Advanced HTML Questions

This help page answers technical questions for customers who have a domain name (mycompany.com). Information on creating web pages and other HTML questions can be found at our Basic web and HTML help page.

Can I see the statistics and records for visits to my web site ?

Yes, if you have your own domain name ("mycompany.com"). Just e-mail support@monitor.net and ask that your log files be e-mailed to you either weekly or monthly.

Analog is a program that will analyze the logfiles from your web site. It shows which pages are most popular, which countries people are visiting from, which sites they tried to follow broken links from, and much more. It's free and can be downloaded at: http://www.analog.cx/.

Since Analog is third-party software, Monitor can't provide tech support for the product. We can, however, provide a HOSTEXCLUDE list for the analog.cfg file. This will eliminate many (but not all) of the automated spiders and robots used by the search engines (and spam e-mail programs) that visit your page for indexing. If you would like a copy of this list, e-mail support@monitor.net after downloading Analog and reading the basic documentation.

Most customers also want to see how their customers reach their web pages. This requires a little tweaking of the Analog configuration. In the analog.cfg file, find the reference near the end to "REFARGSFLOOR", followed by "10r". Change that 10r to 1r to see how customers found you via AltaVista, or other means. Directly above it is a reference to "REFFLOOR" set to "20r". Try setting this to a smaller number, such as 3r or 5r (this is the report's minimum number of hits coming from a referer such as AltaVista).

Can I use an "odometer" or "counter" on my page ?

How can I provide a form for someone to fill out on my web page ?

If your business only needs a counter and/or the ability to provide forms, e-mail support@monitor.net and ask that your domain be allowed to use the public CGI directory. Additional information on how to use the counter and the form mail CGI programs are available on our other HTML web page.

If your business wants to combine either of those features with other CGI tools, your webmaster will have to install a counter or form script in your CGI directory. Many scripts of these types are available from scriptsearch.com at little or no cost.

How do I use custom CGI scripts on my web pages ?

First, you must have your own domain name ("mycompany.com"), and send e-mail to support@monitor.net and requesting that a cgi-bin directory be created for your domain name. You will be notified via e-mail when the directory is created and activated.

Place all CGI scripts inside the cgi-bin directory. To work, scripts must have file permissions set correctly. Often this can be done within a FTP program; set it so the file owner has "all permissions" and the group and everyone else has no write permission. (All of this translates as 755 octal). If viewed in a telnet window, the listing for file "myscript.pl" should look like this:
-rwxr-xr-x   1 myname     webstaff   21563 Jan 1 12:01 myscript.pl*

Perl scripts must have a first line that reads:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl exactly. Monitor uses Perl version 5.8.0, which is CASE SENSITIVE. Be careful that you are not mixing upper and lower case in your script. This is a common mistake.

To use your CGI script, refer to it as being in the "/cgi-bin/" directory. Thus a possible FORM statement might be:
<form method=post action="/cgi-bin/myscript.pl"> that uses script "myscript.pl".

What does a "500" error mean while trying to install a script ?

This is a generic error that simply means that the script failed. More information is available in your error logs. To see that log, first send e-mail to support@monitor.net and request access. You will be notified via e-mail when this is activated. Then FTP to www.monitor.net and visit the directory located in /usr/local/web/logs/your-user-name-here, where a file named "error_log" will be found.

How do I use Real Audio ?

Real Audio is a premium service -- you must first send e-mail to support@monitor.net and request access. Once it is activated, there will be a new folder in your home directory named "ra" -- it's at the same level as "web" and "cgi-bin" (if you have one).

1. This "ra" folder is where you must put your encoded audio files. (It's the "web" of RealAudio.) Example: If you have an audio clip in a file named "foo.ra" or "foo.rm", first upload this file to this "ra" directory. You will reference this directory as "ra.monitor.net/myname/", where "myname" is the monitor.net account ID.

2. The name of each real audio file must be contained in a separate text file in your web directory. Depending on the method of RealAudio encoding, there are different ways to specifiy the contents of this file.

   • "Old style" (RA 5 and before) URLs are stored in a .ram file. Example contents of foo.ram:
     pnm://ra.monitor.net/myname/foo.ra

   • "New style" (G2, RA 7) URLs are stored in a .rpm file. Example contents of foo.rpm:
     rtsp://ra.monitor.net/myname/foo.rm

3. Depending on the method of RealAudio encoding, you can now reference this file on your web page in one of two ways.

   • "Old style:" <a href="foo.ram">Click here </a>

   • "New style:" <embed src="foo.rpm" width=300 height=134>
     If the user has the current RA 7 plug-in, a control will be displayed. If not, they will see the "broken" plug-in icon.

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