by Brian Grainger brian@grainger1.freeserve.co.uk

This articles relates to displaying speed of data transmission when on-line. It is certainly relevant to Windows 98. I have also read that it is relevant to Windows 95 but it does not seem to work with the very first release of Windows 95.

When downloading files from the Internet it is very useful to know how fast files are coming. Obviously it is nice to know how much longer you have to be on-line to complete the download and this can be determined by knowing the speed of transfer and the length of file. Knowing the speed of transfer is also useful when determining a download site when a choice is given. You may think that the nearest is best but I have found that this is very often not true. I rarely use UK download sites suggested as they seem to be slower than when I download from say Germany or Scandinavia!

When you start downloading you usually see a dialog box which indicates the speed of transfer and sometimes the time remaining. The latter does not always appear so I assume it is dependent on the file size being transmitted in advance somehow. The main problem with this dialog is that the speed seems to be the average since the download started and it takes a while to ramp up. Because of this the initial values of remaining time to go are invariably too high and they rapidly come down. Eventually some sort of happy medium is reached and the speeds and times give good approximations, until the transmission speed suddenly changes again.

Another estimate of transmission speed can be seen at the System Tray to the right of the Task Bar. When an Internet connection is made a double screened monitor appears in the System Tray. If you hover the mouse over it the data speeds will be displayed. As an aside, if you double click it a dialog is displayed from where you can disconnect the line. This is quite useful if you have not been asked when closing your browser or e-mail package.

Both of these features are nice, but what I have found much easier to comprehend is a displayed chart recorder which is constantly graphing the speeds as the download is in progress. Believe it or not this facility is available.

Windows 98 will install by default a tool called System monitor. It can be opened from:

Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Monitor

Windows 95 does not install this tool by default so you will have to go to Start - Settings - Control Panel and open Add/Remove Programs. Select the Windows Setup tab and enable System Monitor under the Accessories. When you click OK a couple of times you will be asked for your Windows 95 disk and System Monitor will be installed. It can then be opened from the Start - Programs - Accessories menu.

When started System Monitor may already be set to monitor some parameters, but not the ones needed. Simply delete a parameter by selecting Remove Item ... from the Edit menu. The currently monitored parameters are listed. Select those to remove and click OK.

To add parameters to be monitored one selects Add Item ... from the Edit menu. You then select the category of item and then the item itself before clicking OK. I monitor three parameters, all from the Dial-Up Adapter category. The System Monitor tool with the first issue of Windows 95 did not include a Dial-Up Adapter category which makes this technique difficult in this case. The items from the Dial-Up Adapter category that I choose are:

• Bytes Received/Second
• Bytes Transmitted/Second
• Connection Speed

Once chosen 3 little charts are displayed, (make sure Line Chart is chosen from the View menu), and a short time later they start to be plotted. Curiously my connection speed is 9600 even when nothing is being sent so I can only assume this monitors a setting rather than a transmission.

Once everything is set up System Monitor can be closed down. When it is opened in future the same settings will be there and charting will start shortly after opening. What I do is to open System Monitor as soon as I have started a download. I then get an instant record of how the download is progressing. Provided the bytes received per second is reasonably high and constant then I continue to download. Otherwise, if there are alternative download sites I might choose another to get slicker performance. The charts with System Monitor allow this decision to be made fairly quickly whereas the normal dialog box, which is still there, may be confusing to say the least.

System Monitor is a nice little tool and can be used to monitor a wide variety of system performance parameters. The tool is most useful to diagnose where the bottlenecks are if the PC or the network grinds down to an unacceptable level. System Monitor is actually a cut down version of Performance Monitor used in NT. However, a certain level of technical expertise is required to determine what parameters to measure and how to interpret the results. Those trained to MCSE should be OK!