Frequently Asked Questions About Sawmill

Licensing, Upgrading, and the Trial Version

Q: How much does Sawmill cost?
A: $99 for an individual, $399 for a small organization, and between $1 and $4 per customer for an ISP, depending on volume. Large organization (enterprise) pricing is available upon request. Educational users receive a 75% discount. For full details, see Sawmill Pricing and Licensing

Q: How much will I have to pay to upgrade to the next version of Sawmill?
A: Minor upgrades are free; major upgrades are discounted. Currently the major upgrade discount is 75%. For full details, see Upgrade Pricing

Q: How much does it cost to upgrade to a larger license, e.g. from a $99 Individual license to a $399 Small Organization license?
A: It costs the difference; e.g. to upgrade from a $99 license to a $399 license costs $300. For full details, see Upgrading to a larger license

Q: What's the difference between the full version of Sawmill and the Trial version?
A: The Trial version is identical to the full version, except that it shows red "TRIAL VERSION" banners on the statistics pages, and expires in 30 days. For full details, see Difference Between Trial and Full

Q: When I purchase, do I have to download a new version of Sawmill, or can I "unlock" my existing trial installation?
A: You can unlock your trial installation by entering your license key in the Licensing page. For full details, see Unlocking A Trial Installation

Q: My 30-day trial has expired, and I haven't finished evaluating Sawmill yet. How can I get a new trial?
A: Go to the Licensing page, delete your expired license, and click "Try Sawmill For 30 Days." For full details, see Resetting the Trial Period

Q: How can I upgrade to a new version of Sawmill without losing my configurations, databases, and other data?
A: Copy the SawmillInfo folder/directory from the old installation to the new. For full details, see Upgrading Without Losing Data

Major Features

Q: What platforms does Sawmill run on?
A: Windows 98/ME/NT/2000, MacOS, most versions of UNIX, OS/2, and BeOS. For full details, see Available Platforms

Q: How much memory, CPU power, and disk space do I need to run Sawmill?
A: At least 64 Meg RAM, 128 Meg preferred; 200 Meg disk space for an average database; and as much CPU power as you can get. For full details, see System Requirements

Q: What sorts of log files can Sawmill process?
A: Sawmill can handle all major log formats and many minor formats, and you can create your own custom formats. For full details, see Supported Log Formats

Q: How is Sawmill different from other log analysis tools?
A: Among other things, Sawmill does not generate static "reports"--it generates dynamic interlinked statistics pages. For full details, see Sawmill vs. The Competition

Q: How does a typical company use Sawmill; what does a typical Sawmill setup look like?
A: Installations vary from customer to customer--Sawmill provides enough flexibility to let you choose the model that works best for you. For full details, see Typical Usage Patterns

Q: How large of a log file can Sawmill process?
A: There are no limits, except those imposed by the limitations of your server. For full details, see Processing Large Log Files

Q: Does the log data I feed to Sawmill need to be in chronological order?
A: No; your log entries can be in any order. For full details, see Log Entry Ordering

Installation and Setup

Q: Can Sawmill be configured to automatically analyze the access log for my site on a shared server once a day at a given time?
A: Yes, if you run it stand-alone, or if your server has a scheduling program. For full details, see Scheduling

Q: I'm running Sawmill on Windows, and it automatically starts itself up on IP 127.0.0.1 and port 8987. How can I tell it to use another IP address and port?
A: Click Advanced Options in the Sawmill window and choose the IP address from the menu, or set the Server Hostname option and the Web Server Port option in the Network section of the Preferences. For full details, see Running on a Different IP

Q: Can I use Sawmill with a computer that is not connected to the Internet, or can I use it with a computer that is connected by dial-up access without having to dial up?
A: Yes; see full answer for instructions. For full details, see Using Sawmill Without Dialing In

Q: How do I see referrer (referring URL, search engines, and search terms), agent (browser and OS), or error statistics?
A: Use "extended" or "combined" log format to see referrer and agent information, or analyze the log files with a separate configuration. For error logs, analyze them with a separate configuration. For full details, see Referrer, Agent, and Error Logs

Q: Is Sawmill available in languages other than English? How can I change the output of Sawmill to be in a different language, or to use different wording?
A: Sawmill is currently available in English, Spanish, and Italian, and can be translated into any language easily. Customization of output text is also easy. For full details, see Language Modules--Localization and Customization

Q: Can I set up Sawmill to start automatically when the computer starts up?
A: Yes; use Scheduled Tasks on Windows, Startup Items on MacOS 9, StartupItems under MacOS X, or the /etc/rc.d mechanism on UNIX systems that support it. For full details, see Running Sawmill at System Startup

Q: When I run Sawmill in a UNIX terminal window, and then close the window, Sawmill stops working. What can I do about that?
A: Add an ampersand (&) to the end of the command line to run it in the background. For full details, see Running Sawmill in the Background

Q: How can I run Sawmill in CGI mode, and still use the Sawmill Scheduler?
A: Use an external Scheduler to run jobs or to call the Sawmill Scheduler, or run Sawmill in both CGI and web server modes. For full details, see Using the Scheduler with CGI Mode

Q: Can Sawmill be configured to automatically FTP log files from multiple servers, and add them daily to a database?
A: Yes. For full details, see Downloading Log Data by FTP

Q: Can I run Sawmill as a Service on Windows? Can I run Sawmill while I'm logged out?
A: Yes, with third-party software like NTRunner (freeware) or Microsoft's Windows Resource Kit. For full details, see Running Sawmill as a Service

Q: My web site is hosted in another state. Does Sawmill provide browser based admin tools I can use to configure it and retrieve reports?
A: Yes, Sawmill's interface is entirely browser based. For full details, see Remote Administration

Q: Can Sawmill generate separate analyses for all the web sites hosted on my server?
A: Yes, Sawmill includes a number of features for just this purpose. For full details, see Statistics for Multiple Sites

Q: Can Sawmill process ZIPped or gzipped log data?
A: Yes to both. For full details, see Processing zipped or gzipped Log Data

Q: Can Sawmill combine the logs from multiple clustered or load balanced web servers, so that the user has one view of the data? Can it report separately on the different servers?
A: Yes. For full details, see Clustered Servers

Q: Can Sawmill be configured to limit access to statistics, so that a customer can only see the statistics associated with their section of my web site?
A: Yes, you can password protect statistics in several ways. For full details, see Protecting Clients' Statistics

Q: What features can I use in Sawmill's regular expressions?
A: You can use whatever's documented (Regular Expressions), and possibly more. How much more you can use depends on your platform. For full details, see Regular Expression Features

Q: Are Sawmill's regular expressions case-sensitive?
A: Yes. For full details, see Regular Expression Case-sensitivity

Q: How can I debug my custom log format, or my log filters?
A: Build the database from the command line with the -v option: sawmill -rfcf configname -cm cd -v 7. For full details, see Using Debugging Output

Log Filters

Q: How can I exclude hits from my own IP address, or from my organization's domain?
A: Add a Log Filter to exclude those hits. For full details, see Excluding an IP Address or Domain

Q: How can I create "content groups", so I can group my hits in broad categories (like "internal" vs. "external" or "monitoring" vs. "actual"), and see the hits on each category separately, or see them combined?
A: Create a new log field, database field, and view to track and show the category, and then the log filters to set the log field appropriately for each entry. For full details, see Creating Content Groups

Q: Most of the referrers listed in the "Top referrers" view are from my own site. Why is that, and how can I eliminate referrers from my own site from the statistics?
A: These are "internal referrers"; they represent visitors going from one page of your site to another page of your site. You can eliminate them by modifying the default "(internal referrer)" log filter, changing http://www.mydomain.com/ in that filter to your web site URL. For full details, see Eliminating internal referrers

Q: I use parameters on my pages (e.g. index.html?param1+param2), but Sawmill just shows "index.html?(parameters)." How can I see my page parameters?
A: Delete the Log Filter that converts the parameters to "(parameters)." For full details, see Page Parameters

Q: Can Sawmill generate statistics on just one domain, from a log file containing log data from many domains?
A: Yes. Add a log filter that rejects hits from all other domains. For full details, see Filtering All But One Domain

Q: How can I remove a particular file or directory from the statistics?
A: Use a Log Filter to reject all hits on that file or directory. For full details, see Excluding a File or Directory

Q: How can I see just the most recent day/week/month of statistics?
A: Use the Calendar, or the Filters, or use a "reject if older than" log filter, or a recentdays filter on the command line. For full details, see Recent Statistics

Q: How can I combine referrers, so hits from http://search.yahoo.com, http://dir.yahoo.com, and http://google.yahoo.com are combined into a single entry?
A: Create a log filter converting all the hostnames to the same hostname For full details, see Combining referring domains

Q: How can I query an external database to set the value of one of my log fields while Sawmill is processing the log data?
A: Use a command line filter (use a Do B filter with action "run command value1, and set value of field field1 to the result") For full details, see Using Command-line Log Filters

Q: How can I debug my custom log format, or my log filters?
A: Build the database from the command line with the -v option: sawmill -rfcf configname -cm cd -v 7. For full details, see Using Debugging Output

Q: When I look at the top hosts and top domains, all I see are numbers (IP addresses). How do I get the domain information?
A: Turn on reverse DNS lookup in the Network options (or in your web server), or use Sawmill's "look up IP numbers" feature. For full details, see Resolving IP Numbers

Q: Can I configure Sawmill to recognize search engines other than the ones it knows already?
A: Yes--just edit the SearchEngines file in the SawmillInfo directory with a text editor. For full details, see Adding Search Engines

Statistics

Q: What are "hits"? What are "page views"? What is "bandwidth"? What are "visitors"? What are "sessions"?
A: Hits are accesses to the server; page views are accesses to HTML pages; visitors are unique visitors to the site, and sessions are visits to the site. For full details, see Hits, Visitors, etc.

Q: There's a line above some of the tables in the statistics that says, "parenthesized items omitted." What does that mean?
A: It means that some items (probably useless ones) have been omitted from the table to make the information more useful--you can show them by choosing "show parenthesized items" from the Options menu. For full details, see Parenthesized Items Omitted

Q: How do I see more levels of statistics (i.e. how can I zoom in further)?
A: Increase the "suppress below" level for this field in the Database Fields tab of the Configuration options. For full details, see Zooming Farther

Q: Can I see the number of hits per week? Can I see a "top weeks" report?
A: Yes, by using the Calendar, and/or creating a database field, and a view tracking "weeks of the year." For full details, see Weekly Statistics

Q: Can Sawmill count unique visitors?
A: Yes, using unique hostname or using cookies. For full details, see Unique Visitors

Q: Can Sawmill count visitors using cookies, rather than unique hostnames?
A: Yes--it includes a built-in log format to do this for Apache, and other servers can be set up manually. For full details, see Counting Visitors With Cookies

Q: Can Sawmill show me the paths visitors took through my web site?
A: Yes; its "paths through the site" view is very powerful. For full details, see Clickstreams (Paths Through The Site)

Q: How can I see the top (insert field here) for each (insert field here)? For instance, how can I see the pages hit by particular visitor? Or the top visitors who hit a particular page? Or the top referrers for a particular day, or the top days for a particular referrer? Or the top search phrases for a search engine, the top authenticated users for a directory, the top directories accessed by an authenticated user, etc.?
A: Cross-reference the two fields to each other, add a filter for the item you're interested, and switch to the view you want. For full details, see Finding the Top (field) for a Particular (field)

Q: How can I get top search terms by search engines? I would like to know what keywords people are entering when they using yahoo, goto etc.
A: Yes, cross-reference search engines by search phrases and use the Filters. For full details, see Search Engines by Search Phrases

Q: How can I specify date ranges for the output? For example, I wish to see activity from 01/Feb/2000 through 04/Feb/2000. How would I tell Sawmill to limit the output to these dates?
A: Using the Filters Editor, add the four days as limits to the date/time field. For full details, see Showing a Date Range

Q: How can I see just the most recent day/week/month of statistics?
A: Use the Calendar, or the Filters, or use a "reject if older than" log filter, or a recentdays filter on the command line. For full details, see Recent Statistics

Q: Can I configure Sawmill to send several different views by email to a single person? Can I send different views to different people?
A: Yes; if you're sending to one person, you can create a custom view in the "Stats Views" tab containing any subviews you like, and send that by email. If you need to send different views to different people, you can use the command line to send them. For full details, see Sending Multiple Views By Email

Q: Can I export the data from Sawmill reports to Excel or other programs?
A: Yes; click the "export" link at the bottom of any table to export the data from that table in CSV format. Many programs, including Excel, can import CSV format files. For full details, see Exporting Data From Statistics

Q: All my domains are logged into one log file, and I don't want to have to process the whole file for each customer. Can I process it once, create a single database, and still have customers limited to viewing their own statistics?
A: Yes; create a single database from your log file, and use the Apparent root of statistics data option to keep clients out of each others' statistics. For full details, see Sharing a Single Database

Q: Does Sawmill do "peak period" reports (by weekday, or hour)?
A: Yes. For full details, see Peak Period Reports

Q: Does Sawmill do time of day?
A: Yes. For full details, see Time of Day Statistics

Q: How can I tell where visitors went when they left the site?
A: Normally, you can't. However, you can set up "reflector" pages if you need this information. For full details, see Tracking Exit URLs

Q: How can I see the referrers for 404 responses, so I can tell them their links are broken?
A: Cross-reference "server response" to referrer, include all bottom-level referrers, rebuild the database, and go to the "Top referrers" view with a 404 filter on "server response." For full details, see Finding External Broken Links

Q: Why do I see hits on a file called "robots.txt" in my statistics?
A: robots.txt is a file that tells search engine spiders and robots what they can do, so a hit on robots.txt means that a spider visited your site. For full details, see robots.txt

Q: Why do I see a hits on a file called "favicon.ico" in my statistics?
A: facicon.ico is a special icon file that Internet Explorer looks for when it first visits the site. For full details, see favicon.ico

Q: Why do I see a hits on a file called "default.ida?(parameters)" in my statistics?
A: This is an attack by the Code Red Worm. The attack is harmless unless you are running an insecure version of IIS. For full details, see default.ida (Code Red Worm)

Q: Why do I see hits on /scripts, cmd.exe, /MSADC, /_vti_bin, /_mem_bin, /msadc, winnt, and \x1c?
A: This is an attack by the nimda worm. The attack is harmless unless you are running an insecure version of IIS. For full details, see The nimda Worm

Troubleshooting

Q: When I run Sawmill, it tells me that the server is started (it shows me the URL), but when I try to access that URL, the browser says it's not available. How can I fix this?
A: You may be using a proxy server which prevents you from accessing a server running on your own machine. Try reconfiguring the proxy to allow it, or try running Sawmill on IP 127.0.0.1 (the loopback interface). For full details, see Can't Access the Server

Q: When I run Sawmill on Windows, I get an error: "A required DLL is missing: WS2_32.DLL." What's going on?
A: You need Winsock 2. For full details, see Winsock 2

Q: I downloaded the Mac version of Sawmill, but I got a message saying that the download is corrupt. What's going on?
A: You need a new version of Aladdin StuffIt Expander, or you need to run the .sea file yourself. For full details, see Corrupt Mac Download

Q: When I run Sawmill as a CGI program under IIS, I get an error message "CGI Timeout: The specified CGI application exceeded the allowed time for processing. The server has deleted the process." What can I do about that?
A: Set the IIS CGI timeout to a high value, like 999999. For full details, see IIS CGI Timeout

Q: I've forgotten the password I chose for Sawmill when I first installed; how can I reset it?
A: Delete the SawmillPassword file in the SawmillInfo folder/directory of your installation. For full details, see Resetting the Administrative Password

Q: When I run Sawmill as a CGI, it runs as a special user (nobody, web, apache, etc.). Then when I want to use Sawmill from the command line or in web server mode, the permissions don't allow it. What can I do about this?
A: Loosen the permissions in the Preferences, or run your CGI programs as a different user, or run your command line programs as the CGI user. For full details, see CGI User Permissions

Q: How much memory/disk space/time does Sawmill use?
A: It depends on how much detail you ask for in the database. It uses very little if you use the default detail levels. For full details, see Resource Usage

Q: When I process a large log file with Sawmill, the entries per second drops off now and then, and then recovers to full speed later. Why?
A: Sawmill is performing regular database maintenance. You can defer this to the end of processing by setting the Size of disk write buffer option to a very high value. For full details, see Period Slowdowns During Log Processing

Q: Sawmill crashed/quit on MacOS and now I can't restart it. When I try, it says "Unable to bind TCP/IP network endpoint to interface 123.123.123.123, port 8987--cannot start built-in web server." Why is this happening?
A: MacOS did not clean up properly after Sawmill quit--reboot MacOS to fix this. For full details, see MacOS Port Lingering Issue

Q: When I add up the number of visitors on each day in the month, and I compare it to the total visitors for the month, they're not equal? Why not? Also, why don't the sum of visitors on subpages/subdirectories add up to the total for the directory, and why don't the sum of visitors on subdomains add up to the total for the domain, etc.? And why are visitors sometimes shown as a dash (-)?
A: Because "visitors" is the number of unique visitors, a visitor who visits every day will show up as a single visitor in each day's visitors count, but also as a single visitor for the whole month--not 30 visitors! Because a simple sum won't do, Sawmill cannot compute the visitors when the filters are complicated, and it shows them as a dash. For full details, see Visitor Totals Don't Add Up

Q: When I look at the Calendar, there are days missing from the statistics. Why? What can I do about it?
A: Your web server may be rotating the logs away before Sawmill sees them. For full details, see Days Missing from the Statistics

Q: When I run Sawmill via Netscape Navigator in CGI mode, Netscape crashes after showing twenty or so "progress pages." What's going on?
A: This is a bug in Netscape. Turn off progress pages, turn up the interval between them, or use Internet Explorer or Netscape 6. For full details, see Netscape Crash Bug

Q: When I process log data with Sawmill, it uses most or all of my processor; it says it's using 90%, or even 100% of the CPU. Should it be doing that? Is that a problem?
A: Yes, it should do that, and it's not usually a problem. Any CPU-intensive program will do the same. However, you can throttle it back if you need to with Maximum CPU usage percent. For full details, see Sawmill uses too high a percentage of CPU

Q: Is Sawmill Year 2000 Compatible?
A: Yes. For full details, see Year 2000 Compatibility

Miscellaneous

Q: Where did the name "Sawmill" come from?
A: A sawmill is a tool that processes logs, and so is Sawmill. For full details, see The Name "Sawmill"

Q: Why are new versions of Sawmill released so often? Is it buggy? Do I need to download every new version?
A: We ship new versions to provide our customers with the latest minor features and bug fixes quickly. Sawmill is no buggier than any other software, and you don't need to download a new release unless you're having problems with the current one. For full details, see Frequent New Versions of Sawmill

Q: Is the Sawmill documentation available in PDF format? Can I print it?
A: There is no PDF version, but you can print by going to the Table of Contents, clicking All Documentation at the bottom, and printing from your browser. For full details, see Printing the Documentation