If the server can be reached, but in longer than the specified time, it's considered reachable but not really available for use. As Ranger finds locations becoming just reachable or totally unavailable, it will check each step along the network and find where the communications path is broken or delayed. Traditional network management tools aren't able to provide that level of analysis. Wheat adds that Ranger not only tells whether the problem is at a server or a LAN router, but even if the problem is really in the software agent within the router. Another major break with tradition is how Ranger conducts its tests.
Passive probes attempt to monitor high-speed data packets as they go by.
Ranger instead sends its own traffic to try to ping a remote machine. There just might not be any traffic. May. That left five months for development. Ranger was a hit in Las Vegas. In fact, after three days, Ranger was telling Interop network managers of problems they couldn't find with traditional methods.