NANY 2011 Release: Speed Monitor

[NinJA999]

NANY 2011 Entry Information

Application Name	Speed Monitor
Version	1.0
Short Description	Continuously tracks the loading speed of websites with an adjustable check interval and averages from the last 10, 100, and 1000 tries.  Graphs the last 100 tries.  Idea from mouser's post.
Supported OSes	Windows with .NET
Web Page	Soon...
Download Link	v1.0 - 86K EXE OR Download from Softpedia OR Download from Softoxi
System Requirements	.NET 4.0 Internet Access
Version History	v1.0 - Added drag-and-drop, clear data button, slower default interval, and quick hint v0.9 - Charts added v0.8 - First-time lag removed, URLs no longer require "http://", small other tweaks v0.7 - Save/Load of URLs added v0.6 - Basic functions running (with averaging) v0.4 - Single data point acquisition added v0.2 - Timers added v0.1 - Basic UI
Author	NinJA999 (Nick Aldwin)

Description
Continuously tracks the loading speed of websites with an adjustable check interval and averages from the last 10, 100, and 1000 tries.  Graphs the last 100 tries.
Idea from mouser's post:

Here's a new NANY idea/request:

URL Speed Tracker:

Idea: A utility meant to continuously track the speeds of opening certain web pages/downloading files.

Motivation: It can be important, especially when setting up a new server, to be able to watch the speed and watch for any failures of pages to load.  This program will continuously grab pages and track speeds over time to let you know the health of a server.

• The main interface should be a grid where you can add new urls (of pages or files).
• Then a set of columns for running speed averages, averaged over longer windows (i can elaborate later).
• A button to toggle on/off fetching.

Options:

• 1. how often it should recheck urls
• 2. it should save/load the last set of urls.

With regard to tracking over longer averages:

• A really deluxe version would be able to plot the speeds over time of a given url.
• But short of that, what one wants is some indication of avg speed over different time windows.  So for example it would be nice to know last speed (avg over 1 try), and then over maybe the last 10 tries, then over last 100, over last 1000, etc (the last value would give you a true baseline).
• Rather than keeping track of every download speed (needed if you want to graph), a simple heuristic solution to these would be to keep track of, for each url, a decaying average with a different decay rate.  ie DisplayValue = DisplayValue*Decay + NewValue  where Decay is from 0 to 1, and the lower the value the shorter the time window for averaging.

I could really use such a thing.. any takers?  if not i may code it.

Bonus:
I can see how this would be useful for cross-platform environment, and specifically if it could be run continuously in commandline mode on a linux server.  But for me right now a windows-only version would be fine.

-mouser (December 18, 2010, 06:55 AM)

Features
Multiple websites
Minimizes to tray
Editable frequency
Last 1/10/100/1000 averages
Enable/disable switch
If a website is unreachable, time turns red (and reads -1)
Automatic saving/loading of URLs
Charts of the last 100 measured times
Drag-and-drop for URLs
Easy data reset

Planned Features
Timeline on charts
Better operation (less memory-intensive, etc.)

Screenshots



Usage
Installation
Run the EXE

Using the Application
From Help->Explain This!

Use this tool to monitor the average length of time it takes to load a webpage or file.

Enter a URL into a row, then click "Enable Fetching" to start gathering data.

The last duration (in milliseconds) will appear in the "Last (ms)" column, the average duration over the last 10 tries will appear in the "Last 10" column, and so on.

Click the "Chart" button to see a line graph of the last 100 measured times.

You can change the frequency of tries (in seconds) by editing the value in the "Frequency" text box and clicking "Set".

Each time you add a new URL, a new blank row will appear.

To delete a row, select it and press the [DELETE] button on your keyboard.

You can also add a URL to the list by dragging it and dropping it onto the list.

To clear all time data for the URLs, click "Clear Data".

If you minimize the program, it will disappear to the small icon in the system tray.  Double click the icon to restore the window.

URLs are persisted between program runs.

Uninstallation
Delete the EXE and the smu file.

Known Issues
Initial time always seems to be too high.  Fixed!  It was a silly .NET bug.

NOTE to those experiencing warnings from their security software:
There is no malicious code in this program.  It may be flagged due to its high amount of network traffic; this high level of traffic is due to the nature of the program.

This program has been rated 100% clean by Softpedia.

It has also been verified as clean from any malware by Softoxi.

[mouser]

I'm thrilled someone decided to code this! 
I stand ready to do beta testing, just ask.

[NinJA999]

I'm thrilled someone decided to code this! 
I stand ready to do beta testing, just ask.

-mouser (December 20, 2010, 08:48 PM)

Don't stand ready to be impressed; it's still more a jumble of parts than a smooth-running machine.  I'll send a version over soon.

[NinJA999]

I've added a link so anyone who wants to give it a test can download it.  I'd appreciate any feedback.

[mouser]

looking good!! 

[skwire]

Agreed.  The GUI looks great.  No more and no less than what is necessary.   

[NinJA999]

Great, thanks!  Let me know if there is anything that does need improvement, though.

[kyrathaba]

Very nice, NinJA999!!

[NinJA999]

I've added charts; I hope the addition doesn't clutter the interface too much.  Let me know what you think!

[hegearon]

Hi,
it's looking good. However my antivirus (Norton 360 4.0) detects it as "A program was behaving suspiciously on your computer." Keep up with the good work.

[NinJA999]

That might be because it's making a bunch of web requests.  It's not doing anything nasty.  Just like Windows Firewall says programs like Skype are suspicious when they try to use extra ports.

[NinJA999]

Alrighty, since nobody has offered any more suggestions, I guess I'm going to release it at 0.9   Happy New Year!

[Ath]

Hm, missed this pledge and it's interim releases, just found out now you've released, sorry.

Seems to work alright, but a few 'nice to have's':
- For a newby user it's a but confusing how to add a new url, some hint or menuitem would come in handy
- Drag and drop for url's would be nice
- Can the captured data be reset in some way, without losing all url's
- The initial interval is quite aggressive, a bit more conservative, like 60 sec., would probably back-off the malware scanners' warnings
- I like charts, but they really miss a time-line

[NinJA999]

Those are some good suggestions.  I'll work on adding them over the next week.  Thanks! 

[NinJA999]

Alrighty, I added most of your feature requests for v1.0!  The only one I didn't implement was the timeline on the charts, as that requires both a small data restructuring and a larger URL for Google Charts -- which I have to make sure can handle it.

Thanks for the suggestions; keep 'em coming! 

[mouser]

Looks like speed monitor was written up on ghacks today 
http://www.ghacks.ne...-websites-over-time/

[NinJA999]

Sweet, thanks for pointing it out!