# Excluding an IP address from AWStats

> Edit your AWStats configuration file so visits from your own IP address are left out of your website statistics.

Source: https://helpcenter.ruachost.com/cpanel/logs-and-statistics/excluding-an-ip-address-from-awstats/

**AWStats** is a web analytics tool that tracks visitor statistics for your site. Sometimes you may want to exclude specific IP addresses (like your own office or home IP) so that internal visits don’t distort your traffic data.

## Why Exclude IPs?

- Prevents **inflated visitor counts** from your own activity.
- Ensures **accurate analytics** for real external users.
- Useful for excluding bots or internal testing environments.

## Steps to Exclude an IP Address

1. **Log in to cPanel.**
2. On the **Tools page → Files section**, click **File Manager**.
3. Navigate to:

   ```
   /tmp/awstats/
   ```
4. Locate the configuration file for your domain:

   ```
   awstats.example.com.conf
   ```

   *(Replace* `example.com` *with your actual domain.)*
5. Select the file → click **Edit**.
6. Find the line:

   ```
   SkipHosts=""
   ```
7. Between the quotation marks, type the IP address you want to exclude.

   - Example for multiple IPs:

     ```
     SkipHosts="192.168.1.214 10.125.21.152"
     ```
8. Click **Save Changes**.

## Important Notes

- The **SkipHosts** setting only affects **future statistics**. Past logs will still include the excluded IPs.
- By default, AWStats overwrites the configuration file every 24 hours. To prevent this:

  1. In **File Manager**, right‑click the configuration file.
  2. Click **Change Permissions**.
  3. Clear the **Write** checkbox in the **User column**.
  4. This sets permissions to `444` (read‑only).
- If you need to edit the file again later, temporarily set permissions back to `644`, make changes, then reset to `444`.