Webalizer's Handlign of Feeds

I sometimes use a fairly recent version of Webalizer (now that I check, it
*is* the most recent version) to analyse logs. I suspect that visit counts
in Webalizer differ widely from the figures reported by AWStats due to
handling of requests for feeds. Has anybody noticed the same behaviour? It's
as though the definition of a "visit", let alone detection of crawlers,
makes the term very subjective. What is it that people consider a visit if
one tool reports numbers twice as big as the other's.

Thanks for any insights,

Roy

__/ [John Bokma] on Thursday 05 January 2006 07:17 \__

> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups.TakeThisOut@schestowitz.com> wrote:
>
>> I sometimes use a fairly recent version of Webalizer (now that I
>> check, it *is* the most recent version) to analyse logs. I suspect
>> that visit counts in Webalizer differ widely from the figures reported
>> by AWStats due to handling of requests for feeds. Has anybody noticed
>> the same behaviour? It's as though the definition of a "visit", let
>> alone detection of crawlers, makes the term very subjective. What is
>> it that people consider a visit if one tool reports numbers twice as
>> big as the other's.
>
> AFAIK you can configure what webalizer considers a visit. IIRC it is "the
> IP address has to be unique for x minutes". (And IIRC x = 15, default)

I don't think I can tune it. Only administrators can, unless I am totally
wrong to assume complexity. I never saw a Webalizer back-end even though I
have used it since 2001. It used to be the only thing I thought existed.

If so, that still doesn't make "visits" any measure which is objective. I
guess that statistics should either come with some fine prints or taken with
a grain of salt.

Thanks John.

Roy