Google Analytics vs. Urchin5

[andrewmcgibbon]

I am comparing the results of Google Analytics (Urchin6) with the Urchin5 stats reported by my hosting company. I understand that these are calculated differently, however, I am seeing very wild extremes. I am seeing a difference of almost 1,400 visits between them (with Urchin5 reporting the higher amount).

When I look at the referring source page, the number of visits with no referral reference (i.e., those that came directly) is in the 1,400 visits range.

A couple of questions:

Is there any corralary between those two amounts being almost identical?

Is analytics really accurate to any real degree? (What percentage have Javascript turned off, etc.)

How on earth do we accurately track our traffic. I thought that after years of messing around with tracking that we would have had software that we could believe to be accurate.

I find it very disheartening to not feel like I'm never getting a clear picture on what is happening on my sites.

I appreciate you letting me rant a bit and would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Andy