Tech note FS1437
Description
What's the relationship between the Filter out requests from specific users textbox and the Filter referrers from specific users checkbox?
Answer
FlashStats provides the Filter out requests from specific users textbox so that you can ignore all requests made by specific users. This is usually used so that you ignore any requests that you (or your web developers) make to your own site so that those hits don't end up in the totals in the Top Requests report.
The text that you enter into the Filter out requests from specific users textbox depends upon what your web server writes to the log file. If your web server performs reverse DNS lookups for all requests, then it will record the web surfer's host (DNS) name, such as user1.aol.com. If not, then the web server will only record their IP address, such as 1.2.3.4. Many web servers provide the option to perform reverse DNS lookups. Notable servers which do not provide this capability include the Microsoft servers.
For example, when we run FlashStats on our own web site to see how many people are hitting our site, we always include the string 209.0.112,maximized.com in the Filter out requests from specific users textbox. We use IIS 4 which only records the visitor's IP address, so any requests made from our internal network (IP address 209.0.112.x) will be ignored.
FlashStats performs substring matching on this value. You can specify as many separate substrings as you want, each separated by a comma (with no spaces around the commas). In our case we have two substrings: 209.0.112 and maximized.com.
How does the Filter out requests from specific users textbox relate to the Filter referrers from specific users checkbox? Well, the Top Referrers To Your Site report shows you the most common referrers to your web pages. When web surfers visit your site and click around within your site, the referrer on each request will usually be another page within your own site. FlashStats lets you filter out (omit) any referrer from within your own site by checking the Filter referrers from specific users checkbox. When checked, FlashStats will use the list of requesters in the Filter out requests from specific users textbox as an equivalent list of referrers.
That's why when we run FlashStats on our own site we specify the string 209.0.112,maximized.com. The 209.0.112 substring matches requests made by our own staff on our internal network. (We have to specify the IP address since IIS 4 doesn't record the host name.) The maximized.com substring matches referrers from within our own site.
So, to get the most meaningful results from FlashStats, be sure to enter your own IP address (if applicable) and the base part of your domain name in the Filter out requests from specific users textbox, and make sure the Filter referrers from specific users checkbox is checked. This will omit all requests made by your own staff, and all referrers from within your own web site.
Some additional details about the Top Referrers To Your Site report are available at Tech Note FS1436.
