The “Remote Host” field seen in a link’s tracking history indicates the fully resolved host name for the IP address of the visitor.  The remote host is resolved using a reverse DNS lookup of the IP address in question.  This usually resolves to an address issued by the visitor’s internet service provider (the ISP) and can be used to determine the owner of the IP address.

Many businesses and a few individuals own their own static IP addresses and their remote host field will often resolve to a company owned domain.  In addition, I’ve found that many internet service providers include identifying information such as region and state in their naming scheme.

For example, my IP address resolves to pool-75-229-196-3.dllstx.fios.verizon.net.  This indicates that the IP address issued to me is owned by Verizon, and is part of their fiber-optic (FIOS) service. The ‘dllstx’ portion might indicate that I’m in the Dallas, Texas area (which I am).

For more information on reverse DNS lookups, check out  the Wikipedia page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_dns.

The advantage of the professional vs. the free account is the number of options available to you when you create a tracking link.  If you have a free account, here’s what you get when you want to create a link:

There’s a spot to put the URL you want to link to, some notes so you remember what it’s for, and a description that’s publicly available to the audience.  Links created with a free account expire after 30 days by default.

If you have a professional account, you see:

Which gives you the same URL, notes and description fields, plus:

• The ability to add a title to your link both for organization and if you want to make a vanity link.
• Ability to add an alert email so you get notifications for each of your click-throughs.
• Password protection in case you want to define a password to access the link.
• Ability to turn the link on and off whenever you want.
• Field to set your own expiration date (if you have a limited time offer for example), or no expiration date at all.

Here’s an itemized list of what you get with the paid accounts.

LinkTrack.info is kind of a long domain name for a link shortening service, but it’s personally important to me to be able to tell what a web site does from it’s domain name.  However, I know it’s important to have the shortest links possible so we’ll be registering another shorter domain to use with the service.  I’ll post about it here and update the system when it’s done.

I promise that all of our links will be backwards compatible, meaning your link to http://linktrack.info/your_link will also work with http://new.domain/your_link and you’ll be able to use whichever you feel most comfortable with.

I’m really pleased with the way the charting features came together, and people seem to be responding to them well.  They’re particularly surprised that they’re available in the free accounts as well as the premium ones.

Here’s a sample of the dashboard from my account, but all of the accounts have access to the same thing:

I’m currently tracking a couple of Google Adwords campaigns using my LinkTrack account.  This way I can see the exact keywords that are generating response from the campaign.  Here’s what they look like in my account:

A common question from LinkTrackers is: “How can I find out who an IP address belongs to?”

Presumably, the reason for this question is pretty simple – people want to know exactly who clicked their link.  Was it Bob in accounting or Sven Patterson in Nova Scotia?  Was Sven wearing that new parka I sent him?

Unfortunately, we can’t be that exact – yet.  What we can do is called an IP lookup.  I like to use http://whois.arin.net/ui for this.  In most cases an IP lookup will return the name of the user’s internet service provider like AT&T or Verizon.  Although not 100% accurate, you’ll often see contact information for the provider’s office that can help narrow down geographic location.

In a few cases (particularly with businesses) the IP address is dedicated to a particular group and lists their contact information instead of the service provider.

Keep in mind, however, that IP addresses can change on a regular basis for individual users; so don’t rely on them too heavily.  This is particularly true for anyone using a dialup internet connection.

That’s it for now.  Say hi to Sven for me.