Assignment: Analyzing Ping Trip Times

The ping utility allows you to determine the amount of time required for a packet of information to traverse a network between your computer and another computer.

Utilize the ping utility to collect data on the round trip time for three different websites.

Choose any website and ping that site using the default ping settings. This will return four measurements of the round trip time between that website server and your computer. Record these four measurements, and repeat the process until you have twenty total measurements for the round trip time.

Repeat this process for two additional websites.

Construct a set of box and whisker plots showing access times for each of the three websites. In addition to providing the chart, include a brief description of what the box and whisker plots tell you. You should specifically describe what five measures are included on the chart and how each is determined.

Choose one of your websites for additional analysis. Ping that site twenty additional times this time recording the average value given for the four trials rather than the values for each trial

Create a chart showing the mean, median, standard deviation, and variance for both the single-trial values (from your first data collection) and for the averages (from your second data collection). In addition to providing the chart, include a brief description of what these four pieces of data tell you and how each is calculated.

Respond to the following questions about your charts and data analysis:

1. Describe how the access times for the three different websites compared. Discuss possible reasons for these differences.
2. Compare the mean, median, standard deviation, and variance values for the single-trial and four trial average data? Which values are similar for these two measures? Which values are different? Given that both measure round trip access time, why are some of the values different? Consider the Central Limit Theorem in your response.
3. Ping is a very quick way to assess a network connection between two computers. You want to use it to set up an hourly test to determine whether or not you have a stable connection to a specific resource. Describe the data analysis and interpretation steps you would utilize to determine if the connection was stable. To think about these steps, imagine that you needed to script/program these steps so that the test ran automatically and notified you if there was an issue.

You should combine all aspects of this assignment including charts into a single, cohesive document for grading. Please also submit your Excel data files for review but ensure that all charts and necessary information are in your main document.

Assignment: Analyzing Ping Trip Times

STAT 2

• Chapter 1, “Statistics”
• Chapter 2, “Descriptive Analysis and Presentation of Single-Variable Data”
• Chapter 3, Sections 3.1 and 3.2, “Bivariate Data” and “Linear Correlation”

Articles:

• Microsoft Office Excel Statistical Functions
• How to perform ping checks in Windows, Linux, and Mac OS

Khan Academy. (n.d.). Statistics and probability. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probab…

Johnson, R., & Kuby, P. (2012). STAT 2 (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.