Is there any simple way to install Webalizer on a desktop pc (Windows 10).

[Penny_Rollo]

I have no experience of doing command-line stuff, so am hoping to find some way of installing Webalizer that uses simple ftp to upload files and some way of calling the program to run.
25 years internet experience and some ability with php/mysql, but I don't understand where the Webalizer files go (in a directory, yes, and with a log file to analyse) but *where* to put them and *how* to call them, I haven't figured out at all (yet).
I have heard that the latest stable Webalizer version is 2.23 but (also) don't know where to get this from.
Any help appreciated.

[requinix]

Webalizer? You mean this one? Whose homepage dates to 2014, and tells you to download it over FTP?

[gizmola]

I'm with @requinix -- Webalizer is pretty much a dead product.

I believe that AWStats is the defacto standard FOSS web log reporting tool, being that it is typically bundled with CPanel.  It's probably the closest thing to what Webalizer was, only it continues to be maintained and enhanced.  It's a package of perl scripts, and is highly portable, as it mainly requires perl, and has documentation for installation, and in your case, has a windows installer.

There are many log analysis systems that go far beyond the web, and for that reason, are often used instead of AWStats, and of course a lot of people just use google analytics or commercial alternatives.  Most large commercial websites use multiple services to provide different types of analysis, including bug logging, which is not something traditional web analytics products try to track or categorize.

With that said, there are numerous alternatives to awstats you might want to investigate.  GoAccess is one that I'd recommend looking into.

It also has to be said, that these products go through your http logs, and as the old saying goes, are subject to the possibility of GIGO (garbage in/garbage out), by which I mean, that they work with the data available to them in the http logs.  In many cases, the default settings for apache or IIS are not sufficient to support accurate or enhanced reporting, depending on your environment.  Often you need to modify the log format (as in for example, using enhanced log format) and/or creating a custom log format, that bakes in data specific to your system like specific cookies or non-default client IP settings.  That's up to you, as well as automating ingestion of log files, or movement of log files from another server to an intranet or your workstation.  

 

 

[Penny_Rollo]

 

Quote

Webalizer? You mean this one? Whose homepage dates to 2014, and tells you to download it over FTP?

Thank you for your reply @requinix  
I went to the linked page, which said "Go to the download page and get yourself a copy."
... so I went to the download page https://webalizer.net/download.html and selected Tar/Gzip archive (.tgz).

It wouldn't download. I had selected my FTP program (FlashFXP) and it did try (11 times) before the connection timed out.

[17:21:35] FlashFXP 5.4.0 (build 3970)
[17:21:35] Support Forums https://www.flashfxp.com/forum/
[17:21:35]  
[17:21:35] Winsock 2.2 -- OpenSSL 1.1.0e  16 Feb 2017
[17:21:36] [R] Connecting to ftp.mrunix.net -> DNS=ftp.mrunix.net IP=45.76.61.72 PORT=21
[17:21:46] [R] Connection failed (Connection timed out)
[17:21:46] [R] Delaying for 10 seconds before reconnect attempt #1
[17:21:56] [R] Attempting to Reconnect.
[17:21:56] [R] Connecting to ftp.mrunix.net -> DNS=ftp.mrunix.net IP=45.76.61.72 PORT=21 (attempt # 1)
[17:22:06] [R] Connection failed (Connection timed out)
[17:22:06] [R] Delaying for 10 seconds before reconnect

I've pasted in above, what it said, in case that is of any relevance.

Edited July 2, 2023 by Penny_Rollo
to add @ ref

[kicken]

As has been said already, Webalizer is pretty much a dead project.  The FTP server is apparently no longer running so you cannot download from it.  If you really want a copy you can get it from the internet archive using the wayback machine.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150905053743/http://www.webalizer.org/download.html

Unless there is some specific reason you must use Webalizer though, you should probably look into a modern alternative.

 

[Penny_Rollo]

Appreciate the reply @kicken, however had previously downloaded the webalizer pages from the software archive at the archive site (Webalizer 2.01).

Earlier I downloaded Awstats (from https://sourceforge.net/projects/awstats/files/AWStats/7.9/awstats-7.9.zip/download?use_mirror=netix ) as recommended by @gizmola (many thanks for the peripheral info btw) but neither Arachnophilia nor Notepad++ would open the README.md file, and the Windows Installer was not included in the download (ref https://awstats.sourceforge.io/docs/awstats_setup.html ).

*however*.  In the 'downloads' folder here I then discovered several files, downloaded (somehow) at the time of attempting the download from ftp.mrunix.net via  https://webalizer.net/download.html  (per link provided by @requinix). These files are:

download (2.06Kb) (no idea what this is).
webalizer-2.23-08-src.tgz (the file requested).
webalizer-2.23-08-src (1).tgz (another copy of same).
download (1) (another copy of the first one).
webalizer-2.23-08-src.zip
webalizer-2.23-08-src (1).zip
webalizer-2.23-08-src (2).zip
... all of these must have downloaded during the three minutes of attempting the mrunix.net ftp, even though the ftp program said the connection was not made.

Anyway I now have five complete sets of the latest version of Webalizer  which is some way further forward from when I first asked the question, so, very much appreciate the replies so far.

Next I need to extract the Webalizer files and figure out (a) where to put them [with a log file to test] and (b) how to 'call' the program to start.  Any insights would be helpful, along the way.

[kicken]

35 minutes ago, Penny_Rollo said:

Next I need to extract the Webalizer files and figure out (a) where to put them [with a log file to test] and (b) how to 'call' the program to start.  Any insights would be helpful, along the way.

What you downloaded is the source code of the software.  You need to compile it to get an actual program you can use. You can do that relatively easily on Linux since that's the environment it was designed for.  Whether it can be done and how difficult it would be to do on Windows is unknown.  Something like MinGW might help.

 

37 minutes ago, Penny_Rollo said:

but neither Arachnophilia nor Notepad++ would open the README.md file

A .md file is just a text file.  Any text editor will open and display it just fine.  It might not open with a simple double-click as the .md extension probably is not registered, but you can always open the editor and use it's file->open command (or just rename the file to .txt and double-click).

 

[requinix]

3 hours ago, Penny_Rollo said:

Anyway I now have five complete sets of the latest version of Webalizer

Once again: the "latest version" of Webalizer, this 2.23-08 that you found, is ten years old. https://webalizer.net/news.html

Webalizer is dead, and the longer you insist on using it the worse things will be for you. No updates. No features. You're going to fall further and further behind on the sorts of things everybody else is using because they're using modern tools.
Changing software sucks, I know, but it's very much worth the temporary discomfort.

[Penny_Rollo]

Webalizer's what I'm used to using - for the last 20 years or so - not all of us are as techie as the people on here

Webalizer was provided by the ISP where my site was hosted - and it's been bundled with cpanel last couple of years by huge hosting-providers like 123-reg in the UK, so it's not 'dead', as such, even if it doesn't suit everyone.

However clearly not all hosting providers offer it, and 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 (long-standing issue). I guess we all have different capabilities.

*

*however*.  Eleven days ago I found *this* page.

https://www.tobias-schwarz.net/programmierung/webalizer_guie.html

Absolutely brilliant.  Webalizer for Windows.  plug-and-play.

It was downloaded and installed - and 31 days of logs analysed - in less than an hour.

So I've posted the download address above in the hope that other non-techie people will find it. 

*

The Tobias Schwartz page also links to the Stone Steps version of Webalizer - project release notes at https://www.stonesteps.ca/projects/webalizer/releasenotes/ (up to 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 of any interest/use to anyone else who reads this thread.