Web Ping

Web Ping is an excellent software that provides a simple and efficient solution to test internet connections to a particular site. I discovered this application when my work shifted locations, and half of our network stayed in the old building. The other half relocated to the new place, with a flaky VPN set up to maintain connectivity. As a result, I needed a reliable way to check if the unmoved servers were still accessible before doing any extensive work with them. Sadly, my search for a suitable program came up empty, so I created one myself.

One of Web Ping's notable features is that it does not do a network ping like other applications. Instead, it uses a web page's download time on a given server to test the connection. The size and time of the page are kept in the memory, with a graphical representation of the times. This way, even servers that block network pings can still be tracked with ease.

Additionally, Web Ping tracks the largest and smallest download times per session and also records the maximum and minimum values currently on the graph. When the times of interest are graphed, they're assigned a color that identifies if it is a maximum or a minimum value. Figure one shows a display of how this looks. The software's history tab also lists all the recorded maximum values.

Web Ping provides a running average with each download, and the files downloaded are not processed or stored in any way. This prevents any potential security problems that occur in a web browser environment. The software only records two pieces of information about a downloaded file: its size and time.

Overall, Web Ping is an incredible software that addresses the need for an efficient, quick and reliable internet connection test. It's easy to use, with a clean interface that tracks and records all necessary data for analysis.