Holistix.net Offers Web Site Performance Check

WRQ Inc announced that its Holistix Performance Index has been used to run free tests on over 10,000 Web sites, making it the most comprehensive Web site performance index available. By entering a URL on holistix.net, a user can test any Web site from outside its firewall. This test gives users an indication of the response time that visitors to the site may be experiencing.

"While this is not an exhaustive test," said Chris Rogers, director of marketing, "testing Web sites from the outside provides valuable information for Web masters and managers. Running these tests on Holistix.net has also helped us gain an understanding of external Web site testing that we plan to incorporate into our existing product line."

The performance index only takes about two minutes and works by allowing users to enter any URL. The Holistix.net test downloads 50 bytes of a site, makes 50 sample TCP requests and averages the responses. The system uses two indexing servers, one located on the West coast and one on the East coast. Each server uses a 10-megabit connection over a T1 line to make the calculation.

The free performance-index service also allows users to compare up to five sites of their choice by simply entering the URLs. If any of the sites are in the database, the comparison uses the benchmarking information contained there; otherwise the Index runs the test and ranks these sites.

"This technique is a great way for Web managers to get a quick snapshot of how their site compares with their competition," said Rogers. "We've all seen the headlines about lost customers and revenue when frustrated visitors leave your site and go to the competition. This free service can help companies diagnose if they have a Web site performance problem that may be impacting their bottom line."

The Holistix Performance Index is a free service found at www.holistix.net. Each day the top 10 sites change, but a few of the sites that have consistently been among the top 1 percent of best-performing sites include popular sites such as nba.com and abcnews.com, as well as lesser known sites such as seattleguitar.org. The calculation divides 50K of data downloaded from the Web by the sum of the server response in seconds and the page download in seconds. Higher numeric scores indicate faster data transfer. The average rating of the more than 10,000 sites indicate that "dot-com" performance is among the fastest as indicated here:

In February, WRQ introduced its Holistix Web Manager product that monitors all the elements that make up a Web system inside the firewall. Holistix Web Manager is software that is installed on a Web system to help manage the site's performance. It pinpoints problems and performance degradation at any level -- whether it is a database, Web server, router, application server, or any other software, hardware or network component. A trial version of the product can be downloaded from www.holistix.net.

About WRQ

WRQ develops and markets high-quality software and services that information technology managers need to enable the e-business infrastructure in complex environments. WRQ offers a comprehensive suite of solutions, including awardwinning terminal emulation, leading-edge enterprise application integration and end-to-end Web system management. WRQ solutions help information technology specialists consistently deliver the experience their customers expect.

WRQ has been recognized as one of the top 20 PC software companies in the United States for the past seven years by Soft*Letter newsletter and is ranked among the top 30 companies to work for in the United States by Fortune magazine. Established in 1981, WRQ has offices throughout the world and distributes products in more than 50 countries through a worldwide distribution network. For more information, contact WRQ at 1500 Dexter Ave. North, Seattle, WA 98109, 800-872-2829 or 206-217-7100, info@wrq.com, www.wrq.com.