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Home > Archive > IIS Server > December 2005 > Usage Analysis Software
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Usage Analysis Software
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| I have been recently evaluating Usage Analysis packages for our websites. We
currently support 7 sites and would like to generate usage reports for each
one. I have been reccomended to NetTracker (http://sane.com). Everything I
have seen and read about this software seems great. The only turnoff I had
was the fact that the version I was interested in saved the data to a flat
file instead of a database. In order to have the database solution you had
to pay a hefty premium. Does anyone know what the pros and cons are of a
flat file? Has anyone used this package and have an opinion for me? Finally,
can anyone reccomend a better package that does not carry a huge premium? I
was looking at the NetTracker Professional version for 10 profiles ($1995).
Thanks in advance and Happy Holidays!
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| I Can't say ihave any experience with nettracker, but I can say that I
use livestats from deepmetrix and have a great experience. I looks
like it is a little cheaper than the Nettracker software as well. As
far as logging to a flat file rather than a DB, the pro is you can
probably import that into excel or access and perform whatever
calculation you would like that is not included in the package. The
con is that report generation time might be longer. Usually the DB
based software will use the DB to calc various metrics, so report
generation is quicker and easier. Depending on the package, the DB
structure will have little or no documentation, so if what you want to
report on isn't built into the report generator, it can be difficult to
extract the data you need to import into excel or access.
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| Thanks for your reply. One other question I have now is what people think
about Log File analysis vs tagging? I noticed that deepmetrix uses tagging
and not log file analysis.
"Jim B" <jim.butts@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1135314230.240956.8450@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>I Can't say ihave any experience with nettracker, but I can say that I
> use livestats from deepmetrix and have a great experience. I looks
> like it is a little cheaper than the Nettracker software as well. As
> far as logging to a flat file rather than a DB, the pro is you can
> probably import that into excel or access and perform whatever
> calculation you would like that is not included in the package. The
> con is that report generation time might be longer. Usually the DB
> based software will use the DB to calc various metrics, so report
> generation is quicker and easier. Depending on the package, the DB
> structure will have little or no documentation, so if what you want to
> report on isn't built into the report generator, it can be difficult to
> extract the data you need to import into excel or access.
>
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| Jeff Cochran 2005-12-23, 5:55 pm |
| On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 09:07:45 -0500, "Matt"
<mamarsha@newsgroups.nospam> wrote:
>Thanks for your reply. One other question I have now is what people think
>about Log File analysis vs tagging? I noticed that deepmetrix uses tagging
>and not log file analysis.
Different technologies, sometimes with different results. Deepmetrix
can't read your log files, you can. Logfiles can tell you a lot more
than tagging can, tagging can tell you different things that logging
can't.
Take a look at:
http://www.iisfaq.com/Default.aspx?tabid=2550
Jeff
>"Jim B" <jim.butts@gmail.com> wrote in message
>news:1135314230.240956.8450@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
>
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| It depends on the type of metrics you are looking for. Log files can't
give you clickpaths and browser features- tags can. Logs won't help if
the page is cached. Logs can be cumbersome- if you are in a high
availability environment, trying to read log files across loadbalanced
servers or a webgarden is like threading a needle blindfolded- it can
be done- but you end up sticking yourself a few times. On the other
hand if you can't be assured that javascript is enabled client side-
using page tagging will lose some hits (although to be fair, logging
will lose unique hits at probably a higher rate)
Generally I prefer tagging
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