As a webmaster, it is important to have some guide to how many people are using your site.

But what does a counter really tell you, other than the fact that your web site is popular? Wouldn't it be so much better if you could find out

• Who is actually visiting your site
• At what times of day
• Which countries do your users come from
• What trends are developing over time

"Captain's Log" can provide you with this information and more...

How it works

1. To join, just fill out the Captain's Log application form.

2. You will be given an extra line of HTML to be added to your home page, which displays the Captain's Log symbol,
   

3. Each time someone loads your home page, their visit is logged by the Captain's Log Server.

4. On a weekly basis, your statistics are mailed to the email address you provided.

Existing users log in here:

Example : [07/Dec/1997:00:24:46 +0000] - - tpproxy7 .hinet .net

The last bit of the domain will tell you the country from which the person comes. A list of countries is provided here. Where the domain ends in com, net, org edu or gov, this indicates that the person is either 1.) from the USA, or 2.) using an American service provider to connect her to the internet. The difference between these is as follows :

• .com means commercial
• .net means network provider
• .org means not for profit organisation
• .edu means educational
• .gov means government body

The next bit (reading from right to left) of the domain will normally be the company or organisation. For small companies or individuals, it will be their service provider (piweba3y-ext.prodigy.com is someone who uses Prodigy as their service provider). Larger companies have their own domain, eg muscat.com.

The last bit (reading from right to left), is usually the name of the computer which the user is directly connected to.