Hi John,
There are number of reasons (MANY reasons) why people experience slow response times on the web. In your case, it may be due to some element of the configuration of your ISP's link to the Internet. Sometimes local service providers employ what is known as "cache" which "holds" various often-accessed pages for local users. This greatly speeds up access to many sites, if a lot of people visit them. But if TBN is accessed by no one else on your local service, it would have to go out and do a fresh call for the pages, which would seem slower. I am just guessing here, but these are the kinds of issues that can impact access times.
One way to know for sure if there is a problem along the route, is to use a traceroute program. It is possible, but tricky, to force your computer to use a different route, since the Net itself self-routes all over the place, trying its best to speed things along.
A traceroute produces a report that looks like the data below. This shows the exact route of "hops" your computer takes to reach from where you are, to Tractorbynet.com.
The report below is for a laptop computer on a T-1 line in Tucson, AZ (I am on assignment here at the moment), to the Tractorbynet.com server in Seattle, WA.
As you can see, it takes ten separate "hops" or transfers to different computer switches to reach from me to there. The columns on the right show the access times for each of these hops. This particualr report shows that there are no slowdowns or bottlenecks along the way---for me. While it is a little hard to read in the format below, the report shows hat my "trip" is taking less than 500 milliseconds for the connection of each page refresh. That's virtually instantaneous (and why people like T-1 lines!).
One of the neat things about the traceroute program I use, NeoTrace, is that is allows one to see a visual grid of the trace as it is being done in real time. You can actually see where slowdowns are occurring, and if you put you mouse over that link, it will provide details of the specific router that is causing the slowdown.
You can copy and/or save these traceroute reports, and provide them to your ISP if they are the "cause" of the slowdown. You can tell if the slowness is at your ISP, because the very first (and sometimes) second hop will show slow access times.
At the very least, it will allow you to determine with certainty exactly where the slowdowns are occurring. You can copy the trace report and send it to your ISP to prove that they are the cause (if they actually are), and not your computer setup, modem, or whatever.
One thing about the Internet is that it constantly changes and adjusts to traffic. When using a traceroute program, you will often see that your page requests take different routes. Even computers in the same room may be sent on different "routes" to a particular destination. This is why some people on TractorByNet may be having slowdown fits, and others say everything is just fine.
The only big, big improvement in Internet speeds comes with higher bandwidth. T-1, broadband wireless, satellite, DSL or cable modem. Yet, almost 80% of people still use 56 or 28K modems. The prices for these faster services are all over the map, but generally, if available in your area, you can get single user broadband access for $29 - 69.00 a month.
The data in the actual Neotrace program is much easier to read, since it is in a clear database format.
NeoTrace Report:
Destination:
www.tractorbynet.com
-#--------------Node Name---------------IP Address------Location-----------RT*--High---Low---Avg-Tot---D-Who
1 Laptop 192.168.0.172 32.250N,110.889W 0 0 0 0 1 0
2 sea1.sea1-dal1-10m.reflexnet.net 192.168.0.1 Unknown 0 10 0 3 3 0
3 phx-c72-01.reflexnet.net 64.6.206.1 Unknown 20 20 20 20 3 0
4 aar3-serial5-1-0-0.anaheim.cw.net 208.172.39.117 Unknown 40 70 40 50 3 0
5 acr1-loopback.anaheim.cw.net 208.172.34.61 Unknown 40 40 30 36 3 0
6 209.0.227.33 Unknown 40 50 40 43 3 0
7 so-4-0-0.mp1.losangeles1.level3.net 209.247.10.193 34.000N,118.167W 40 50 40 46 3 0
8 loopback0.hsipaccess1.seattle1.level3.net 209.244.2.242 47.575N,122.325W 60 70 60 63 3 0
9 209.245.176.110 Unknown 121 121 120 120 3 0
10 tractorbynet.com 216.122.89.144 Unknown 60 60 60 60 3 0
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*All times in milliseconds (ms), D=Dropped packets
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 9, 2001 8:42:9
NeoTrace Copyright ©1997-1999 NeoWorx inc
http://www.neoworx.com
NeoTrace delivers a powerful tool for checking information on Internet sites. You can trace any computer on the internet simply by entering an email, IP address or URL. The display shows you the route between you and the remote site including all intermediate nodes and their registrant information.
NeoTrace is a most popular Internet tracer, used by law enforcement, ISPs, and network professionals yet it is easy enough for home users to use. There are many powerful new features and details designed to make NeoTrace even easier to use.
NeoTrace costs $29.95 to register. There are many similar programs available, including freeware, which you can find by searching ZDNet downloads. But NeoTrace is the best I have seen, and the only one I am aware of that provides the real time graphical route map. You can download a free 30 day evaluation copy of NeoTrace at
Neotrace.
Hope this helps.
BobT.
A Indiana Boy
