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Counters provide a simple, quick way to track how many visitors each of a site's pages get. A counter shows the hit total, in one of several possible styles, when a page is requested. Since the numbers are displayed for all to see, they advertise the popularity of each of your pages quite well.
For hints on Troubleshooting your counter, see the bottom of the page.
To Use a Text Counter on a Web Page:
Use the following tag on each web page which needs a counter:
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counter"-->
Add any optional text around the HTML tag. For example:
<center> This page has been hit <!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counter"--> times! </center>
Rename your .html file to
.shtml
. The access counter will automatically keep separate counts for each page. You do not need to change the tag, no matter how many pages you use it on.
Using a graphical counter is similar to using the text one, with a few extra details.
To Install the Graphical Hit Counter Tool on Your Account:
Log in to the MindSpring Control Panel at http://control.business.earthlink.net
Choose
Hit Counter from the
Toolbox drop-down menu.
Click the
Install button to put the graphical counters into your cgi-bin.
After the counters have been installed, use the counter following the same directions given for text counters with one slight difference. Replace the
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counter"--> with the tag below that's associated with the graphic you would like to use. Don't forget to activate SSI on the HTML page! Refer to step 3 of the Text Counter instructions.
 A simple odometer
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counta"-->
" />
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countchevy"-->
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/counta"-->
 Chalk
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countchalk"-->
" />
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countodb"-->
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countchalk"-->
 Colors
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countcolors"-->
" />
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countgaramond"-->
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countcolors"-->
 Scoreboard
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countsbr"-->
" />
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countbembo"-->
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countsbr"-->
 Pool Balls
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countpoolball"-->
" />
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countfdr"-->
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countpoolball"-->
 Troubleshooting your Counter
" />
<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/countmblack"-->
This is a sign that the server is trying to process the server-side include, but something is preventing it. The most common problem is that it simply can't find the counter.
The server-side include you add to your page should look just like a normal URL without the machine part. Something like
/cgi-bin/counter (or whichever counter you decided to use) is what you should be putting in your pages.
Also, make sure both your
cgi-bin/ directory and the counter have the permissions set to
755 <-rwxr-xr-x>
.
The counter is looking for an access_count file in your
www/counter/ directory.
www/counter/access_count should have been created in your account by default initially. If you have accidentally deleted them, you can simply recreate them.
To Recreate an access_count File:
- Create a "counter/" directory inside the "www/" directory
- Create a blank text file and save it as "access_count"
- Upload "access_count" into the "www/counter/" directory.
Error message: Error Opening Counter File You may have taken away access privileges for the
/counter/access_count file from yourself.Make sure the
/counter/ directory has the permissions of
755 <-rwx-r-xr-x>
and the
access_count file has the permission
644 <-rw-r--r-->
.
If you still can't get the counter working, send us an e-mail at
webhelp@mindspring.net
and we'll be more than glad to take a look at it with you.
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