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This site is sponsored by Dotcom-Monitor,
a company monitoring web sites. The article on this
page, takes a more global view, monitoring the Internet
as a whole. |
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Having trouble reaching your destination
on the Internet? Maybe your path on the information
superhighway is experiencing a traffic congestion, or
maybe it's the Internet weather.
Much like individual cars on a regular motor vehicle
highway, information (often called data packets) on
the Internet has to travel from point A to point B,
sometimes passing through high traffic areas, small
tunnels and unstable paths. If you're having trouble
reaching a particular site, you may have to first find
out if the data packets are able to travel freely in-between
your computer and the destination site.
One of the ways to get an idea of what maybe preventing
you from reaching your destination is to check with
a service that keeps track of the major Internet traffic
carriers or backbones.
So how do these services work? Mostly with the help
of two commands called ping and traceroute.
Using PING
This method involves comparing how long it takes to
get back multiple packets of data sent to major Internet
backbones using a method called pinging. If it takes
a relatively longer time for the data packets to reach
the destination and come back to the source, or if a
high percentage (more than 10% for example) of the packets
doesn't come back at all, the link between the two points
is considered poor. An Internet weather reporting service
would keep repeating this process every so often to
produce a report that you can view and compare 24 hours
a day. If your Internet service provider, your final
destination site or one of the routes in-between is
using a backbone with poor conditions, you may experience
slowdowns and/or timeouts.
NOTE:
Due to the decentralized and dynamic nature of the
Internet, Internet weather reporting service may not
be able to pin point your problem every time. Also
note that the condition of Internet backbones may
change within minutes. If you continue to see a particular
backbone in your path perform poorly, talk to your
Internet service provider or your web host, whichever
the case maybe.
Your Internet service provider (ISP) may have an Internet
weather reporting system that's closer and specific
to your Internet connection. If you have a web site
hosted outside of your local ISP's network, they may
also provide a more relevant report closer to their
network center. If available, be sure to use such services
that are closer to you and your web server instead of
generic services. This is because Internet weather reporting
services closer to your connection may be able to pickup
on local problems that other services may not be able
to see.
You maybe able to run a basic ping test directly from
your computer without using an Internet weather reporting
service. To give this a try, go to your operating system's
command prompt (DOS box in Windows 95) and type ping
followed by the host/domain name of your destination
site. For example, if your destination site is resource-a-day.net,
type:
ping resource-a-day.net
and press ENTER
Using TRACEROUTE
The other frequently used method of checking Internet
weather and connectivity is by using the traceroute
command. It can reveal the number and the names of the
hops (servers / hosts / routers) data packets would
travel through before reaching the
final destination. In other words, you can find out
the exact router location a breakdown maybe occurring
using traceroute.
If you're running your own Internet site, you can
use traceroute gateways hosted on distant servers to
find out how many hops your visitors are traveling through
to reach your site. Generally speaking, more hops =
slower response.
Most likely you can run traceroute from your computer
without using a web gateway.
1.Go to the "DOS Prompt" (or the "Command
Prompt")
2.Type "tracert <destination>" and press
ENTER
For example, if you're trying to reach resource-a-day.net,
type:
tracert resource-a-day.net
and press ENTER
You can download HyperTrace v2.02 here |
