Anonymous Users Performance Counters in IIS 6.0

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

The Current Anonymous Users performance counter is often used for capacity planning and performance troubleshooting. The counter is incremented differently in IIS 6.0 than it was in IIS 5.0.

In IIS 5.0**.** Current Anonymous Users is the number of current anonymous HTTP connections. This number decreases when the connection is closed (for various reasons, such as when the connection explicitly closes or times out).

In IIS 6.0**.** Current Anonymous Users is the number of current anonymous requests being processed. This number decreases when the request is completed. (HTTP.sys and IIS user mode both provide numbers for this counter.)

In short, IIS 6.0 counts each request as a user, whereas IIS 5.0 counts each connection as a user.