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Aren't there days when you click on a web page and it seems to take FOREVER to load? You click the next one, and again you wait for what seems like hours? And this happens not just on these web sites, but several others as well? I bet you're thinking during these times, "this can't just be happening to me, can it? Is the Internet just slow today?"

With these web sites, you can actually find out if the Internet is slow today, and exactly where this lag is occurring.

Internet Traffic Report
http://www.internettrafficreport.com/

Monitoring "the flow of data around the world", the Internet Traffic Report provides a very easy-to-read synopsis of the speed of Internet information flowing throughout the world. The front page showcases Internet speeds in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and on a global scale. Each area is given a number from zero to 100 - the higher the number, the faster the connection.

Click on a continent to get more detailed information about Internet speed flowing throughout its countries. Each location is given its own traffic number, but if you just want to skim the information, locations showing heavy Internet lag (slow!) are colored red, those showing some lag are in yellow, and areas with freely-flowing traffic are in green. It's just like looking at the colors of a stoplight.

If you want, you can pull up detailed graphs and see network traffic at individual locations such as specific states or countries. These show traffic, response time (the faster/smaller the better), and packet loss (the less the better) over the last twenty-four hours. These are useful if you want to observe trends in Internet traffic use. As an example of when this information is quite useful, check out this site whenever or if ever a large e-mail borne virus outbreak occurs - the added traffic will shoot the graphs sky-high.

By just skimming through the charts and tables, you can clearly see whether or not the rest of the Internet is experiencing lag by visiting the Internet Traffic Report.

The Internet Weather Report (IWR)(TM)
http://www.mids.org/weather/

The Internet Weather Report is another web sites that examines Internet traffic to bring you graphical displays of trouble spots. This site specializes in providing animated maps of Internet performance.

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From the front page, just click a country or a specific United States metro area, such as New York or the San Francisco Bay. Then, choose to either display static pictures of hour-by-hour activity or an animated diagram of the selected region.

To read the diagrams, the main thing you need to know is that the larger the circle is near a major metro city or area, the more latency (lag) is being experienced in that area. Thus, areas with larger circles may be experiencing slow Internet traffic. The clocks at the top of the maps show the time the measurements were taken.

Although this site may seem a little more complicated to read and use, you can find plenty of detailed performance information if you’re extremely curious about where trouble spots are located. If web sites based in California are loading fast but those in Atlanta are at a crawl, chances are this site may reflect this condition with large circles in the southeast.

Cnet Bandwidth Meter
http://webservices.cnet.com/bandwidth/

If the above web sites show no apparent problems on the net, maybe your Internet connection is slow due to your Internet provider. Check out the Cnet Bandwidth Meter to get an idea of your current connection speed to the Internet. Just enter in your area code, connection type, and ISP, and Cnet will provide you with your current connection speed in relation to normal dial-up and broadband speeds.

Note that speeds fluctuate over time. If you want to use this tool to figure out if your connection is slow, get several readings over a week and average them out to calculate your normal speed. Then, if every web site tends to drag its feet, visit this site and see if your connection is a little slow today.

Of course, when using this tool, you must factor in possible slowdowns between your ISP and Cnet. Overall, though, this site can provide you with a great estimation of the speed (or lack thereof) of your connection.

If the Internet seems slow today to you, perhaps it really is lagging due to congestion. By checking out the Internet Traffic Report and Internet Weather Report sites you can quickly spot sluggishness on the Information Superhighway. Cnet’s Bandwidth Meter can also help in diagnosing problems, testing your ISP’s speed to ensure it is not running too slowly today due to congestion. Although these tools cannot necessarily solve the problem of Internet lag, they can at least show you where problems currently reside.

So, if every web site is sluggish and these sites report high congestion all throughout the Internet, maybe it’s time to take a break from the computer for a while. The Internet should still be there when you return.

This article is copyright 2002 Andrew Malek of Envision Programming and may not be reproduced. All company names and web sites are copyrights or trademarks of their respective organizations.