A company that specializes in measuring the Internet is selling a new Java applet that ISPs and webhosts can use to run speed tests for customers. The benefits of the Java approach, including easy deployment and platform independence, are clear.

by ISP-Planet Staff [June 17, 2004]

Technically, Turlock, Calif.-based VisualWare was founded in January of 2001, but this Silicon Valley firm is no startup. It's the product of a variety of mergers and spinoffs of firms specializing in Web measurement dating back to ViewPoint, a product for measuring the performance of mainframe computers offered by a company that no longer exists.

Meanwhile, data measurement has moved on. Today, VisualWare specializes in "Internet performance management and IP location technologies," according to Julie Lancaster, the company's director of marketing. The company's customer list includes government contacts ranging from the U.S. military to Hong Kong's police force, but also includes such ISP industry names as Akamai, AOL, C I Host, WorldCom, and Taiwanese manufacturer Chunghwa Telecom. Advertisers, including DoubleClick, use the company's location technologies to track the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

The company's most popular product, according to Lancaster, is VisualRoute, a traceroute app that maps the path of a ping on an actual map. That product costs $49.95 for the personal edition and starts at $249 for a group license for up to ten people.

The company's newest app, released on June 2, 2004, is more directly aimed at ISPs as customers. It's called the MySpeed Server.

This Java app is simple (it takes a single click to run it) and a demo is available on the company website. Lancaster says ISPs should understand that although the demo requires a log in, the retail version sold to ISPs does not.

The demo runs a series of uploads and downloads, and records the latency, longest pause time, upload speed, download speed, and a data point the software labels "Quality of Service" which is the consistency between different upload and download times. My connection registered a 90 percent "QoS" meaning that times varied by plus or minus 10 percent.

Lancaster says that a variety of xSPs are interested in the product, especially those that offer gaming servers and want their customers to be able to test the quality of their connection to the gaming server.

Pricing and availability
The product is available now. Pricing starts at $249 for use on a single server, with volume discounts for more than one server. No further fees are charged, except for major upgrades, at which point owners get a discount on the upgrade price.

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