These miniTutorials were requested in the miniForums conferences.

• Adding the Geo::IPFree plugin to Apache & AWStats.
• How to update AWStats via a URL request.

Adding the Geo::IPFree plugin to Apache & AWStats.

From the beginning then we need to download the plugin, available from several sites , I got mine from the CPAN site.

Step 1 - Download the Plug-In.

• Goto CPAN Site - Geo::IPFree 0.2 download page and click on the download button next to the 'This Release' section.
• This will open a dialog box asking you to select a location for the download of the file 'Geo-IPfree-0.2.tar.gz' , so choose a suitable location and save it to disk.

Step 2 - Unzip and move the required plug-in files.

• Once the file downloads , using WinZip , Unzip the .tar.tz file. This will reveal another zip file called 'Geo-IPfree-0.2.tar' , you need to unzip that one aswell, you can unzip them into there current locations as they contain directories. Once this file is unzipped a directory (folder) called 'Geo-IPfree-0.2' will appear. This contains 11 files and 3 folders, you do not need all of them. We just need one directory and the 4 files that it contains.
• From the 'Geo-IPFree-0.2' directory, goto the Lib folder and inside that is the Geo folder, right-click and copy this folder.
• Navigate to the 'plugins' directory contained in C:/Apache2/Apache2/cgi-bin/ directory. Paste the 'Geo' directory and its contents into the /Apache/cgi-bin/plugins/ directory. Note: the 'Geo' directory it seems must be called 'Geo' and with that capital 'G' at the start or AWStats will not be able to find it. AWStats will also not find the directory or its files if you place it elsewhere. So this step is important.
• Ok, once that is done we need to now configure the AWStats.yoursite.conf file to look for this new plug-in.

Step 3 - Configure awstats.yoursite.conf file to look for plug-in.

• Locate the AWStats site file that you want to be able to use the plug-in (if you have several conf files choose the one(s) that you are going to use. This file (or files) should be located in C:\Apache2\Apache2\cgi-bin\ directory. Open it in NotePad or whatever text editor you use and alter as below.
• Main Setup Section : No changes.
• Optional Setup Section : No changes.
• Optional Accuracy Setup Section : No changes.
• Optional Appearance Setup Section : No changes.
• Plugins :
• Uncomment line which reads #LoadPlugin="geoipfree" (remove the hash #)
• Comment out the line LoadPlugin="geoip" if this was previously used.
• Extra Section : No changes.
• Save the file, changes effective immediatly.

Summary of miniTutorial :

Basically then, the 'Geo' folder and its containing 4 files need to be copied into the /cgi-bin/plugins/ directory of your Apache folder. Then , your awstats config file for your site needs to be configured to find this file by un-commenting out the line which reads #LoadPlugin="geoipfree"

How to update AWStats via a URL request.

Step 1 - Make changes to the awstats.yoursite.conf file.

• Locate the file in c:/Apache2/Apache2/cgi-bin/awstats.yoursite.conf and open in NotePad or similar.
• Main Setup Section :
• Find the line : AllowToUpdateStatsFromBrowser=0
• and change the value to 1 (AllowToUpdateStatsFromBrowser=1)
• Save and Close the file.
• Changes effective immediatly.

Step 2 - Update from Browser.

There are two ways to do this.
either :-

• Open browser and enter url address of site + awstats arguments.
• http://yoursite.com/cgi-bin/awstats.pl?config=yoursite
• then press the 'Update Now' button.

or :-

• Open browser and enter url address of site + awstats arguments.
• http://yoursite.com/cgi-bin/awstats.pl?config=yoursite&update=1

Extra Information.

config=yoursite
where 'yoursite' is equal to the name in your config file
 e.g. awstats.yoursite.conf.