can not explain my statistics

[willemijn]

hope somebody on this forum can explain some strange things happening with my website, I found out about after looking at the statistics.

I seem to have directories in my website that I did not make and it seems there is a lot of traffic going to these. I have tried to find what it is, but no idea.

For instance, I have my 'images' directory. This now has a subdirectory: /images/b
This subdirectory is not visible on the internet, nor on my ftp program. Yet, I have had thousands of visitors here, going to:
/images/b/index.htm

Hope this is makes sense to anybody, because I am rather worried something totally out of control is going on here.

[vrooje]

Have you contacted your web host? My web host has a couple of directories that it creates for logging and such, that I didn't create but can access. I've never heard of one being created in the images directory, though...

Out of curiosity, I just tried surfing to your images/b/index.htm and got a 404 (not found); as you say, the directory is not visible online.

Are you sure that it exists, or might it be a mis-written URL somewhere that people are merely trying (and failing) to surf to?

Would you be willing to link us to your statistics pages (if that's possible)?

[willemijn]

Hi Vrooje,

have no idea how to link to my statistics program, because it is all password protected.
Did contact my service provider but they just say it is something the search engines do. I had some sub-directories before that I did not know of.
However, the one in the images folder happens to be the most visited page of my total website.

Will ask my service provider again. However, since there are several people in this forum who seem to know a lot about programming of webpages, I thought I would look for an answer here.

Thanks,

[willemijn]

NEWS:
I received a very fast reply from my provider. They have advised me to make a subdirectory and put my home page in there, so however goes to the non existing directory, will now get to my home page.

They have also said that I could denounce these abnormalities to a certain Italian entity and then they will investigate. However, again I do not know what to denounce and say.

I am still trying to understand what is behind these strange directories I did not create. Is it SPAM, is it virusses, is it a mistake from search engines or directories?

If somebody has had this at hand before, hope you can give me some advise.

Many thanks,

[vrooje]

Willemijn,

It's really hard to say what's going on without more information... but I can always speculate!

Is it that a large number of people are trying to go to images/b/index.htm and getting a "page not found" error? Or is it that these links don't show up as a 404 error, and that you suspect someone is breaking into your system and using it for other purposes via this (and other) hidden directories?

If it's the former, it could just be that someone has a bad link to your system on a webpage somewhere, and lots of people are clicking it. What are the top sites that refer people to your website? (That list should be on your statistics page(s).)

If it's the latter, that's a pretty major security issue, as it would mean someone had hacked your site. I have the impression, though, that usually when someone hacks a website they make it obvious, as it's a point of pride/reputation to have done so. Have any parts of your usual webpage been rewritten recently?

[willemijn]

will check the incoming links! That is a good idea.
Thanks,

[livinginitaly]

Hi Willemijn,

I'm a little late on this thread (as always!) ... however, my best guess is the same as vrooje's. It's just a 'stray' linking error.

If the directory was 'real' then you'd be able to see it when you access via 'ftp'.

One thing though, I notice you've acted on the suggestion of your host and put your homepage in the directory. As you've probably noticed, the images arn't working.

Two ways of curing this, either .......

amend all of your images to show the full location
e.g. change

Code: Select all

<IMG SRC="images/hammac.jpg"

to

Code: Select all

<IMG SRC="http&#58;//www.villainumbria.com/images/hammac.jpg"

or replace

Code: Select all

<IMG SRC="images/hammac.jpg"

with

Code: Select all

<IMG SRC="../hammac.jpg"

Hope this helps

oops ..... just thought on a little further and you'll have to do the same with all your links too

I'd recommend creating an 'error page' instead. Just make an index.htm page containing a description of your site, together with a 'full link' to your 'homepage', then drop that into the 'b folder'. Much easier.

[willemijn]

Hi Tony,

better late than never!

Thanks a lot for your remarks. I have not looked at the /b/index.htm and therefore had not noticed a thing!

Will do the error page of course, that is the only thing making any sense.

Many thanks,

[petehols]

Hi Willemijn

Are you sure it is real visitors that are going to this page and it is not just the search engine bots. 9 times out of 10 the bots will be searching and depending on what statistics you are looking at it could mean that it is just a bot visiting and not a real surfer.

Best way to check is to access your webhosts stats and it will tell you whether these pages are getting visited by googlebot or by another IP address. If it doesn't mention googlebot or msnbot then it could be a real surfer. Best to check first as if it is just the seach engines there is no need to change the page.

Hope this helps

Pete