At 04:24 PM 6/27/97 -0600, Jack Rickard wrote:
I probably don't agree that it is not a reliable way to draw conclusions about backbone performance. The index has drawn criticism because it points up winners and losers and that's about it. There is no way to do this without criticism, and indeed it should be part of the process.
Jack, let me point out that I am one of your largest critics on this one, and I'm not even up and running yet. I can't win or lose, its just a bad setup. It is not a reliable way to draw conclusions about backbone performance. (Note the sentence ends there, there is no probably, there is no agreement or disagreement, simply a statement. You may believe what you like.) This /is/ a study of how quickly backbone companies web servers serve web pages to the locations that you were testing from. I would bet that Netscape, Playboy, Sun, and a few other people who are very concerned about their web presence would have better "backbones" than any backbone provider according to your statistics. Daniel McRobb's post hit the nail on the head. If KC over at NLANR says that your study is good, I'll believe her. If /anyone/ who's opinion I trust says your study was good I'll at least reconsider my opinion. As it stands, I'll stand by my statements.
The end user experience will reflect the sum of that, plus dialup variables which we simply do not include in this work.
Justin "I've had more end users on my network than you have ever seen, or possibly even read about" Newton ********************************************************* 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." *********************************************************