Glossary
Item Contents
Ad A text, graphic or banner advertisement on a web page that takes the visitor to another site when clicked on.
Ad Clicks A mouse click on an advertisement on a web site which takes the visitor to another site.
Authentication The verification of a user by matching a username and password.
Bandwidth The measure of the traffic (in kilobytes of data) transmitted from the web site.
Browser The program used to locate and view HTML documents.
Client The unique IP number used by a visitor to a Web site.
Client Error codes The error that occurred due to an invalid or failed request by the visitor's browser. When errors occur, it is allocated an error code in a 400+range. Possible client error codes are:
  • 400 = Failed: Bad Request
  • 401 = Failed: Unauthorized
  • 402 = Failed: Payment Required
  • 403 = Failed: Forbidden. This happens when a visitor tried to access a password protected directory with the wrong name and password.
  • 404 = Failed: Not Found. This is the most common error on the reports, and means that someone has requested an object that is not within your site. This could be because of:
  • Bad links to pages within your site.
  • Links within a page to a graphic that does not exist.
  • Someone misspelling the URL to get to an object on your site.
  • Outside links to your site that are out of date...
Cookies Cookies are files containing information about visitors to a web site (e.g., user name and preferences). This information is provided by the user's browser during the first visit to a Web server. The server informs the browser to store some of this information (and perhaps other) on the client machine in a cookie file. When the visitor accesses the same web site again, the cookie is automatically presented to the server by the browser and the server can then configure itself based on the information provided or react upon the information in the cookie.
Directory World Wide Web pages consist of varying files. These files are often set up in a directory structure, resembling "tree branches". Directories are usually structured to keep similar topics within a specifically named directory.
Domain Name The text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer or domain on the Internet.
Domain Name Lookup The process of converting a numeric IP address into a domain or text name.
Domain Name Suffix The last digits of a domain name can be used to identify the country or type of organization. Possible suffixes for the organization type includes:
.com = Commercial
.edu = Educational
.int = International
.gov = Government
.mil = Military
.net = Network
.org = Organization
EMF Enhanced Meta File is a vector based image file format used by SurfStats for displaying and printing graphs.
Filters A means of narrowing the scope of a report by specifying ranges or types of data to included or excluded.
Forms An HTML page which passes variables back to the server. These pages are used to gather information from users.
FTP File Transfer Protocol is a standard method of sending files between computers over the Internet.
GIF Graphics Interchange Format is a raster based image file format commonly used in HTML documents.
Hit A request for any object that is on your site. This could be an html page, a file or a graphic on a page. Also see Visit.
Home Page The main or default page in HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) format of a Web site. This page usually provides visitors with an overview and links to the rest of the site. This page's address is referred to as URL.
HTML Hyper Text Markup Language is used to write documents for the Internet.  It specifies hypertext links between related objects and documents.
HTTP Hyper Text Transfer Protocol is a standard method of transferring data between a Web server and a Web client.
IP Address The Internet Protocol address identifies a computer connected to the Internet.
Log File A file created by a web or proxy server which contains all of the access information regarding the activity on that server.
Organization A commercial, academic, nonprofit, government, or military entity that connects users to the Internet, identified by an entity's Internet domains.
Page (HTML) Request The request to get an html page from a site and the transmittal of the requested page. Page requests do not include hits to images, component pages of a frame or other non-html files.
Platform The operating system (i.e. Windows 95/98, Windows NT, etc.) used by a visitor to the site.
Protocol An established method of exchanging data over the Internet.
Referrer The URL of an HTML page that refers to the site. Referrer data is useful to determine how users came to your site.
Return Code The return status of the request which specifies whether the transfer was successful and why. Possible "Success" codes are:
200 = Success: OK
201 = Success: Created
202 = Success: Accepted
203 = Success: Partial Information
204 = Success: No Response
300 = Success: Redirected
301 = Success: Moved
302 = Success: Found
303 = Success: New Method
304 = Success: Not Modified
Server A computer that hosts information available to anyone accessing the Internet.
Server Errors The error that occurred due to an invalid or failed task on the server. Possible server error codes are:
  • 500 = Failed: Internal Error
  • 501 = Failed: Not Implemented
  • 502 = Failed: Overloaded Temporarily
  • 503 = Failed: Gateway Timeout
Spiders or robots An automated program which searches the internet and add data to search engines. On a web site the robots.txt file specifies which directories the spider should catalog.
Time Zone World Wide Web servers record all requests in local time where the server is located.
URL Uniform Resource Locator is a means of identifying an exact location on the Internet. An URL consists of four parts:
  • Protocol Type (HTTP),
  • Machine Name (domain),
  • Directory Path (/), and
  • File Name (default.htm),

e.g. http://www.calitzbros.com/surfstats/index.htm
User Anyone who visits the site at least once. A user is identified by an IP address.
Visit (Client or User Session) A series of consecutive requests from a user to an Internet site.  A user session is terminated when a user does not make another request for more than 30 minutes.

One visit can include many hits.

A report on downloaded files may show a few hits but no client session. This is because the visit is counted at the start page where a visitor enters the site. Only the start page will show the visit.