What does the RTT say about my baud rate?
There is no direct relationship between RTT (round-trip time) and
BPS (bits per second) or baud rate. The RTT as
measured here says something about how quickly a small packet can make it
from your browser to a server site and back, but says nothing about how much
information a server site can send you in a given period. A higher baud rate
often does give lower RTTs, but two different ISPs connected at the same
baud rate can give you vastly different RTT values.
Why are all the sites returning 2000 or 0?
Firewalls and proxy servers can sometimes interfere
with the operation of the Pinger Object. In some cases you may see all sites
reporting approximately the same excellent (<10 ms) round-trip time,
which is actually the response time of the proxy server; in other cases you
may see all sites reporting 1000 ms round-trip times, indicating that the
firewall is not passing ping packets.
My RTT values are all lousy. What can I do?
You can improve your connection. If you are
using an older modem, you might want to upgrade to a 56K modem, ISDN,
xDSL, or a cable modem. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) often give
higher-speed connections better routing. If you're already using a good
modem, you might want to try another ISP. Most will offer you a short
free trial period.
How do I stop it?
The script for this page pings each site 10 times and
then stops. You can interrupt the test at any time by switching to another
page.
Why do I see "No ActiveX" instead of round-trip times?
This page uses ActiveX controls and VBScript. Your
browser must support ActiveX controls and you must allow the Pinger Object
to be installed to see RTT results.
Microsoft
Internet Explorer 3.x and above support ActiveX controls and VBScript.
Netscape Navigator does not support them. However, you may be able to run
the test via the Neptune plug-in.
I see a message that IE has
saved me from a nasty ActiveX object. What can I do?
Your IE security level is probably set too high. You
may need to lower your security from High to Medium and refresh this page to
download the ActiveX objects that make the Pinger application work.
What's all this certificate stuff?
ActiveX controls are digitally signed to guarantee
that they are from a reputable source. Our controls are signed PC Pitstop, LLC.
Microsoft's controls have their signature. The first time you access
this page, you'll be asked if you want to install the Pinger Object. In some
cases, you'll also be asked if you want to install the Microsoft IE Timer.
To continue, click "Yes".
I accepted the certificates but nothing happened.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, you
might have to reinstall IE to fix your ActiveX support.
I don't see any certficates. I'm running IE 3.0. What can I do?
If the status line says "installing
components" but you don't see a certificate, or if you see a message
that someone is trying to install an ActiveX object that is signed but has
an expired certificate, and you are running IE 3.0x, you may need to
download the Authenticode 2.0 update from the IE home page. Authenticode 1.0
has expired and can no longer recognize valid software developer
certificates.