Click here to jump to a table listing four web site options. Each option is a live web page. Choose a page, and within seconds Cricket will analyze its load time and build the graphs displaying its results. I tested this by logging subscriber counts for a mailing list. In this article, we're going to set up Cricket to track web server performance.
Cricket comes with good documentation, and sample setups for network gear.
Once you've got it running, refer to these documents to take on more ambitious projects. There is also a Cricket mailing list that you can sign up for to get more help. When Cricket is installed to log page-load times, I can show folks the before and after pictures when I perform system tuning operations such as adding memory or a new hard drive. This helps to justify the expense by showing concrete evidence that the change has improved load times. If you make a major software change, you can track its effect on load times.