IP: Internet Reporting has Slowed to a Crawl

[Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Mon, 26 Aug 1996 08:25:57 -0700
To: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker () brandenburg com>


Dave,


        The media have latched on to the issue of Internet performance with
a vegence.  They emphasize any comments or data about problems and ignore
any statements or data to the contrary.  Hence, we are faced with very
little basis for distinguishing real and imagined problems, or between
infrastructure and end-system problems.


        Ask your readers:


  -     If they use a "native" Internet service provider, how often do they
experience email loss or serious delay?


  -     When using the Web, how often do they get a Name Not Found message
for a Domain Name System failure to locate a system they know exists?


  -     How often is the site totally unavailable?


  -     How often does the throughput for retrieving a page "slow to a
crawl"? (Be careful, here.  The problem often is that a graphic is just too
darn large and takes forever to download, even with GOOD throughput.)


One way to distinguish net vs. host problems is to look at the delay in
responses for the initial query, versus how slow the throughput is for
sending the actual data chunk.


        When you go shopping the day before Christmas, do you complain that
"the retail network" isn't working or that a specific mall is full?  Well,
ok, on that particular day, perhaps there isn't much difference.  Do we
believe the net is currently behaving only and solidly like the day before
Christmas?


        Even then, we don't claim that all the streets impassable, do we?


d/


--------------------
Dave Crocker                                            +1 408 246 8253
Brandenburg Consulting                             fax: +1 408 249 6205
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