[Plugin: WP Mobile Detector] Plugin Skewing Visitor Statistics

  • Don Anastas

    (@javaman1)


    11 years, 8 months ago

    I installed WP Mobile Detector on a number of sites and notice a huge bump in traffic so I check stats in Statcounter and Google Analytics.

    One IP was reloading everyday since implementation date Aug 7 thru today so I decided to deny that IP in my CPanel and submit a ticket to my host.

    Here is what I sent them:

    I’ve had some problems in the past with visitors hitting Adsense over and again as well of Ebay product links so I began tracking IPs and visitor paths to my sites.

    Here is a record I’m getting from the service Statcounter:

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    6 Aug 13:19:41

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    6 Aug 19:59:27

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    7 Aug 02:41:06

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    7 Aug 03:50:30

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    11 Aug 11:36:42

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    12 Aug 03:37:08

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    12 Aug 16:31:44

    My host wrote back:

    It appears that one of your plugins (WP Mobile Detector) loads the site via http. This would explain why you were getting hits from the local server (174.120.81.66) and why they have no referrer. It also looks like blocking that IP address stops the plugin from working correctly:

    [12-Aug-2012 20:31:44] PHP Warning: getimagesize(http://mydomainname.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-mobile-detector//themes/bluesteel-mobile/images/small-up-arrow.png) [function.getimagesize]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 403 Forbidden
    in /home/xxxxxxx/public_html/mydomainname.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-mobile-detector/functions.php on line 239

    It is not malicious activity, so I highly recommend you unblock the IP address 174.120.81.66. You may have to deactivate the plugin if you want to stop those hits from appearing in your site statistics.

    If the authors of this plugin don’t respond to this forum post directly I will write to them asking for a solution.

    In the mean time I would say I can’t recommend this plugin. If that changes I will certain post it here.

    Thanks,

    Don

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-mobile-detector/

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Thread Starter Don Anastas

    (@javaman1)

    11 years, 8 months ago

    It’s now apparent support here from the plugin developer’s won’t happen. Or at least not soon enough to reasonably solve the issues stated.

    I have written to them via there website and have not received a response. It has been over 48 hours so I’ve officially moved on.

    I also reaffirm that the problem I noted existed, was verified by the host and went away when I deactivated and fully deleted the plugin.

    Plugin Author websitezcom

    (@websitezcom)

    11 years, 7 months ago

    That’s the image rewriting that happens.

    This should only skew hits on an image which should be differentiated in your statistics program. There is no way around this since this is the best way to obtain the dimensions of the image consistently.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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