referrer load

After researching Search Engine options such as Paid Inclusion, Paid
Placement, PayPerClick, etc. we have come to the realization that log
analysis of the referrer entries would be necessary to determine cost
effectiveness. Unfortunately, after purchasing analysis software we
have found that our ISP (Allegiance Telecom) running Apache has it
configured for Common logs. When I called I was told that Multiple or
Combined would put too much strain on their servers. Is this true?
Isn't Combined just adding another entry per hit to the access log?

The other info in Common logs (ie: what is the busiest day of the
week, what time of day do most people visit your site, etc) is nice
but if you're trying to determine if you need to upgrade/downgrade
your listing with this engine or if you are wasting time spending
money to be listed on that engine, or you need to develop more for
some platform, you pretty much need referrer/browser info.

Is there any other way this information can be gotten or do we need to
find another webhosting company?

Thanks for any input/advice,
Robb

Robb
VB 6
<Delete the DELETES before emailing me>

Robb wrote:
 > After researching Search Engine options such as Paid Inclusion, Paid
 > Placement, PayPerClick, etc. we have come to the realization that log
 > analysis of the referrer entries would be necessary to determine cost
 > effectiveness. Unfortunately, after purchasing analysis software we
 > have found that our ISP (Allegiance Telecom) running Apache has it
 > configured for Common logs. When I called I was told that Multiple or
 > Combined would put too much strain on their servers. Is this true?
 > Isn't Combined just adding another entry per hit to the access log?
 >
 > The other info in Common logs (ie: what is the busiest day of the
 > week, what time of day do most people visit your site, etc) is nice
 > but if you're trying to determine if you need to upgrade/downgrade
 > your listing with this engine or if you are wasting time spending
 > money to be listed on that engine, or you need to develop more for
 > some platform, you pretty much need referrer/browser info.
 >

Some 'indicative' load testing did not show significant differences (well
not here anyway on 2.0.4.8/XP) using any of the different log types. With
combinedio log type an additional module (mod_logioc.so) needs to be loaded,
that may be some extra burden. Filesizes & Diskspace might become an issue
as logs may grow rapidly on a production server, but that can be easily
dealt with with proper rotation. I would have expected a provider to be
interested in detailed logs too to be honest....

I use a simple PHP pagecounter in all of my pages theses days, and I am
thinking of enhancing that with referrer/agent info as well, you might
consider that as a workaround. (yes it WILL put extra load on the server
lol), but you can customize it to meet your needs as well.

Hope this helps,

Jan

ps. I just thought, maybe there's a way of seting up your own log-style
through use of .htaccess or something ??? Guess not, but might check that
option...<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->