nanog mailing list archives
Re: Internet Backbone Index
From: Joe Shaw <jshaw () insync net>
Date: Sat, 28 Jun 1997 08:26:30 -0500 (CDT)
On Fri, 27 Jun 1997, Jack Rickard wrote:
If you want to draw a line of demarcation between a network and its performance, and a web server and its performance, you're free to do so. I just probably won't buy into it.
Actually, one would think that if you are going to accurately portray yourselves as doing a backbone examination, you'd do more than just check web server performance. You'd analyze reachability of other major sites from your site over a period of time (wouldn't a month be great), not just getting to a specific ISP's webserver. I would almost bet that if you try to get to UUNet's web server, there are times when it's not very reachable, or at least a little sluggish. But try going to one of the corporates sites they host. Much better performance. I don't know the network design they have in place or what the physical setup is, etc. and I'm pretty sure you don't either. Therefore, by saying that you think your study servers a purpose, you insult a lot of people out there who are easily mislead by your magazine. There are enough marketing reports and half witted articles and reports out their to confuse the average consumer. I'd think that you'd be ashamed to be part of them, instead of providing a service that's closer to providing what you intentionally planned to do. How accurate an indicator is checking your oil to see if your car's in good shape? Granted, whitout oil, the car will not run well at all, but if you neglect the transmission, the brakes, etc. then you're just sticking your head in the sand or lazy. I'd hope that if you're going to provide this sort of information to anyone down to the average person in a bookstore who picks up your magazine, that you'd at least do a more thorough job. The fact that the people who build these networks and do this for a living are saying your study is laughable should tell you something. Information is power, but being misinformed makes for bad things. Joe Shaw - jshaw<at>insync.net.nospam NetAdmin - Insync Internet Services Learn more, and you will never starve.
On the actual concept that changing all the web servers will move the numbers: It might. It might not. I would probably bet at this point that there will be a lot of that going on among the non-moron crowd. I'm kind of hoping for it anyway. And then we'll see if the numbers move. My sense is that they will move some, and not as much as most seem to think. But it's true it could go the other way and be dramatic. I'm open to whatever results derive. Jack Rickard ----------From: Justin W. Newton <justin () priori net> To: Jack Rickard <jack.rickard () boardwatch com>; Stan Barber<sob () academ com>; vaden () texoma net; SEAN () SDG DRA COM; nanog () merit eduSubject: Re: Internet Backbone Index Date: Friday, June 27, 1997 2:50 PM Jack, I believe that you are missing the point that measuring web server response time is /not/ the equivalent of measuring backbone performance. At 12:45 PM 6/27/97 -0600, Jack Rickard wrote:They could be. The attempt is to factor that out. ALL measuring agents applied to ALL the backbones. And all contributed more or less equallytothe end numbers. If a particular agent ran on a Commodore 64 with aklugedcopy of KA9Q, and another agent ran on an Sun Solaris, both resultswouldgo into the result pile for all 29 measured networks. The net effect would be that the flaw would be in our "footprint" from which the measurements were taken. This footprint can only be a roughapproximationof end user distribution anyway. It would affect absolute valuesrelativeto zero, but the relative indexes between networks should not beaffected.Since we're looking at the relative relationship primarily, it wouldn't appear important. Jack Rickard ----------From: Stan Barber <sob () academ com> To: Justin W. Newton <justin () priori net>; Larry Vaden<vaden () texoma net>;Sean Donelan <SEAN () SDG DRA COM>; nanog () merit eduSubject: Re: Internet Backbone Index Date: Friday, June 27, 1997 1:54 PM Justin writes:ObAboutTopic: This is possibly the most flawed study on the planet. Remind me to get a fast web server. (And to think, we were going toputour web server in our office, behind a T-1, instead of in realestatenearwhere the real bandwidth is that could be used for customers.).There are many studies more flawed. Consider some of the studies that the Tobacco Institute has released over the years about the affects of smoking. Concerning Internet performance, there have always been a variety ofwaysof measuring it. It all depends on what you are really trying tomeasure.The Keynote study is attempting to measure something to which theaverageInternet user (not engineers) can relate. However, There are alsoclearlythe possibility of artifacts in the data because of the testingmachine'sTCP stack or other issues (Vern Paxson has covered these issues atNANOGand IETF meetings over the last few years). Checking their web site,theirsoftware appears to run on top of the TCP stacks of many systems, sotheknown artifacts of some of these platforms could be an issue. -- Stan | Academ Consulting Services |internet: sob () academ com Olan | For more info on academ, see this |uucp:{mcsun|amdahl}!academ!sobBarber | URL- http://www.academ.com/academ |Opinions expressed areonlymine.********************************************************* Justin W. Newton voice: +1-415-482-2840 Senior Network Architect fax: +1-415-482-2844 PRIORI NETWORKS, INC. http://www.priori.net Director At Large, ISP/C http://www.ispc.org "The People You Know. The People You Trust." *********************************************************
Current thread:
- Re: Internet Backbone Index, (continued)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Art Houle (Jun 28)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Stan Barber (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Jack Rickard (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Justin W. Newton (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Stan Barber (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Sean Donelan (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Tim Flavin (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Scott Huddle (Jun 28)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Jack Rickard (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Ben Black (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Joe Shaw (Jun 28)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Jack Rickard (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Ben Black (Jun 27)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index William Allen Simpson (Jun 28)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Daniel W McRobb (Jun 28)
- Re: Internet Backbone Index Michael Dillon (Jun 30)