Log analysis
Overview
Access to the server hosting the LSE website is logged continuously. On a monthly basis, these logs are analysed to produce usage reports for the LSE website as whole and for specific websites within it as recommended by web editors. The first report was published in September 1999 and new reports are published in the first week of every new month. All reports are collected together at LSE Web server log analysis.
Reports are organised by year and then by website with three reports for each: one for all usage, one for internal usage, and one for external usage. Each report is preceded by a summary of daily and monthly usage for the latest and preceding months. Totals are provided for the following variables:
- Sites - The total of unique IP addresses making requests to the server. This is the nearest representation of 'visitors' available. Given that an IP address can represent more than one PC and that one PC can be used by more than one person, 'sites' represents the minimum number of visitors, ie the true number of visitors is either the same or larger
- KBytes - The total size of all files sent as requested by sites
- Visits - The total number of visits made by the sites, ie each site makes a least one visit. Visits from the same site are differentiated from each other if 30 minutes or more elapses between requests
- Pages - The total number of web pages requested by sites
- Files - The total number of files requested by sites, including graphics, documents, etc
- Hits - The total number of requests received from sites, ie all files plus any other requests
From the summary, each report for a given month starts with a detailed summary followed by seven sections:
- Daily Statistics - A graph of usage for all days in the month
- Hourly Statistics - A graph of average usage across the 24 hour clock
- URLs - Lists all the files visited within the website in order of frequency
- Entry - Lists the first pages visited within the website
- Exit - Lists the last pages visited within the website
- Sites - The unique IP addresses used by visitors to the website
- Agents - The software used to visit the website
Requesting a report
If you would like reports to be generated for your website or another part of the LSE website, please email lsewebsite@lse.ac.uk.
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