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Wordpress and VPN's
[Deleted User]
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I've got a wordpress blog. I used to be an English teacher in SE Asia, and I'd like them to read the blog.
Trouble is none of them are showing up on my stats (in addition I use statcounter to get more data, and they're not showing up on that). I have it confirmed that at least one of them is a regular visitor to the blog.
I'm guessing as they'd be using VPN's to access wordpress this might be blocking the recording of stats?
Does anyone know anything about this?
Thanks
Trouble is none of them are showing up on my stats (in addition I use statcounter to get more data, and they're not showing up on that). I have it confirmed that at least one of them is a regular visitor to the blog.
I'm guessing as they'd be using VPN's to access wordpress this might be blocking the recording of stats?
Does anyone know anything about this?
Thanks
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It's not that the VPN is blocking the stats, it's that the entire purpose of the VPN is to make it look as though they're coming from somewhere else. If the VPN machine is in the US then they'll just appear as another US user coming to your blog.
Nothing you can do about it (except telling them to stop using the VPN).
I just want to know if they're coming at all. The page isn't even registering a hit.
I can work out where they've coming from if I can see that the page has been hit.
No, the request for the webpage needs to come from somewhere.
It's possible that they're blocking stat counter and other 3rd-party analytics (many ad blockers do this) so you should check your actual web server logs.
If your actual server logs show no hits then no one is visiting your site (since your server is the application serving the data it can't be blocked by ad blockers).
It's also possible (maybe probable in an education setting) that they're sitting behind a caching proxy, in which case your site may get one download when the first user visits it and then a copy will be held on the proxy and subsequent users will get the copy so no more hits will register on your site (until you update the site).
accidental double post.
Cheers, the stuff about ad blocks sounds like it might be relevant.
I've done a bit more research and I think if JavaScript and/or cookies are disabled it they won't register as a visit.
Is disabling JavaScript and/or cookies how ad blockers work?
If a VNP didn't do this, would a proxy do this? (If so I can assume that my friends are confusing the two).
An ad blocker won't disable Javascript globally (although most browsers do have an option to disable Javascript), but it's possible it might block certain types of scripts.
A VPN won't alter your site's content but a proxy definitely can.
I use a basic proxy (Privoxy) on my router to strip ads and modify dangerous Javascript for all the computers on my home network.
There's not really anything you can do to get accurate stats in this situation.