| Vol.
I, No. 2 | Thanksgiving | Nov.
17th, 2000 |
Links
to Computers & Tech On-Line The
amount of info on the web is enormous, as anyone who's ever tried to run a
search can attest to. And, to put it all in context, best estimates say
that only a fraction, maybe 20 - 40 % of what's out there is actually making its
way to the search engines.
Well ...
Here at DownStreet, we'd like to try to help. So each issue, we
post a few links in Computers & Tech to sites that might interest you.
Sometimes the links will be related to one another ... sometimes
we'll just offer up a somewhat random sampling. In either case, we think
we might be able to help you find the kind of site you've been looking for.
Of course, while we can't vouch for the fact that every link we provide will be
of interest to everyone, we do our best to filter out the noise and the
bustle. ...
We hope you enjoy the following sites as
much as we do. Internet Traffic: Visual
Aids to the Superhighway
If you're interested in getting a
bird's-eye-view of internet traffic, then these sites are worth a look. A
note of caution though: You may not know exactly what it is you're looking
at when you arrive if you're not already familiar with terms like packet loss or
response time. Not to worry. There are usually glossaries and other
aids available. ... The
Internet Weather Report (IWR)(TM) IWR is
an interesting site that will let you track the traffic through a series if
maps covering North America, Europe, and Asia. IWR is
easy to use. A simple click on your choice and a window opens that
uses a little Java applet that shows both the counts and the lag time [in
milliseconds] for the 24-hour period up to your visit. The maps can be
a little confusing at first if you're trying to discern exactly what all the
numbers mean, but like most visual aids, the picture is really worth a
thousand words and more. You can watch the clock tick and traffic
build and drop, and from that, you can get some idea of when things are
likely to slow down or speed up.
The IWR site is not for
everyone. But if you're interested in this topic of internet traffic
and you want to get a quick idea of what's going on, then this site is
definitely worth a visit.
Rating: ***1/2 [3-1/2 stars]
Internet
Traffic Report The Internet Traffic Report [ITR]
is another site, similar in some respects to IWR, but more immediately
useful and informative. First off, the Internet Traffic
Report provides an up-to-the-minute index for web traffic on each of the
continents. Using a 1-100 scale, these indexes show the average
response times, as well as the data loss, for each region. In
addition, they also provide some global graphs. The interesting thing
here is that these graphs show, at a glance, the extremely high correlation
between heavy use and lag time. Not only that, but they graphs can
also provide you with a good sense of when those peaks and valleys
occur. {There is, barring breaking news developments, some
regularity to the peaks & valleys.}
These couple of extra
features make a visit to the Internet Traffic Report worth a stop.
Rating:
**** [4 stars]
Internet
Situation Room -- Matrix.Net The
Internet Situation Room [ISR] is a useful adjunct to both the IWR site, to
which ISR links, and to ITR. These folks are serious about tacking the
net's performance. Matrix.net, which is the commercial
venture that runs the Situation Room, has provided a number of interesting
sections. There's the link to the IWR site, as we mentioned. But
there's also a Library that includes a Glossary of internet terms, as well
as a brief overview of How the Internet Works, with links back to the
Glossary for key terms. The Library also holds a couple of White
Papers for truly curious, one about latency and the other about Matrix.net's
Ratings Methodology. The last may not interest your directly, but the
results of it may: The Situation Room monitors a number of Internet
Service Providers [ISP's] and generates reports and ratings on how they
fared over the day, week or month. Not all ISP's are listed. But
you can request that your ISP add itself to the list.
Like IWR &
ITR, ISR also has lots of graphs. But it also includes one nice
adjunct to the tracert
command we discussed in the lead article: If you're a little DOS
and command line phobic, you can trace routes from your web browser instead
of the command line. The one drawback is that the trace originates
from Matrix.net in Austin instead of your own PC.
Rating: ****1/2
[4-1/2 stars]
*******
******* If you know of any
links that you think are worthwhile, why not send them along to ...
links@downstreetmagazine.com
... If we agree, we'll be happy to include
them in an upcoming issue to pass the word along. ...
Thanks. *******
******* .
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