Please view the terms, phrases, and messages below for
a detailed description.
Click Here to download a copy of the Glossary.
Please view the terms, phrases, and messages below for
a detailed description.
Click Here to download a copy of the Glossary.
A part of the DNS system that assigns an IP address to a domain name. This record indicates to which IP address a user would be sent when requesting a particular domain name.
A database program by Microsoft that requires a Windows server.
This value, available in the "Miscellaneous Chart," reports an estimated indicator that can be used to have an idea of the number of times a visitor has added your web site into its favorite bookmarks.
The technical rules for that is the following formula:
Number of Add to Favorites = round((x+y) / r)
where
x = Number of hits made by IE browsers for "/anydir/favicon.ico," with a referrer field not defined, and with no 404 error code.
y = Number of hits made by IE browsers for "/favicon.ico," with a referrer field not defined, with or without 404 error code.
r = Ratio of hits made by IE browsers compared to hits made by all browsers (r <= 1).
As you can see in the formula, only IE is used to count reliable "add," the "Add to Favorites" for other browsers are estimated using ratio of other browsers usage compared to ratio of IE usage. The reason is that only IE do a hit on favicon.ico nearly ONLY when a user adds the page to its favorites. The other browsers make often hits on this file also for other reasons so we can't count one "hit" as one "add" since it might be a hit for another reason.
AWStats differentiate also hits with error and not to avoid counting multiple hits made recursively in upper path when favicon.ico file is not found in deeper directory of path.
Note that this number is just an indicator that is in most case higher than true value. The reason is that even IE browser sometimes makes hit on favicon without an "Add to Favorites" action by a user.
A file that is attached to an email message.
The verification of a user that is logging into a server, such as logging into the cPanel, or enabling SMTP authentication in a mail client. Authentication requires a username and password.
A saved copy of the files for your website. It can be used to restore your site if anything happens to the original files.
Total number of bytes for pages, images and files downloaded by web browsing.
Note 1: Of course, this number includes only traffic for web only (or mail only, or ftp only depending on value of LogType).
Note 2: This number does not include technical header data size used inside the HTTP or HTTPS protocol or by protocols at a lower level (TCP, IP...).
Because of two previous notes, this number is often lower than bandwidth reported by your provider (your provider counts in most cases bandwidth at a lower level and includes all IP and UDP traffic).
A format for storing images.
A computer program used for accessing sites or information on a network (as the World Wide Web) i.e., used to browse websites. Examples are: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, AOL, and Google Chrome.
A computer memory with a short access time. Normally used for storage of instructions or data.
The ability to distinguish between uppercase (i.e., capital) letters and lowercase (i.e., small) letters.
CNAME records are "canonical name" records used to point an entry to another name.
All members will have access to the Control Panel; however the Admin decides which members get access to certain tools. The Control Panel is broken up into Your Tools, Your Organization, Your Site, and Your Network.
A cookie is a piece of text that a Web server can store on a user's hard disk. Cookies enable a Web site to store information on user's computers that is later retrieved and used when accessing that site again.
A web-based administration tool that many hosting providers provide for users to configure their accounts using a graphical interface.
After you login, the first page that will appear is your Dashboard. It is also located in the Silver Menu Bar. This is a snapshot of your: Profile Information, Upcoming Birthdays, Pending Items, and Upcoming Events.
A collection of data.
This number represent the number of hits or ratio of hits when a visit to your site comes from a direct access. This means the first page of your web site was called:
- By typing your URL on the web browser address bar
- By clicking on your URL stored by a visitor inside its favorites
- By clicking on your URL found everywhere but not another internet web pages (a link in a document, an application, etc...)
- Clicking an URL of your site inside a mail is often counted here. In web terms: A link to a particular web site, stored (bookmarked) by a web user for future use and easy access.
A listing of the files contained in a storage device.
Routes your website, mail, ftp to a specific ip address.
Maintains a database of domain names and their corresponding IP addresses.
A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. This is your URL (website address).
Copying data from a main source to a peripheral device.
Process where by email is forwarded or sent to a different email account.
First page viewed by a visitor during its visit.
Note: When a visit started at end of month to end at beginning of next month, you might have an Entry page for the month report and no Exit pages.
That's why Entry pages can be different than Exit pages.
Last page viewed by a visitor during its visit.
Note: When a visit started at end of month to end at beginning of next month, you might have an Entry page for the month report and no Exit pages.
That's why Entry pages can be different than Exit pages.
Knowledge base where a collection of frequently asked questions is gathered for easy reference.
Icon that is placed before the URL in the address bar within supported browsers.
Typically, a script that is used in conjunction with an HTML document in order to send data to a specified email address.
Collection of scripts, typically written in PHP, that allow for message posts between users (e.g., Bulletin Boards).
File Transfer Protocol. A method for sending files from one computer to another on networks and the Internet. Needed to upload/download files to and from your host.
Graphic interchange file, a graphics format that can be displayed in web browsers. They display in 256 colors and have built-in compression. GIF files are also used for animated web graphics.
Computer memory or disk space that consists of about one thousand million bytes, one thousand megabytes. The actual value is 1,073,741,824 bytes 1,024 megabytes.
A browser that is used primarily for copying locally an entire site. These include for example "teleport," "webcapture," "webcopier"...
Any files requested from the server (including files that are "Pages") except those that match the SkipFiles config parameter.
Programming language used for the creation of web sites and other documents that contain text, graphics, and hyperlinks.
A graphic or string of words that when clicked opens up a new page or jumps to a different section within a given website.
A JPEG (pronounced JAY-peg) is a graphic image created by choosing from a range of compression qualities (actually, from one of a suite of compression algorithms). When you create a JPEG or convert an image from another format to a JPEG, you are asked to specify the quality of image you want. Since the highest quality results in the largest file, you can make a trade-off between image quality and file size. Formally, the JPEG file format is ISO standard 10918. The JPEG scheme includes 29 distinct coding processes although a JPEG implementer may not use them all.
The word or phrase that is used in a search engine to find websites related to a particular topic.
A unit used for computer storage that is equal to 1024 bytes.
A discussion group, generally about a specific topic, where readers post and read messages via email.
A unit of computer storage equal to 1024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes.
A service provided by a financial institution that allows a website to process credit card orders.
An application for the web that allows users to post and read messages about a particular topic.
A DNS entry that specifies which mail server handles the mail for a domain.
A computer (server) that has both the software and the data (zone files) needed to resolve domain names to Internet Protocol (IP) numbers. Domain names must be programmed into a minimum of two name servers hosted on separate networks.
Navigation on a web site is achieved by a collection of links that form the Web Site Navigation Menu or the Web Site Navigation Bar. The navigation is usually placed vertically on the left (however, it can be on the right) or horizontally near the top of the web page.
The number of "pages" logged. Only files that don't match an entry in the NotPageList config parameter (and match an entry of OnlyFiles config parameter if used) are counted as "Pages." Usually pages are reserved for HTML files or CGI files, not images nor other files requested as a result of loading a "Page" (like js,css... files).
A set of permissions associated with every file and directory that determine who can read it, write to it, or execute it. Only the owner of the file (or the super-user) can change these permissions.
Refers to a collection of photos displayed on a website.
A registrar is a company that handles domain name registrations. They sell domains and allow their customers to manage domains they have purchased. GoDaddy is an example.
Software that searches for data based on some criteria. Although search engines have been around for decades, they were brought to the forefront after the Web exploded onto the scene. Every Web search engine site uses a search engine that it has either developed itself or has purchased from a third party. Search engines can differ dramatically in the way they find and index the material on the Web, and the way they search the indexes from the user's query. Google, Yahoo, Bing, and MSN are a few examples.
The protection of data, networks and computing power. The protection of data (information security) is the most important. The protection of networks is important to prevent loss of server resources as well as to protect the network from being used for illegal purposes. The protection of computing power is relevant only to expensive machines such as large supercomputers.
A computer system in a network that is shared by multiple users. Servers come in all sizes from x86-based PCs to IBM mainframes. A server may have a keyboard, monitor and mouse directly attached, or one keyboard, monitor and mouse may connect to any number of servers via a KVM switch. Servers may be also be accessed only through a network connection as well.
The time a visitor spent on your site for each visit.
Some Visit durations are 'unknown' because they can't always be calculated. This is the major reason for this:
- Visit was not finished when 'update' occurred.
- Visit started the last hour (after 23:00) of the last day of a month (A technical reason prevents AWStats from calculating duration of such sessions).
After you log in, at the top of the page the Silver Menu Bar will appear. At the top left of the Menu Bar you will see "Welcome, Your Name." At the right of the menu bar, you will see several buttons.
Unsolicited bulk email. Unsolicited means that the Recipient has not granted verifiable permission for the message to be sent. Bulk messages are messages that are sent massively and contain identical content.
Sub domain is a domain that is part of a larger domain. In domain name test.domain.com, .test. is the sub domain.
A unique visitor is a host that has made at least 1 hit on 1 page of your web site during the current period shown by the report. If this host make several visits during this period, it is counted only once.
The period shown by AWStats reports is by default the current month.
However if you use AWStats as a CGI you can click on the "year" link to have a report for all the year. In a such report, period is full year, so Unique Visitors are number of hosts that have made at least 1 hit on 1 page of your web site during that year.
Transferring a file or files from the user's computer to a remote computer.
Uniform Resource Locator; an address that specifies the location of a file on the Internet (your website address).
Number of visits made by all visitors. Think "session" here, say a unique IP accesses a page, and then requests three others without an hour between any of the requests, all of the "pages" are included in the visit, therefore you should expect multiple pages per visit and multiple visits per unique visitor (assuming that some of the unique IPs are logged with more than an hour between requests).
Whois is a term referring to a domain name search or look-up feature for a database - typically for Top-Level Domain name registries. Information such as name availability can be found through a query or search using a whois protocol (standard). Most Top-Level Domain registries maintain their own whois database containing domain name contact information.
(What You See Is What You Get) A graphical interface to a process which shows how the end-result will look as it is being produced, e.g., a WYSIWYG HTML editor generates HTML markup but displays the document as if viewed with a Web browser. Our Text editor is a WYSIWYG editor.
To zip a file is to compress it into an archive so that it occupies less disk space.
HTTP status codes are returned by web servers to indicate the status of a request. Codes 200 and 304 are used to tell the browser the page can be viewed. All other codes generates hits and traffic 'not seen' by the visitor. For example a return code 301 or 302 will tell the browser to ask another page. The browser will do another hit and should finally receive the page with a return code 200 and 304. All codes that are 'unseen' traffic are isolated by AWStats in the HTTP Status report chart, enabled by the directivesShowHTTPErrorsStats in config file. You can also change value for 'not error' hits (set by default to 200 and 304 with the ValidHTTPcodes directive. The following table outlines all status codes defined for the HTTP/1.1 draft specification outlined in IETF rfc 2068. They are 3-digit codes where the first digit of this code identifies the class of the status code and the remaining 2 digits correspond to the specific condition within the response class. They are classified in 5 categories:
SMTP status codes are returned by mail servers to indicate the status of a sending/receiving mail. The status code depends on mail server and preprocessor used to analyze log file. All codes that are failure codes are isolated by AWStats in the SMTP Status report chart, enabled by the directives ShowSMTPErrorsStats in AWStats config file. You can decide which codes are successfull mail transfer that should not appear in this chart with the ValidSMTPCodes directive.
Here are values reported for most mail servers (This should also be values when mail log file is preprocessing with maillogconvert.pl).
SMTP Errors are classified in 3 categories:
2xx/3xx class - Success
They are SMTP protocols successfull answers
| 200 | 200 Non standard success response Non standard success response |
| 211 | 211 System status, or system help reply System status, or system help reply |
| 214 | 214 Help message Help message |
| 220 | 220 Service ready Service ready |
| 221 | 221 Service closing transmission channel Service closing transmission channel |
| 250 | 250 Requested mail action taken and completed Your ISP mail server have successfully executes a command and the DNS is reporting a positive delivery. |
| 251 | 251 User not local: will forward to Your message to a specified email address is not local to the mail server, but it will accept and forward the message to a different recipient email address. |
| 252 | 252 Recipient cannot be verified Recipient cannot be verified but mail server accepts the message and attempts delivery |
| 354 | 354 Start mail input and end with . Indicates mail server is ready to accept the message or instruct your mail client to send the message body after the mail server have received the message headers. |
4xx class - Temporary Errors
Those codes are temporary error message. They are used to tell client sender that an error occured but he can try to solve it but trying again, so in most cases, clients that receive such codes will keep the mail in their queue and will try again later.
| 421 | 421 Service not available, closing transmission channel This may be a reply to any command if the service knows it must shut down. |
| 450 | 450 Requested mail action not taken: mailbox busy or access denied Your ISP mail server indicates that an email address does not exist or the mailbox is busy. It could be the network connection went down while sending, or it could also happen if the remote mail server does not want to accept mail from you for some reason i.e. (IP address, From address, Recipient, etc.) |
| 451 | 451 Requested mail action aborted: error in processing Your ISP mail server indicates that the mailing has been interrupted, usually due to overloading from too many messages or transient failure is one in which the message sent is valid, but some temporary event prevents the successful sending of the message. Sending in the future may be successful. |
| 452 | 452 Requested mail action not taken: insufficient system storage Your ISP mail server indicates, probable overloading from too many messages and sending in the future may be successful. |
| 453 | 453 Too many messages Some mail servers have the option to reduce the number of concurrent connection and also the number of messages sent per connection. If you have a lot of messages queued up it could go over the max number of messages per connection. To see if this is the case you can try submitting only a few messages to that domain at a time and then keep increasing the number until you find the maximum number accepted by the server. |
5xx class - Permanent Errors
This are permanent error codes. Mail transfer is definitly a failure. No other try will be done.
| 500 | 500 Syntax error, command unrecognized or command line too long |
| 501 | 501 Syntax error in parameters or arguments |
| 502 | 502 Command not implemented |
| 503 | 503 Server encountered bad sequence of commands |
| 504 | 504 Command parameter not implemented |
| 521 | 521 does not accept mail or closing transmission channel You must be pop-authenticated before you can use this SMTP server and you must use your mail address for the Sender/From field. |
| 530 | 530 Access denied A sendmailism ? |
| 550 | 550 Requested mail action not taken (Relaying not allowed, Unknown recipient user, ...) Sending an email to recipients outside of your domain are not allowed or your mail server does not know that you have access to use it for relaying messages and authentication is required. Or to prevent the sending of SPAM some mail servers will not allow (relay) send mail to any e-mail using another company’s network and computer resources. |
| 551 | 551 User not local: please try or Invalid Address: Relay request denied |
| 552 | 552 Requested mail action aborted: exceeded storage allocation ISP mail server indicates, probable overloading from too many messages. |
| 553 | 553 Requested mail action not taken: mailbox name not allowed Some mail servers have the option to reduce the number of concurrent connection and also the number of messages sent per connection. If you have a lot of messages queued up (being sent) for a domain, it could go over the maximum number of messages per connection and/or some change to the message and/or destination must be made for successful delivery. |
| 554 | 554 Requested mail action rejected: access denied |
| 557 | 557 Too many duplicate messages Resource temporarily unavailable Indicates (probable) that there is some kind of anti-spam system on the mail server. |