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Unique Visitors = 1/10th of Unique IPs?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the that-might-be-pushing-it dept.

Max Fomitchev submitted a little blog entry where he proposes that the ratio of unique IPs to actual unique users is 10:1. This flies in the face of the numbers you usually see attached to these sorts of things. I'm not sure about the logic he uses to come up with these numbers either.

6 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. 10 was arbitrary by op12 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The 10 was a hypothetical...the only point was that you can't trust the number of recurring visitors that a site reports because they users come back with a different IP (obvious) and get counted twice. Couldn't one use cookies and IPs in combination to get a better gauge? The IP may change but the cookie would not. Sure some may delete it, but it'll still improve accuracy at least a little bit.

  2. so... by gEvil+(beta) · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, he's saying my website has 1/10th of a visitor?

    --
    This guy's the limit!
  3. Neighbor's Wireless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I help keep this in balance by using my neighbor's wireless, that IP has a load of unique users.

  4. But... by xpird · · Score: 5, Funny

    Can he find a formula for the number of /. articles posted vs. the actual unique articles?

  5. I thought it was the opposite. by Black+Perl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First of all, a DHCP server is typically going to give you the same IP address each time your computer requests it, unless there are more users than IP addresses, in which case there will be some shuffling. But that tends to be when there are more users than available IPs.

    There are entire domains hidden behind a NAT device of some sort. This would be many users per IP address. TFA didn't mention this at all.

    So I think TFA is indeed arbitrary, and also wrong.

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    bp
    1. Re:I thought it was the opposite. by the+melon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, here at Sun there are nearly 40 thousand people that connect through 40-50 different proxy servers. That is a thousand to 1 in the opposite direction the article claims.

      And yes, he seems to have no idea how DHCP really works. Even if your lease is expired you will get the same IP address unless the pool has been exausted and your address re-used. I see that as an extremly unlikely thing to happen because it would mean, as you say, that your pool is smaller than your installed base. If you pool is smaller then you will start having issues because x number of customers will always be without a connection because they can't get an address.

      Had he mentioned Dialup users then I would be more inclined to agree because you are very likely to get a different address every time you connect.