2003 - 4
July 20, 2003 - 2
July 21, 2003 - 11
July 22, 2003 - 12
July 23, 2003 - 5
July 24, 2003 - 13
July 25, 2003 - 17
July 26, 2003 - 4
July 27, 2003 - 4
July 28, 2003 - 15
July 29, 2003 - 16
July 30, 2003 - 13
July 31, 2003 - 22
August 01, 2003 - 10
August 02, 2003 - 4
August 03, 2003 - 3
August 04, 2003 - 16
August 05, 2003 - 20
August 07, 2003 - 14
August 08, 2003 - 8
August 09, 2003 - 5
August 10, 2003 - 4
August 11, 2003 - 13

Attached are three important indicators. The spider attack the first part of the month skew the results but I'd be guessing as to how much. These are site-wide, not just the forums.

What is Google Spider Crawl Numbers. I noticed that there is a guest or guest(s) showing activity from the same ISP. How does that work. One showed he/she was reporting a post. It doesn't appear here. 2 are in italics and 3 are bold. They're on line at the same time? Duh!Wasssup?:)

User Name Location Detail Last Active Contact IP Address AIM ICQ Yahoo MSN
Guest
(Google Spider) Viewing Printable Version Ford, Daimler Chrysler and GM Now Require ISO 14001 13 Minutes Ago crawl32.googlebot.com
Guest Viewing Archives New Forums Charges (!) 1 Minute Ago cache-dh01.proxy.aol.com
Guest Viewing Thread The Humour Thread 12 Minutes Ago mke6-7.nconnect.net
Guest
(Google Spider) Modifying Post 4.10.5 and Prototypes 14 Minutes Ago crawl34.googlebot.com Guest Registering 2 Minutes Ago tmpnat2.honeywell.com
Guest
(Google Spider) Viewing Thread Cove Forums Regulars - Who are we? 13 Minutes Ago crawl31.googlebot.com Guest Viewing Archives Substance reporting 11 Minutes Ago dsl-200-78-90-2.prodigy.net.mx
Guest Viewing Thread Determining effectiveness of APQP 3 Minutes Ago mailhost.coppernet.zm
Guest Viewing Archives Documentation Out of Control 18 Minutes Ago tmpnat1.honeywell.com
Guest
(Google Spider) Reporting a Post Effective problem solving 14 Minutes Ago crawl34.googlebot.com Guest Modifying Profile 1 Minute Ago webcacheB09a.cache.pol.co.uk
Guest Searching Forums 15 Minutes Ago host-65-123-118-253.colaik.com
Guest Viewing Thread Linearity Analysis 18 Minutes Ago 209.216.142.171
Guest Viewing Thread SPAM Hidout and Support Group 8 Minutes Ago rrcs-sw-24-73-252-42.biz.rr.com
Guest
(Google Spider) Viewing Thread Mom and Pop Shop 16 Minutes Ago crawl31.googlebot.com Guest Viewing Thread Corrective and Preventive Action - ISO 9001 vs. ISO 14001 11 Minutes Ago w138.z064220228.chi-il.dsl.cnc.net
Guest Searching Forums 3 Minutes Ago pm66.internetseer.net
Guest Viewing Archives ISO 2553 doc 2 Minutes Ago portl1.escocorp.com
Guest
(Google Spider) Viewing Thread Effective problem solving 14 Minutes Ago crawl31.googlebot.com Guest Viewing Attachment ISO 13485:2003 Status: Published 13 Minutes Ago cache01.ilap.com

Dead link removed (Marc 20031220) - I merged the 2 threads.

Bill,
Read this
Carol

Bill,
Read this
Carol

I did, Carol. Still don't get it. How can three different people on line at the same time have the same ISP? :bonk: See what happens when you don't attand an institution of higher learning? :rolleyes:

It gets kinda weird. One factor is if they are a guest and how the software tracks guests. Another factor is the cookie setting of 20 minutes. As a guest, it gets a 'session hash'. The session hash can change. The software looks at IPs, not the resolved router name. Each router has a number of IPs. So a Google spider can have multiple 'hits' from different IPs but they resolve to the same router beacause they're part of the block of assigned.

Different session hashes - each is good for 20 minutes - different IP but same IP block - different entries on the list.

Disclaimer: I'm guessing at some of this.

I just disabled Resolve IPs in Who's Online. Let's see what happens.

Ahhhh! There is a different ISP at the very end of what they are looking at, so you can see the "real" ISP. Just noticed that or I wouldn't have posted. :)

ISP = Internet Service Provider
IP = Decimal Internet 'Address'
URL = Uniform Resource Locator (aka Domain Name)

ISP = Internet Service Provider
IP = Decimal Internet 'Address'
URL = Uniform Resource Locator (aka Domain Name)

Okay...I get it. It's IP. :bonk: Thought I was seeing the Boogey Man!
:vfunny:

I noticed that a lot of the spiders have the same address and they indicate that they are either reporting or modifying a post. Pretty weird. :vfunny:

I think spiders usually would try to follow 'every' link on a page and that's why you see them trying to moderate, edit or report posts or sending emails or PMs.

I noticed that a lot of the spiders have the same address and they indicate that they are either reporting or modifying a post. Pretty weird. :vfunny:
Spiders follow every link they come to. I did recently put in a 'robots.txt' file (tells them what to spider and what not to) so you shouldn't see spiders doing many 'forbidden' functions in the Who's Online listings now.

Ahhhh! There is a different ISP at the very end of what they are looking at, so you can see the "real" ISP. Just noticed that or I wouldn't have posted. :)
Yes - But only admins can see the IP or the resolved host in the listing.

Sorry if you've answered this one a hundred times already...

In the "Who's On-line" section of the forums index page, there is the list of registered users that are currently on-line. Can you tell me the significance of the various font styles - bold, italic, various colours?

Just curious...


Thanks,

Dave :cool:

See: http://Elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=74965#post74965