Sounds to me like a job for asp.
Here is the counter I use on our sites:
Obviously this has to go at the top of the page above all code:
<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT"%>
This is the code for the counter insert it on the page where you want the counter, you can also surround it with font tags to adjust the look:
<%
set fso = createobject("scripting.filesystemobject"

set act = fso.opentextfile(server.mappath("counter.txt"

)
counter = clng(act.readline)
if session("been_here_before"

= "" then
session("been_here_before"

= "Yes"
counter = counter + 1
Set act = fso.CreateTextFile(server.mappath("counter.txt"

, true)
act.WriteLine(counter)
end if
act.Close
Response.Write counter
%>
Then all you need to do is create a text file named counter.txt with a number 1 on the first line of the file. Upload the txt file into the root that the page with the counter is in and that's it. If you are not on a server that can run asp then it won't work obviously. I like this counter method because it only counts the user once per session, you will notice that unless you close your browser, reopen it and go back to your site, it only counts you once regardless of hitting refresh. This is why I have it on every page, so that no matter what entry point the access on the site it counts them.
-
Looking Toward The Future