Jack Rickard writes:
webcentric. From an end users perspective, what does a web site on a specific network look like and how does that compare to a web site on another network?
Ok, so that's what you have (possibly -- there are many variables) measured. So if I want to have a web site hosted on a shared web server, then this measurement might possibly be useful to me. But if I am looking for someone to sell my company a T1 connection, and I want to do my own web hosting, then this information would be nearly useless. There are many factors which would affect the performance of a provider's web site but which would have no effect whatsoever on the performance of a T1 connection from the provider. For example: - the hardware the web server runs on - the software and its configuration on the web server - the load on the web server - the characteristics of the LAN to which the web server is connected The report says "Keynote decided to measure a backbone provider's own public web server on the assumption that the provider would locate its own server in the best-performing hosting location for that provider." Do all the providers listed even provide web-hosting as a service? All this makes the title "Internet Backbone Index" very misleading. If you had called it "Internet Web Service Index" that would be a much better description of what you have measured. Catherine Foulston cathyf@rice.edu Rice University Network Management p.s. I don't work for any of the listed providers.