This is my first (and unfortunately long) post, and I apologize if I've got it in the wrong section. I'm also fairly new to web design and development.

My problem is this:
I create and maintain websites for specialty programs within a large non-profit organization. They are accessed in the following manner - www.somecompany.com/program1. Naturally, for program 1, I titled the home page as index.htm so browsers would automatically open the home page, rather than using a virtual directory or requiring the users to type in www.somecompany.com/program1/homepage.htm. The webserver is maintained by my company's IT department, and they are also responsible for distributing the monthly web site reports listing hits. The report I receive is called Microsoft Site Server Express Analysis report document.

Recently I created a brand new site for a different program, and the first report I received had no hits to the index.htm page, but there were several hits to other pages in the site. I asked my IT department about it, and I was told that because accessing index.htm via www.somecompany.com/program2 is a server redirect it does not count as a "hit". If anyone typed in www.somecompany.com/program2/index.htm it would be counted as a hit. So, I asked about program 3, which I did not create, and whose home page is titled placement.html. There is a virtual directory which, upon typing www.somecompany.com/program3 will open the home page of placement.html. This program is getting hits on the home page, according to the web reports.

The explanation I was given was that anyone who accesses placement.html using www.somecompany.com/program3 does not record any hits, but accessing the page through the www.somecompany.com links page, which uses the full URL for the link to program 3, is the only time that hits are recorded. Then I was advised to either put a counter on the home pages (which I thought was pretty archaic) or to have the page refresh with the full URL upon reload (which I don't believe is a good answer, since many of our users are in rural areas with dial up access - wouldn't this take more time?).

So, I can't bring myself to believe that these are the only answers. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Hello!...ok, firstly, I actually cant answer your question properly, but I know a man who can, (secondly, I hate seeing no replies!)....

My take on it is, depending on the server these sites sit on, you can code (via HTMl) a hidden counter for each page, (for example, the main url of individual sites). You then code a furthr HTML page, to display these results, I did this previously on my hobby site...Im happy for you to have the codes, (its a small echo line on each page, and the main display page picks up the echos, but is DOEs depend on the host)...email, or pm, and Ill look it out for you.

Cheers, Scotia

i don't know if this might help but you can visit phpnuke their php codes are specialized in tracking visitor and ad counts