Patent ID: 6976069

Claim:
A method of measuring the performance of a computer network, the method comprising the steps of: establishing a public switched telephone network (PSTN) connection between a first computer system and a second computer system; establishing a network connection between the first computer system and a second computer system, the network connection including the computer network; transmitting a first digital message from the first computer system to the second computer system over the PSTN connection; at the same or nearly the same time as transmitting the first digital message, transmitting a second digital message from the first computer system to the second computer system over the network connection; receiving a third digital message from the second site over one of the network connection and PSTN connection in response to the second digital message, the third digital message containing timing information regarding the receipt of the first and second digital messages at the second computer system; and deriving from the third message a one-way transit time between the first and second computer systems as an indication of the performance of the computer network.