The Keynote Consumer 40 (KC40) Internet
Performance Index measures the average dial-up download time for the home pages of 40
important consumer Web Sites in major metropolitan areas of the United States: Boston,
Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco
and Washington, D.C. Final results are calculated using the mean of the medians of the
measurements from each measurement computer, for maximum accuracy and statistical validity.
The KC40 is measured by Keynote's Web
Site Perspective Consumer Edition. That service is used to measure download speed as seen by dial-up
users. The automated measurement computers dial up via standard, analog telephone lines and 56-Kbps V.90
modems to the local POPs (Points of Presence) of five leading ISPs: AT&T, XO, Earthlink, MSN and AOL.
The measurements exclude the time required to dial up the ISP and establish a successful connection to
the ISP's POP. Keynote's measurement agents are standard home-style Windows systems that use Microsoft
Internet Explorer.
The public Index uses measurements taken every hour between 5 am and 9 pm Pacific time during the entire 7-day
week, starting on Sunday. Keynote subscribers receive 24/7 KC40 measurements for dial-up as well as for DSL and
cable modem; these measurements include components such as DNS Lookup and TCP Connect round-trip time. Subscribers
can also investigate KC40 performance based on city, backbone, or agent.
Measured performance depends on factors such as geographic location, backbone connectivity, and network
infrastructure at each measurement location. The performance experienced by an individual user in one of the
cities above may be better or worse than our measured average depending on how the user is connected to his ISP
and how that ISP connects to the Internet.
Past Consumer Indices:
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