Hops versus Round-Trip

[internit]

Should I judge a host's speed on how few hops (e.g. using Ping Plotter) I have to go through OR does the average round-trip delay tells me more?

Two hosts I'm considering : One giving me 27 hops (!) but round-trip stable at average 261 ms (from where I'm located in Singapore) whereas another host takes only 13 hops but clocking average of 360 ms with more 'choppy' variant in the plotted graph.

And btw, is there a way I can tell where certain sites are hosted? I like where http://download.cnet.com is hosting now; it gives a low 197 ms ave with only 14 hops! (the one big jump is from 21ms to 194 ms out from my country, which is the norm) and it stays there at 197 plus/minus for another 7 hops!

[internit]

After doing some homework on a few of the recommended hosts with cheap plans, I thought I've some interesting findings to share......


Target Name: www.servus.ws IP: 66.78.56.4
--------------------------------------------------------
<....snipped....>
199 ms 199 ms gigabitethernet5-0.edge1.paix-sjo1.Level3.net [209.245.146.153]
200 ms 199 ms gigabitethernet7-1.core1.SanJose1.Level3.net [209.244.3.253]
200 ms 199 ms ae0-56.mp2.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.2.161]
289 ms 289 ms so-3-0-0.mp1.Weehawken1.Level3.net [64.159.1.117]
289 ms 299 ms loopback0.hsipaccess1.Weehawken1.Level3.net [209.247.2.3]
299 ms 299 ms p4-0.core1.cftnnj.inet.vdi.net [63.211.89.150]
298 ms 299 ms servus.ws [66.78.56.4]


Target Name: www.nuke.to IP: 66.78.56.59
--------------------------------------------------------
<....snipped....>
195 ms gigabitethernet5-0.edge1.paix-sjo1.Level3.net [209.245.146.153]
199 ms gigabitethernet7-1.core1.SanJose1.Level3.net [209.244.3.253]
199 ms ae0-56.mp2.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.2.161]
299 ms so-3-0-0.mp1.Weehawken1.Level3.net [64.159.1.117]
299 ms loopback0.hsipaccess1.Weehawken1.Level3.net [209.247.2.3]
299 ms p4-0.core1.cftnnj.inet.vdi.net [63.211.89.150]
299 ms nuke.to [66.78.56.59]


Target Name: www.below10host.com IP: 216.74.99.6
--------------------------------------------------------
<....snipped....>
195 ms gigabitethernet5-0.edge1.paix-sjo1.Level3.net [209.245.146.153]
198 ms gigabitethernet7-1.core1.SanJose1.Level3.net [209.244.3.253]
198 ms ae0-52.mp2.SanJose1.Level3.net [64.159.2.33]
298 ms so-3-0-0.mp1.Weehawken1.Level3.net [64.159.1.117]
298 ms loopback0.hsipaccess1.Weehawken1.Level3.net [209.247.2.3]
298 ms p4-0.core1.cftnnj.inet.vdi.net [63.211.89.150]
298 ms below10host.com [216.74.99.6]


Above three hosts gives me 14 hops and the 13th one goes via VDI at the same IP. Also, while monitoring the Ping Plots for a period of time on these hosts, I notice that the VDI link sometimes lost packacts and gives occasional long delays. No wonder why I'm hearing complaints on host like below10host.com's uptime in the posts!! I bet the other two hosts (or whatever hosts going via VDI) will suffer the same fate... I believe I read some down time for nuke.to recently too.

So I think it's safe to say that all three hosts above have the same link reliability/uptime to the backbone; leaving price/features/support/server reliability as the other differentiators. So if you're considering any of them just take note.

IMHO, interestingly I found (from my limited pool of tested hosts) that discount-hosting.com seems to give me the best result overall... in terms of fewer hops and smaller delay.

Hope this information is helpful to those seeking cheap plans out there and is concern about speed! like me ;)

Cheers.

[Theo]

yes, discount-hosting.com seems to be quite good. I monitoring them the last 7 days and they were 100% up so far. I know 7 days are not a lot, but some of the other hosts I monitor didn't manage to get 7 days in a row without even a minute of down time.

I wish they had some more features ... but i guess for the price they are really good.