Redirect code not being reliable

Jon12345

If someone clicks one of my adverts, they are sent to red.php. The code is shown below. But the problem I am facing is that my log of commissions earnt do not correspond with those paid out by my advertising supplier.

So, with this in mind, can you see what problems I could face with the code below? Any way I can make it more reliable?

Thanks,

Jon

<?
++$key;
include('db/dbconnect.inc');

$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

$ip_query = @mysql_query("SELECT * FROM logfile WHERE Category = '$category' AND SubCategory = '$productname' AND Product = '$filter' AND Keyword = '$keyword' AND Position = '$key' AND IPaddress = '$ip'");

if (mysql_num_rows($ip_query) < 1) {
	mysql_query("insert into logfile(Category, SubCategory, Product, Keyword, Position, Date, Time, Testcode, IPaddress, Nixxieurl1) values('$category', '$productname', '$filter', '$keyword', '$key', curdate(), curtime(), '$test', '$ip', '$url')"); 
}

$moveit=urldecode($url);
header('location: '.$moveit);

?>

bbreslauer

Well, you're only entering a new row if the person hasn't been to that advertiser before, right? This would mean that you only get a commission once per IP address going to a specific page. Is this how your commissions are actually set up?

In addition, unless you're running your own server and have the .inc extension protected, users are probably able to view in plain text the dbconnect.inc file, which you probably don't want. If you change it to dbconnect.inc.php, then it will be parsed by PHP before outputting to the web browser, and users won't be able to see how you connect to the database (and possibly your username and password as well).

Jon12345

Yes, you only get a commission once if you are going to the same page, as determined by Position. As I understand it, the code will only log it as one commission but the person will still be sent to the $moveit url even if they repeatedly click the same url?

bbreslauer

Yeah, that's what the code would do. Are you getting more entries than you should be (according to the commission agency or whoever) or are you getting fewer entries?

Jon12345

e.g. for yesterday, my own stats suggest I should be getting $17.10. The commission agency says I am actually getting $12:18. 🙁

So I am trying to diagnose why!

bbreslauer

Are you sure they do it by IP, and not some other method, like using a cookie? Because someone (probably with dialup) could access it multiple times, and they'd have a different IP, so you would get multiple entries, but the user could already have a cookie from the other site, meaning that you wouldn't get another hit, according to the collection agency.

Just a thought.

Jon12345

The advertisers feed is Overture UK's. I feel it is unlikely that they would access the same advert multiple times with a different ip address. Yes, it is possible but that would require a lot of people doing that with a dynamic ip address as I am already filtering out commissions for duplicate visits on the same ip. I just see a 30% shortfall as too great for this.

Also, if it is a redirect, who's ip gets sent to the final destination? Still the surfers? Or the website ip?

bbreslauer

The surfer's IP get sent, because they're the one actually requesting the page.

You could create another table with the same fields, and enter every request in there. Then you could compare the two and see if you notice any discrepancies.

Other than that, I'm not sure what might be wrong.