Here's an email Internet performance newsletter I receive that has some good links. I have no connection with it other than passing it on.
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Mission-Critical! -- The Internet performance newsletter
Issue #105
IN THIS ISSUE
Study: E-tailers faster, but some have a ways to go
Cisco readies support for new Web standard
Broadband carriers may face shakeout amid the tech slump
Better Planning Leads to Fewer Missed Holiday Gifts
Traders Want Bandwidth Treated As Commodity
Broadband Have-Nots Face Life Without E-Business
Broadband From Above: Satellite Services Beam High-Speed Access Anywhere
Are Retail Sites More Reliable?
Being Nice Pays Off for Web Merchants
Dates Announced for First Quarter 2001 KeyEducation Seminars
Internet performance update for week of 12/17 - 12/23
Site of the Week: Ashford.com
How to SUBSCRIBE and UNSUBSCRIBE to this newsletter
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Study: E-tailers faster, but some have a ways to go
(C|Net via NY Times)
E-commerce sites were better at crowd control this holiday season than
in the past, but swarms of shoppers still stalled or crashed many sites,
according to numbers released Wednesday.
Compared with last year during the same period, e-tailers' sites were
between 10 percent and 66 percent faster during the season's busiest
week, according to San Mateo, Calif.-based Keynote Systems, a company
that measures Web site performance.
Full Article: nytimes.com
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Cisco readies support for new Web standard
(C|Net)
Cisco Systems early next year will supply telecommunications service
providers and businesses with software that will support a new standard
that will increase the number of devices that can connect to the Web.
Like other technology companies and network equipment makers, Cisco has
spent the last few years working to support a new standard for assigning
Internet Protocol (IP) numbers, which all devices need to hook into the
Net.
The new IP standard, called Internet Protocol version 6, is expected to
affect every Net user once the technology is widely adopted in the
coming years. The new standard was developed in response to the
dwindling number of available IP numbers as cell phones and other
devices became more popular.
Full Article: news.cnet.com
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Broadband carriers may face shakeout amid the tech slump
(The Wall Street Journal via MSNBC)
For big phone and data carriers, getting the money to build
high-capacity fiber-optic networks crisscrossing the globe was the easy
part. Now, the hard part is finding enough paying customers to produce
profits. Over the last few years investors eagerly threw tens of
billions of dollars at a group of young companies laying fiber cables
across the Americas, Europe and Asia.
But these companies haven't been spared in the recent tech bloodbath, as
many of their stocks have crumbled to well below half their levels of
earlier this year
Full Article: msnbc.com
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Better Planning Leads to Fewer Missed Holiday Gifts
(Reuters via Excite)
Stung by irate shoppers who didn't get their orders on time last year,
Web retailers and parcel shippers worked closely together to ensure
there were fewer missed gifts under the Christmas tree this year.
"Last year it was the first time for the e-tailers," said Melissa Shore,
a Jupiter Media Metrix analyst, referring to a holiday season when some
consumers complained of deliveries that missed their holiday deadlines.
"This time they were better prepared to fulfill orders."
Full Article: news.excite.com
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Traders Want Bandwidth Treated As Commodity
(Reuters via TechWeb.com)
Much like an understudy hoping to shine on center stage, independent
bandwidth traders say its time for telecom carriers to put their talent
to use.
Bandwidth -- the transmission capacity of an electronic line used to
send data from one point to another, as on the Internet -- needs a
catalyst to turn it into a commodity as easily traded as gold or oil,
many industry observers said.
"Major carriers have little awareness of bandwidth trading at this
point," said Seth Libby of The Yankee Group, a consulting company. "And
[corporate] network managers are satisfied now with their capacity
acquisition strategies."
Full Article: techweb.com
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Broadband Have-Nots Face Life Without E-Business
(tele.com)
The growing numbers of broadband have-nots in the business market don't
fit any stereotype.
They aren't necessarily in decaying, low-income urban areas or in remote
rural locales with outdated infrastructure. They're in both -- as well
as in downtown Houston, midtown Manhattan, and in the heart of Silicon
Valley.
What they all have in common is that they can't do business
competitively because they are devoid of high-speed Internet access,
with no immediate help in sight.
Full Article: techweb.com
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Broadband From Above: Satellite Services Beam High-Speed Access Anywhere
(PC World Magazine)
Eager for broadband, but tired of waiting for DSL or cable to reach your
home or business? Things may be looking up--if you have a clear view of
the southern sky.
Satellite-based access to the Net isn't new, but until recently the
services were rather kludgy. Hughes Network Systems' existing DirecPC
service, for example, has fast, 400-kbps downloads, but requires a modem
for uploads.
Full Article: pcworld.com
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Are Retail Sites More Reliable?
(PC World Magazine)
Retail Web sites were perkier this holiday season than they were last
year, according to tests conducted by Keynote Systems, a San Mateo,
California-based firm that measures Web site performance. Figures
released this week measured how long it took, in seconds, for a site's
home page to show up in a user's browser, as well as the percentage
success rate for how often a site could be accessed.
Among the 30-plus sites Keynote tracked this year, VictoriasSecret.com
was tops in performance, averaging just under 1 second to open its home
page. LandsEnd.com had the highest availability--customers could access
the site 99.6 percent of the time.
Full Article: pcworld.com
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Being Nice Pays Off for Web Merchants
(The Industry Standard)
From the Friday after Thanksgiving to Dec. 26, online sales totaled
$5.47 billion, a 59.6 percent increase over last year's $3.43 billion,
according to online measurement firm BizRate.com.
Running strong from early November and sustaining momentum right up to
just a few days before Christmas, this year's holiday season was much
longer than it was last year, when consumers mobbed online stores
primarily during early December.
Full Article:
thestandard.com
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Dates Announced for First Quarter 2001 KeyEducation Seminars
(Keynote Systems)
Following the success of the first seminar series last November, when
more than 200 people attended the first Keynote High-Performance Web
Design and Management Seminar series, we have finalized the dates and
cities for the New Year.
Designing and managing a Web site to ensure high performance despite
peak loads and Internet problems can be a challenge, but it's a
challenge that this intensive one-day seminar will help you win! Using
Keynote data and services as examples, Keynote's top experts in Web site
and Internet performance will explain high-performance web design and
will give detailed, practical advice on web system measurement and
management
Thursday - February 1, 2001 - Bay Area
Tuesday - February 6, 2001 - New York
Thursday - February 8, 2001 - Chicago
Tuesday - February 13, 2001 - Atlanta
Thursday - February 15, 2001 - Dallas
Now is the chance to mark this next series in your calendars. Please Click
here for more information:
keynote.com
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Internet performance update for week of 12/17 - 12/23
Keynote Business 40 Index
Overall At Work Experience: 2.85 seconds
Top performer: Yahoo 0.50
Worst performer: (anonymous) 8.83
Full report with graph:
keynote.com
tml
Keynote Consumer 40 Index
Overall At Home Modem Experience: 17.81 seconds
Top performer: Ameritrade 3.58
Worst performer: (anonymous) 43.38
Full report with graph:
keynote.com.
html
Keynote Web Broker Trading Index
Overall Trading Experience: 11.72 seconds
Top performer: DLJ Direct 4.44
Worst performer: (anonymous) 23.48
Full report with graph:
keynote.com
x.html
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Current Keynote Site of the Week: Ashford.com
URL: www.ashford.com
Location: Houston, TX
Internet Access: INSYNC
Web server software: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
To view the Site of the Week's comparative perfor\mance and error rates
over
time and geography, go to web.keynote.com
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