Sometimes when I have multiple users on I'll look at the active_user.asp page and some people will show up 3-4 times.

Mike

I just came to post about the same...........last time i posted about it i was told that the active users list was never perfect since it's based on the IP addresses and dial up users can get disconnected and get a new ip and it'll come up twice, but come on -boRg-, this is ridiculous, look at the that:

doublelfan wrote: also, there's an anonymous user.  How does this happen and if there's a way to mask your online status why can't I find it in the profile?

It's not on the profile, you just uncheck the "Add me to the active user list" box when you log on and you'll be anonymous...

If you are a dodgy person not wanting to be traced on the web you can get IP masking tools, these tools mask your IP address and will change your IP address contiously.

Active users lists are nevr acurate, they are only ever a guide. Look at any live stats program that tells you the number of users on your site, or any active users program, none are acurate.

HTTP, the protocol for looking at web pages, is a stateless protocol, meaning that for each page, image on that page, etc. a new connection is made to the web server, once the page, image, etc. is downloaded the connection is dropped to the web server and there is noway of telling if that user is just reading the page or closed there browser. The next page that person calls the web server has no-way of know if this is a new user or the same user again. You can use cookies to keep track of users to see if it is the same user, but then if the user has cookies disabled there is no-way to track the user.

The active users list for the forum could be changed to also check the username as well, but as the code for the active user has to be fired up each time a page is clicked on this will also effect performance of the forum engine and also add extra overhead on the web server. As the active users list is only for a rugh guide and not essential in the running of the forum I can't see the point in the extra overhead.

I add a new stored procedure to check the user ID instead of the IP and change the code in active_users_inc.asp to this:

If lngActiveUsersID <> 2 Then
If strDatabaseType = "SQLServer" Then
 strSQL = "EXECUTE wwfSpActiveUsersWhereIDis @lngActiveUsersID = '" & lngActiveUsersID & "'"
Else
 strSQL = "SELECT " & strDbTable & "ActiveUser.* From " & strDbTable & "ActiveUser WHERE Author_ID='" & lngActiveUsersID & "';"
End If
Else
If strDatabaseType = "SQLServer" Then
 strSQL = "EXECUTE " & strDbProc & "ActiveUsersWhereIPis @strIPAddress = '" & strIPAddress & "'"
Else
 strSQL = "SELECT " & strDbTable & "ActiveUser.* From " & strDbTable & "ActiveUser WHERE IP='" & strIPAddress & "';"
End If
End If

That way if the user is a guest it checks the IP and if the user is not a guest it checks the user ID, it should make it more accurate and shouldn't affect performance, what you think?

doublelfan wrote: Could be with aol users running through the proxy...but then shouldn't that effect the session as well?

AOL dose that alot. one person can look like 400 people. each hit has a difrent IP