Counter Problem

I found a nice counter script at hotscripts.com but the problem is all the counter scripts that I found are either incrementing on every reload page or locking the ip so your ip will never be counted again, never!!!

I need a counter script, since my host provides me a free counter that increments every page load! (what a host ha?)

the script that I need is to store "lets say" the last 10 ip's and then re-write on the oldest one, I get tired of looking and searching but I couldn't find any.

Can anyone modify the script that I found to store just n ips and re-write the oldest?

<?

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// counter.php - a graphical counter
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//
// This script outputs a "hit count" displayed using digit
// images and formatted according to the setting for
// "minDigits". The hit count can be incremented on every
// page hit or only for unique IP addresses (the
// "countOnce" feature).
//
// See readme.txt for more information.
//
// Author: Jon Thomas <http://jp.thomas.name>
// Last Modified: 6/11/02
//
// You may freely use, modify, and distribute this script.
//
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

// define the variables
$file = "count.txt"; // text file that stores hit count
$imgExtension = "gif"; // file extension of digit images
$minDigits = 0; // the minimum # of digits to display
// set to 0 to display only needed digits
$countOnce = 0; // set to 1 to count unique IPs only
// set to 0 to count all hits
$ipFile = "ips.txt"; // text file that stores IP addresses

// DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS POINT UNLESS YOU KNOW PHP! //

// get the current hit count
$fp_count = fopen($file, "r");
$count = fread($fp_count, filesize($file));
fclose($fp_count);

// if the "countOnce" feature is enabled
if ($countOnce) {
// open the IP address file
$fp_ips = fopen($ipFile, "r");

// compare each entry with the user's IP address
while (!feof($fp_ips)) {
// get an entry from the IP file
$ip = fgets($fp_ips, 20);

// if the user's IP matches, set the user to old
if ($ip == $REMOTE_ADDR . "rn") {
$is_old = 1;
break;
}

// otherwise, set the user to new
else {
$is_old = 0;
}
}

// close the IP address file
fclose($fp_ips);

// if the user is not old, add his IP to the IP file
if (!$is_old) {
// reopen the IP address file
$fp_ips = fopen($ipFile, "a");

// add the user's IP address
fputs($fp_ips, $REMOTE_ADDR . "rn");

// close the IP address file
fclose($fp_ips);
}
}

// if the "countOnce" feature is disabled, set the user to new
else {
$is_old = 0;
}

// if the user is not old, increment the counter
if (!$is_old) {
$count++;

// save the new hit count
$fp_count = fopen($file, "w");
fputs($fp_count, $count);
fclose($fp_count);
}

// count the number of digits in the hit count
$digits = strlen($count);

// if minDigits is set and the number of digits is less than minDigits, add leading zeroes
if ($minDigits && $digits < $minDigits) {
// find the difference between minDigits and the number of digits in the count
$diff = $minDigits - $digits;

// add a number of leading zeroes equal to the difference
for ($i = 0; $i < $diff; $i++) {
$count = "0" . $count;
}

// set digits equal to minDigits
$digits = $minDigits;
}

// print the appropriate image for each digit in the hit count
for ($i = 0; $i < $digits; $i++)
{
// get a digit from the hit count
$digit = substr("$count", $i, 1);

// print the image for that digit
echo "<img src=images/digits/$digit.$imgExtension>";
}

?>

or any other script using MySQL to achieve my goal?

I whipped up a little function for you real quick. Let me know if it is useful:

http://codewalkers.com/seecode/163.html

have you tried setting a cookie for say a day? and check the existance of a cookie before incrementing the counter??

Matt's script uses an expire function so each IP address will expire after 10 minutes.

Do you still want a script to record the last 10 IPs, or is that OK?