Measuring bandwidth - connection speed

Problem:

Does Opentracker measure connection speed / amount of bandwidth used by visitors?

Solution:

We can not determine how much bandwidth is used by visitors, because we do not record it. We can only see the bandwidth connection of the user. So we can see if she/he uses a analog modem, isdn, cabel, etc. Only log-file analyzers tell you how much actual bandwidth is used.

Most statistics are based on estimates of connection speeds. For example, a program typically divides the size of files transferred by the number of seconds needed to transfer, and makes an educated guess. The reason that guesses are inaccurate is that there are multiple factors that determine the amount of time that it takes to download a file, both local, and extra-local circumstances.

A prototype feature to measure connection speeds was originally included in Opentracker, but the data were spread over graphs quite widely, because of the many factors that influence connection speeds. Therefore the data were removed because they appeared to cause confusion, due to the large fluctuations in results.

In conclusion: it is a feature that was originally designed for, and may make a re-designed appearance in the future, but it is not scheduled as of this date.