> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.hosting.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Excluding an IP address from AWStats

> Learn to exclude an IP from AWStats with this simple step-by-step guide.

This article describes how to exclude an IP address from the site statistics that AWStats generates. For example, you may want to exclude your home IP address so your own site visits do not distort the statistics.

## Excluding an IP address from AWStats

To exclude an IP address from AWStats, follow these steps:

1. Log in to cPanel.
   > 📘 Note
   >
   > If you do not know how to log in to your cPanel account, please see [this article](/docs/accessing-cpanel).

2. On the **Tools** page, in the **Files** section, click **File Manager**:\
   ![cPanel - File Manager icon (Jupiter theme)](https://static.hosting.com/kb/kb-cpanel-jupiter-file-manager-icon.png)

3. In the directory listing in the left-hand pane, double-click the **tmp** directory, and then double-click the **awstats** directory.

4. Select the *awstats.example.com.conf* file, where ***example.com*** represents your domain name, and then click **Edit**.

5. Locate the following line in the file:

   ```
   SkipHosts=""
   ```

6. Between the quotation marks, type the IP address that you want to exclude. To exclude multiple hosts, use a space between each value. For example, the following line shows how to exclude two IP addresses:

   ```
   SkipHosts="192.168.1.214 10.125.21.152"
   ```

7. Click **Save Changes**.

   > 📘 Note
   >
   > Existing AWStats statistics retain the excluded IP address. The **SkipHosts** setting only affects statistics generated from this point forward.

8. The configuration file is now ready. However, by default AWStats automatically overwrites the file every 24 hours. To prevent this from happening, you must modify the file permissions. To do this, follow these steps:

   * In the cPanel File Manager, right-click the *awstats.example.com.conf* file, where ***example.com*** represents your domain name, and then click **Change Permissions**.

   * In the **User** column, clear the **Write** check box. This changes the permissions to 444 (read access for everyone).

   * Click **Change Permissions**.
     > 📘 Note
     >
     > If you ever need to edit the file again, select the **Write** check box in the **User** column (to set permissions temporarily to 644), make your changes to the file, and then clear the **Write** check box.

## Related articles

* [Log Programs](/docs/log-programs)

* [Configuring file permissions in File Manager](/docs/file-permissions)