A Hard Lesson - Buy A Hosting Plan That Gives You Access To Your Web Server Access Logs
I recently registered a couple of new domains - one for me and one for a client. I also took advantage of this very large, very well-known hosting company's special deal: buy a non-domain product and get a domain for a ridiculously low price. And the basic hosting plan for one year meant a similarly ridiculously low monthly cost. It ertainly beat what I used to pay only 5 years ago. Even my current consulting website's hosting plan costs about 3 times as much as the new website and has half the space and features. But what I realized after I'd paid up is that the new host doesn't give anyone access to their own server logs unless you get THEIR web stats package, which of course you have to pay for. It doesn't matter if you're paying US$3.95/m or $39.95/m, you have to pay extra.
Now, in the scheme of things, their stats package is not all that much more money. But I'm stubborn and it's the principle of thing that bugs me: Most host providers give you the server access logs as part of a normal suite of features. The total cost for both host providers ended up being almost the same, however, so my stubbornness is moot. The moral is, though, that if you plan to do your own data mining - which I prefer over cookie-cutter stats packages, then make sure your hosting plans offer log files at all - whether free or at a premium. You simply cannot do proper data mining without the raw logs.
BTW, this blog and all of my other techncial blogs will soon be moved over to a new "geek" site that'll have blogs, forums, free tutorials in PDF form, and private tutoring for certain subjects, at various knowledge levels. Once the new website is live, I'll announce it here and in my other tech blogs.
(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://netmetrics.blogspot.com
Now, in the scheme of things, their stats package is not all that much more money. But I'm stubborn and it's the principle of thing that bugs me: Most host providers give you the server access logs as part of a normal suite of features. The total cost for both host providers ended up being almost the same, however, so my stubbornness is moot. The moral is, though, that if you plan to do your own data mining - which I prefer over cookie-cutter stats packages, then make sure your hosting plans offer log files at all - whether free or at a premium. You simply cannot do proper data mining without the raw logs.
BTW, this blog and all of my other techncial blogs will soon be moved over to a new "geek" site that'll have blogs, forums, free tutorials in PDF form, and private tutoring for certain subjects, at various knowledge levels. Once the new website is live, I'll announce it here and in my other tech blogs.
(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://netmetrics.blogspot.com
| Permalink | E-mail this post 
