VitalSigns: Event Report: (Server, Slow or failed connection, red) (fwd)
I can't believe this. This piece of software has a spam^H^H^H^Hmail the webmaster button to tell the webmaster of the site you're "testing" that things are too slow. Dean ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 15:19:54 -0400 (EDT) From: XXX@YYY To: webmaster@ZZZ.com Subject: VitalSigns: Event Report: (Server, Slow or failed connection, red) I would like to inform you about a potential problem I've experienced with your service. To assist you in understanding or remedying the problem, I have included below a brief description and report of the conditions I have experienced. I have frequently noticed that establishing a connection to your server takes a long time. You may find the following information useful. Subsystem: Server Event: Slow or failed connection Status: Failure to perform operation. Date and Time of Occurrence: Mon Apr 14 19:25 Client Hostname: XXX.XXX.XXX Client IP Address: A.B.C.D URL: Browser: (Netscape Navigator 3.0) OS Platform: Windows 95 User Name: Joe Luser Email Address: XXX@YYY Phone Number: 555-555-5555 Some of the information above has been provided by Net.Medic from VitalSigns Software. To learn more about how Net.Medic gathers information about on-line activity and how to interpret the information provided above, please visit the technical support room at http://www.vitalsigns.com. Net.Medic from VitalSigns Software uses analysis techniques which calculate performance measurements as accurately as practical within the limits of the Microsoft Windows and Internet environments. Because of these limits, and because Net.Medic was designed to minimize diagnostic traffic over the Internet, the results calculated by Net.Medic are close approximations, not absolute measurements.
This product is unbelievable. I am putting in my requisition to triple my support staffing now so we can deal with the onslaught of people using a product that provides less than desirable results :) rob
I can't believe this. This piece of software has a spam^H^H^H^Hmail the webmaster button to tell the webmaster of the site you're "testing" that things are too slow.
Dean
---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 15 Apr 1997 15:19:54 -0400 (EDT) From: XXX@YYY To: webmaster@ZZZ.com Subject: VitalSigns: Event Report: (Server, Slow or failed connection, red)
I would like to inform you about a potential problem I've experienced with your service. To assist you in understanding or remedying the problem, I have included below a brief description and report of the conditions I have experienced.
I have frequently noticed that establishing a connection to your server takes a long time. You may find the following information useful.
Subsystem: Server Event: Slow or failed connection Status: Failure to perform operation.
Date and Time of Occurrence: Mon Apr 14 19:25 Client Hostname: XXX.XXX.XXX Client IP Address: A.B.C.D URL: Browser: (Netscape Navigator 3.0)
OS Platform: Windows 95 User Name: Joe Luser Email Address: XXX@YYY Phone Number: 555-555-5555
Some of the information above has been provided by Net.Medic from VitalSigns Software. To learn more about how Net.Medic gathers information about on-line activity and how to interpret the information provided above, please visit the technical support room at http://www.vitalsigns.com.
Net.Medic from VitalSigns Software uses analysis techniques which calculate performance measurements as accurately as practical within the limits of the Microsoft Windows and Internet environments. Because of these limits, and because Net.Medic was designed to minimize diagnostic traffic over the Internet, the results calculated by Net.Medic are close approximations, not absolute measurements.
On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, Robert Bowman wrote:
This product is unbelievable. I am putting in my requisition to triple my support staffing now so we can deal with the onslaught of people using a product that provides less than desirable results :)
I plan to do something much simpler, and IMHO, much more appropriate. Install procmail to filter these messages and file them for possible future examination. Also reply with an auto-generated email that thanks the person for sending the message and notes that due to the large number of such machine generated email inquiries it is not possible for a human being to reply to each one but they are being examined for possible action. And then, after looking through some of these, I will have a filter that sorts them into two piles, /dev/null and another pile with messages which appear to contain useful information. In fact, if I can clearly identify messages that are meaningless using procmail, I will even select separate autogenerated messages. For the ones that go straight to /dev/null I will explain why the VitalSigns product is generating flawed reports and I will point the person to a URL with more information, hopefully info on how to configure VitalSigns to NOT generate flawed reports. So don't ask for more staff, just file the messages for now. procmail is your friend. Michael Dillon - Internet & ISP Consulting Memra Software Inc. - Fax: +1-250-546-3049 http://www.memra.com - E-mail: michael@memra.com
At 02:45 PM 15-04-97 -0700, Michael Dillon wrote:
On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, Robert Bowman wrote:
This product is unbelievable. I am putting in my requisition to triple my support staffing now so we can deal with the onslaught of people using a product that provides less than desirable results :)
I plan to do something much simpler, and IMHO, much more appropriate.
Install procmail to filter these messages and file them for possible future examination. Also reply with an auto-generated email that thanks the person for sending the message and notes that due to the large number of such machine generated email inquiries it is not possible for a human being to reply to each one but they are being examined for possible action.
For those that don't recall the first introduction of traceroute to the user community, we had the same sort of initial flood of "Gee, look at that route!" but on the whole as I recall there was a lot of cruft cleaned up in the first few months of general availability of traceroute. And, of course, traceroute had it's problems interpreting feedback at first. But after the initial poking around and gee-whiz, traceroute settled down to become a very useful tool for users as well as net-ops. --Kent
On Tue, 15 Apr 1997, Kent W. England wrote: ==>For those that don't recall the first introduction of traceroute to the ==>user community, we had the same sort of initial flood of "Gee, look at that ==>route!" but on the whole as I recall there was a lot of cruft cleaned up in ==>the first few months of general availability of traceroute. And, of course, ==>traceroute had it's problems interpreting feedback at first. But after the ==>initial poking around and gee-whiz, traceroute settled down to become a ==>very useful tool for users as well as net-ops. However, when traceroute came out, I would venture to say that 90% of the people using it actually understood what it was doing. They also had to know who to mail. The problem with this "nifty" new toy is that it enables any clueless newbie to insert his favorite site from the TV ads, click the "check net status" button, then complain, whine, and bitch to the webmaster at the domain at the click of a button. The tool does it for them. Big difference in knowledge base... my vote goes to procmail. =) /cah
On Wed, 16 Apr 1997, Craig A. Huegen wrote:
The problem with this "nifty" new toy is that it enables any clueless newbie to insert his favorite site from the TV ads, click the "check net status" button, then complain, whine, and bitch to the webmaster at the domain at the click of a button. The tool does it for them.
This is true. I just took a look and it scares me. The user doesn't even have to evaluate what they are seeing. If the program tells them there is a problem, they are going to believe it without question. Commonly they will hold to the belief that their software is infallible, regardless of what the network engineer tells them. I've seen this before with other kinds of diagnostic software, its like a case of user paranoia.
Big difference in knowledge base... my vote goes to procmail. =)
I'll second that! I can feel the tickets opening and the mailboxes filling up, even now... :-) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= = George Phillips Sprintlink ISC = = phillips@sprint.net Network Operations = = email page: george-pager@sprint.net = =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
participants (6)
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Craig A. Huegen -
Dean Gaudet -
George Phillips -
Kent W. England -
Michael Dillon -
Robert Bowman