Starting at V7.0 SurfStats Website Analytics
provides four methods to provide enhanced visitor origin information:
- IP Country Database. A local database of which IP
address ranges belongs to which countries is used to determine
the country the visitor originates from.
- IP Ranges. A database with start and end IP addresses
(ranges). After installation this list is empty, but the end
user can add his/her own ranges. Useful for local Intranet addresses.
- Reverse DNS (RDNS) Lookups. RDNS lookups can be performed
by clicking Automatic lookup of DNS names before report
generation or after report generation by selecting Resolve
DNS from the Edit menu. Reverse DNS lookups can be
quite resource intensive and its effectiveness is dependant
on whether a pointer (PTR) DNS record for the specific IP address
exists on the DNS server (or referred DNS server) the RDNS lookup
is requested from or not. In our experience we have found that
a RDNS lookup can determine the associated domain name of the
IP address in about 40% of cases.
- Visitor Origin Database. The local Visitor Origin
Database contains organization/ISP information for IP address
ranges. This database is available separately from SurfStats
(30 MB compressed file) and registered per machine at an additional
cost. The Visitor Origin Database was created by performing
Whois queries at organizations that issue IP addresses. Whois
queries are probably the most accurate way to determine visitor
origin information. To install the Visitor Origin Database
you would need to do the following after SurfStats Log
Analyzer itself is registered and you have purchased a license
for the visitor origin database from SurfStats.
- Stop the SurfStats Scheduler Service from
Service Options in SurfStats Website Analytics (if it
is running). This can also be done from the Windows Control
Panel. Close SurfStats Website Analytics if it is running.
- Install the visitor origin database to the folder where
SurfStats Website Analytics is installed and register
the IP address database from Help - Register Database
in SurfStats Website Analytics.
- Start the SurfStats Scheduler Service from
Service Options.
- Regenerate reports for your site profiles.
Please see the page for the
Visitor Origin
Database for SurfStatsLive on how to use the database if both
SurfStats Website Analytics and SurfStatsLive is installed on the computer.
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