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Non-Tech : Quote.com QCharts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gary E who wrote (2201)	5/13/1999 1:48:00 PM
From: Mike Devour	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 17977

Hiya Hal, You wrote: what would I do with the results of a bad plot ? That is IF I could recognize one as bad. Let's say QCharts' round-trip time indicator next to the clock goes yellow, orange, or red. Things get sticky. Maybe it clears up, maybe not. I start to get worried about my connection, especially since I have some positions open that have me "on edge." Do I call my ISP and gripe? Just switch to my backup ISP? Or do I call quote.com? Bring up Ping Plotter, type in the url of the server, say "herndon-r01.quote.com" and let it trace. The program lists each relaying node along the path from here to the server. Down the right side of the list it plots the time it takes each of those systems to respond to a "ping" message. The line of that plot will usually tell me where my connection to the QFeed server is getting bogged down. If the round trip to the first node on the list (my own ISP) is near the total round trip. Hanging up and re-dialing might clear up my problem by getting me on another modem in their pool. If that doesn't work I know I should call them and gripe, because they are the bottleneck. (While switching to my backup ISP. You do have one don't you? <G>) Perhaps the big step up in round trip time is between the machine I'm logged in on and the other machine at their site that actually connects into the net backbone. Or there's a big delay between their servers and their backbone provider. In any case, the problem is close to home. Again, calling my ISP while switching to my backup is in order. What if the big jump in round trip time is somewhere in the vast ocean of connections after it leaves my ISP and before it gets to quote.com? Well, calling my ISP won't do a lot of good 'cause they don't have any more control over the weather out there than I do. Two options exist now. Try shutting down QCharts and restarting, in hopes that the path to the server comes up different, or I connect to a different server entirely. If these don't work, then I try my backup ISP, which happens to be headquartered in a different part of the country and way removed from my first ISP in terms of net connections. Usually, I'll get a totally different route and server and the problem is gone. What if the round trip time is good right up to the last connection, the one to the quote.com server pool? Well, now I would try to force a connection to a different server by restarting QCharts, or switching to my backup ISP. If none of that works, THEN it's time to alert Quote.com to the problem. (As if they wouldn't already know about it!!! <G> ) That's the troubleshooting process I use in the rare event I actually see a persistent problem. Thankfully I've had good results so far and have only had to swap ISP's a couple of times in the month I've been on the air. Usually problems clear up by themselves. It takes only a few seconds to recognize where the problem is once you've used Ping Plotter a couple of times. It makes for greater peace of mind knowing how to deal with it. Hope that helps, Hal. Mike