Canadian Internet Service Providers' Performance Results Are In; Visual Networks' Internet BenchMark Service Ranks Nine Canadian ISPs.Business/Technology Editors ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 20, 2001 Visual Networks, Inc., (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on :VNWK), a leading provider of service management solutions for new world connectivity and outsourced Web services (1) Loosely, any online service delivered over the Web. Such usage appears in articles from non-technical sources, but not in IT-oriented publications, because definition #2 below describes the correct use of the term. , announced today results of its Visual Internet BenchMark(TM) test of Canadian Internet Service Providers Internet service provider (ISP) Company that provides Internet connections and services to individuals and organizations. For a monthly fee, ISPs provide computer users with a connection to their site (see data transmission), as well as a log-in name and password. (ISPs). Visual Internet BenchMark, which is the only benchmarking service that regularly measures the performance of leading ISPs, recently expanded its performance measurement report service to include Canadian ISPs. The service also is available in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and the United Kingdom. In Canada, Visual Internet BenchMark testing measures performance metrics Performance metrics are measures of an organizations activities and performance. Performance metrics should support a range of stakeholder needs from customers, shareholders to employees [1]. of nine Canadian ISPs -- both wholesale and consumer -- in a variety of categories. Results from the January test period show wholesale provider UUNET (UUNET Technologies, Inc., Fairfax, VA, www.uunet.net) Founded in 1987, UUNET was the first commercial Internet service provider. Originally offering e-mail and news, it became a full Internet service organization providing dial-up and leased line accounts as well as archive space for posting the greatest number of A/A A/A As Above A/A Answers All (swapping) A/A Air-to-Air A/A Angle of Attack A/A Acquisition Authority A/A Autoanswer A/A Analysis of Accounts A/A Attack Assessment A/A Analyst-to-Analyst A/A Advice of Allotment + grades among wholesale service providers tested and Telus posting the most A/A+ among consumer providers. The latest Canadian report, based on testing conducted from January 5 to January 20, includes performance data on America Online See AOL. , AT&T GNS GNS GEOnet Names Server (NIMA) GNS Global Network Services (INMARSAT) GNS Guinea Franc GNS Get Nearest Server (component of IPX and SAP) GNS Global Navigation System , AT&T WorldNet, Genuity, inter.net, Sprint Canada, Sympatico-BCE, Telus and UUNET. "Visual Internet BenchMark reports are used by industry-leading Canadian service providers as a key source of information for measuring the performance of their dial-up networks, as well as those of their competitors," said Stephen Slater, general manager of Internet Measurement Service for Visual Networks. "This serves as a valuable tool for validating and promoting performance claims in an increasingly competitive market." About Visual Internet BenchMark Reports Visual Networks' independent third-party Internet performance testing replicates the experience of end users, providing a unique view of service performance. This "outside-in" measurement approach gives Internet service providers an accurate picture of end-user Internet experience, ranging from how often Internet connections are successful on the first try to how much time is required to download a Web page. The country-specific Internet BenchMark reports, initiated in 1996 and expanded to include Canada in the fourth quarter of 2000, provide monthly data subscribed to on an annual basis. The data is based on approximately two weeks of testing each month during which thousands of calls are made to each service provider. ISP (1) See in-system programmable. (2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. customers receive electronic and print versions of a customized, comparative report of an ISP's and selected competitors' connection and network performance, as well as detailed call and network logs for each month of the run. The information can be used for a variety of purposes, from infrastructure management analysis to marketing and promotional activities. The performance metrics measured include: call-failure rate (24-hour test period); call-failure rate (evening hours); call-failure rate (business hours BUSINESS HOURS. The time of the day during which business is transacted. In respect to the time of presentment and demand of bills and notes, business hours generally range through the whole day down to the hours of rest in the evening, except when the paper is payable it a bank or by a ); initial modem receive connect speed; average time to log in; average DNS (Domain Name System) A system for converting host names and domain names into IP addresses on the Internet or on local networks that use the TCP/IP protocol. For example, when a Web site address is given to the DNS either by typing a URL in a browser or behind the lookup time; average Web throughput; average download time; and Web-page download failure/timeouts. For each category, ISPs are assigned letter grades ranging from A+ to D. January Results for Canadian ISPs Among all Canadian ISPs included in the January report, wholesale provider UUNET achieved the greatest number of A/A+ grades, posting A/A+ grades in six of the nine categories tested. Among consumer ISPs, Telus earned the most A/A+ grades, posting A/A+ rankings in five out of nine categories. Among individual categories measured during the test period: -- Overall Call Failure: Wholesale provider UUNET experienced the least amount of call failures among all providers during the 24-hour test period. -- Peak Call Failure: (Consumers care about call failures during the evening hours and business users care about call failures during the day.) Inter.net's call failure rate was the lowest among consumer providers during evening hours. UUNET experienced the fewest number of call failures during the business hour test period. -- Download Time: UUNET posted the quickest average download time among wholesale providers, while consumer provider AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. had the quickest average download time among all providers, both wholesale and consumer. -- DNS lookup time: DNS time is a critical indication of an ISP's performance. Once a user is connected, dozens of DNS requests are made. The best DNS response time for consumer (Sympatico-BCE) and wholesale (Genuity) ISPs were under half a second, while the slowest DNS time for any ISP tested (inter.net) took 2 seconds per lookup on average. About Visual Networks Founded in 1993, Visual Networks, Inc.(R) (NASDAQ:VNWK) is a leading provider of service management solutions for new world networks and outsourced Web services. Using Visual Networks' solutions -- such as Visual UpTime(R), Visual Trinity(TM), Visual IP InSight(TM) and Visual eWatcher(TM) -- service providers and enterprise customers can increase network reliability, dramatically reduce operational expenses and lower their total cost of ownership. Visual Networks' customers include AT&T, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, Merrill Lynch, Prodigy, SBC (1) (SBC Communications Inc., San Antonio, TX, www.sbc.com) A large, national telecommunications company that grew from a multitude of local and regional companies, including Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell and Nevada Bell, into a single, unified brand by 2002. , Sprint, Verizon and WorldCom. Visual Networks' headquarters are located in Rockville, MD, and the European headquarters are in the United Kingdom. For more information, visit www.visualnetworks.com. For more information on Visual Internet BenchMark in Canada, contact Peter Dove at 905-336-2724. Visual Networks and Visual UpTime are registered trademarks and Visual Trinity, Visual eWatcher, Visual IP InSight and Visual Internet BenchMark are trademarks of Visual Networks. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
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