Missing Webstats after Greenby Migration
... long post (sorry).
@mavison wrote:
It seems that the supposed 'transparent' migration to Greenby does not include WebStats for those with a Plusnet (Force9 in my case) website, as Greenby do not seem to be able to create Webstats currently.
@mavison wrote:
Since then they have said that they are working on implementing them, but have no ETA as yet. I have collected webstats for over 15 years, but that ends when I was migrated.
@plusnettony wrote:
It looks like web stats will be slightly different going forward as Greenby use Awstats.
There is a dim recollection of F9/PN having proposed using Awstats, long years back, and eventually deciding on Webalizer (Webstats) instead, which provided a valuable ongoing record of accesses and more for the HappyChild site from May 2002 onwards.
I have no idea why greenby would apparently prefer installing "Awstats" than Webstats. Afaik Webalizer has been bundled with cpanel since about 2021 by hosting-providers like 123-reg (was visibly very active there in 2023 when I finally moved everything else from 123-reg), so must have been found to be both accurate and resilient.
Back in 2023 I eventually - and very reluctantly - had to move the main HappyChild site away from F9/PN in order to get the required https:// -type address, so as to stop the site pages from being listed as "insecure".
However losing the daily Webstats was a huge wrench, and even though there were counters and stats on individual areas of the site they didn't (and still don't) provide the type of graphical display and analysis that Webalizer offers.
So I went looking, to see if there was any way of setting up Webalizer at Mythic Beasts (where I'd moved to).
https://webalizer.net/ has a download option on the right.
... leads to https://webalizer.net/download.html with long list of instructions as well as download links at ftp.mrunix.net .
... Wayback Machine (Internet Archive) version of that page at https://web.archive.org/web/20150905053743/http://www.webalizer.org/download.html .
... Webalizer news page is at https://webalizer.net/news.html
and says: "August 26, 2013 - Version 2.23-08 released. This is a maintenance release that fixes a possible buffer overflow condition in the Webalizer (DNS) Cache file manager (wcmgr). It also fixes a bug discovered in connection with the "GroupDomains" option. This version is considered the latest most stable release and users are encouraged to upgrade when possible."
However having downloaded version 2.23-08, I couldn't figure out how to make the most recent version of Webalizer (old though it is) actually *operate* (try though I did, for a long time). Some techie stuff I apparently just can't do (longstanding issue). I guess we all have different capabilities. I had no clue as to where to put/upload the files; when someone had helped me many years ago to set up an 'own' version of Webalizer at F9, I learned to use cron for the automatic processing (and how to customise the Webalizer output) but I was provided with specially-written files to copy the daily log files across and given detailed instructions on what Webalizer files to put where 
I have no clue as to how to replicate all that at Mythic Beasts (guessing 'shell' access required maybe) but not really comfortable with asking their support guys, tbh - it's a bit of a 'techie' environment so one doesn't like to display complete incomprehension of some of the basics 
However I did happen across a makeshift solution. On 20th July 2023 I found this page:
https://www.tobias-schwarz.net/programmierung/webalizer_guie.html .
Absolutely brilliant. Webalizer for Windows. plug-and-play.
There were issues with the Schwarz site - some of the pages were/are in German - but it's relatively straightforward. His program was downloaded and installed - and 31 days of logs analysed - in less than an hour.
It is, however, somewhat basic - and no usage-by-country (lack of requisite info/conversion somewhere) - but it does the job and means I have retained enough of an overview to have a broad grasp of how the site is doing on a day-to-day basis.
Having to download the logs to a designated directory just after midnight each day, then process them for an update, is still found to be tedious at times but just one of those things, I guess, and worth doing, just to keep the stats up to date.
From recall the only significant factors (after downloading the Schwarz program initially) were the need to analyse the logs from earliest date first, one at a time. There were instances where the output appeared in German but I changed settings progressively (no idea which/when) and eventually it stabilised at the English-output version.
But it has been trouble-free and consistently reliable - two years six months of ongoing webstats. If I (non-techie) could get this program to operate then it will probably work for anyone else who doesn't have the techie type of capability.
The Tobias Schwartz page also links to the Stone Steps version of Webalizer - https://www.stonesteps.ca/projects/webalizer/ - project release notes at https://www.stonesteps.ca/projects/webalizer/releasenotes/ (up to 18/07/2015).
Stone Steps Webalizer is now hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/StoneStepsInc/StoneStepsWebalizer (latest download version 6.3.0, 29/01/23).
The Stone Steps stuff is as unfathomable to me as the original Webalizer 2.23-08 one was, in terms of installation/use, but I've linked it here in case some of you more-techie-types might be able to make use of it.
However for that you'd need the daily logs - and I don't know if greenby is - yet - providing those, for migrated webpages/websites on a daily basis (?).
So it might be worth asking greenby to provide the daily logs (for migrated sites) in the interim, until they do or don't manage to set up Awstats, so that people missing the F9/PN Webstats at least have some way of generating their own Webstats for the time being.
Sorry such a very long post! But I hope have provided enough info / background, for anyone who is desperate to regain Webstats, to have some way of doing so.
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