How to Go About Testing Speed of a Web Hosting Company's Server

Speed is a measure on how fast can the data be transmitted between the visitor and the host's server .Testing speed is not complicated. You can test is by simply visiting some independent web sites or go about testing it your self.

Independent Site to Speed Test the Server

 

Ping - Test Sever Speed Yourself

You can test a first type of speed by pinging the server. That can be done at the MS-DOS prompt with a simple command: ping serverID, where server ID is either a domain name (e.g. C:\>ping yahoo.com), either an IP (e.g. C:\> ping 128.65.134.89).

The results should be similar to these:

Reply from 64.190.235.64: bytes=32 time=432ms TTL=45
Reply from 64.190.235.64: bytes=32 time=180ms TTL=45
Reply from 64.190.235.64: bytes=32 time=377ms TTL=46
Reply from 64.190.235.64: bytes=32 time=216ms TTL=45

Ping statistics for 64.190.235.64:
Packets: Sent=4 Received=4 Lost=0 (0% loss)
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 180ms, Maximum = 432ms, Average = 301 ms

 

A ping time of under 200ms is very good, 200 to 400ms is average and 400ms and above are poor ping times. However, poor ping times do not always indicate a problem. If you are pinging servers that are very far away (pinging a server located in USA from a computer located in Australia), poor ping times are normal even for a good connection

Lost packets are, obviously, not good. However, some hosts disable the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) for reasons of security, so pings are not responded to.

 

Traceroute - Test Sever Speed Yourself

Another way to measure speed is traceroute. Obviously this traces the route between the computer and the server.

The MS-DOS command for traceroute is tracert serverID.

The results should be similar to these:

C:\WINDOWS>tracert www.247-host.com

 

Tracing route to www.mysitespace.com [64.68.191.111]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 119 ms 121 ms 120 ms sym0103723m01.bctel.net [207.102.1.251]
2 107 ms 114 ms 98 ms 207.102.34.249
3 113 ms 117 ms 123 ms 192.197.174.118
4 135 ms 122 ms 116 ms 166.48.13.245
5 134 ms 145 ms 159 ms core7.SanFrancisco.cw.net [204.70.4.93]
6 144 ms 142 ms 136 ms Hssi2-1-0.BR1.SCL1.Alter.Net [206.157.77.74]
7 145 ms 152 ms 147 ms 105.ATM3-0.XR1.SCL1.ALTER.NET [146.188.145.158]
8 138 ms 149 ms 146 ms 195.ATM2-0.TR1.SCL1.ALTER.NET [146.188.146.2]
9 189 ms 170 ms 209 ms 107.ATM6-0.TR1.NYC1.ALTER.NET [146.188.137.165]
10 187 ms 180 ms 180 ms 199.ATM7-0.XR1.BOS1.ALTER.NET [146.188.179.85]
11 194 ms 177 ms 185 ms 191.ATM8-0-0.GW1.BOS1.ALTER.NET [146.188.176.225]
12 196 ms 208 ms 179 ms NVC.customer.UU.NET [64.68.0.242]
13 197 ms 206 ms 207 ms www.mysitespace.com [64.68.191.111]

(Traceroute example quoted from http://www.mysitespace.com/howtoping.asp)

The numbers on the left are the so-called "hops". The number of hops that it takes to transmit a packet of data from computer A to computer B is the number of routers. In our example there are 13 hops.

As you can see, each response line gives you the HOP #, the round trip times for the 3 packets that were sent and host information (IP address and/or host name).

The roundtrip times for each hop are representative of the time it takes to go from the source to the host for that particular hop and back to the source.

Short times are a good sign. Also, a small number of hops is usually a good sign.

Traceroute is a good way to determine path but, just as ping, it should not be used as the last word when it comes to speed evaluation.