--- title: "Use PingPlotter to troubleshoot network slowdowns" description: "If you're on a Windows machine, and your website appears to be running slow. You can try out the PingPlotter application to help pinpoint any problems with network connectivity. We have a guide on..." url: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/support/website/use-pingplotter-to-troubleshoot-network-slowdowns/ date: 2013-12-06 modified: 2021-08-16 author: "InMotion Hosting Contributor" categories: ["Website"] type: post lang: en --- # Use PingPlotter to troubleshoot network slowdowns If you’re on a Windows machine, and your website appears to be running slow. You can try out the **PingPlotter** application to help pinpoint any problems with network connectivity. We have a guide on [running a ping and traceroute test](/support/website/why-is-my-server-slow-how-do-i-run-a-ping-and-tracert-test/) when you feel your website is running slow. However when you use the **PingPlotter** application, you’ll be able to get a much better view on possible networking problems. ## Install and run a trace with PingPlotter The steps below will walk you through downloading **PingPlotter**, and then starting a **trace** with it to troubleshoot possible network connectivity issues. 1. [Download PingPlotter](https://www.pingplotter.com/download.html) from their website. 2. [![click on http download link for pingplotter](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/click-http-download-link-for-pingplotter.png)](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/click-http-download-link-for-pingplotter.png) It’s recommended to download **PingPlotter Standard** for more features, and you’d click on the **HTTP** link to begin your download. There is also the [PingPlotter Freeware](https://www.pingplotter.com/freeware.html) edition available that lacks some of the features such as a graph over time, but it’s free. 3. [![click launch pingplotter after install](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/click-launch-pingplotter-after-install.png)](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/click-launch-pingplotter-after-install.png) After installing, click on the **Launch PingPlotter Standard Now** button to launch the application. 4. [![click continue to bypass welcome page](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/click-continue-to-bypass-welcome-page.png)](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/click-continue-to-bypass-welcome-page.png) Now you can click on **Continue** to bypass the welcome screen, or click on any of the links for more details. 5. [![default pingplotter setup](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/default-pingplotter-setup.png)](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/default-pingplotter-setup.png) By default **PingPlotter** will already come with some defaults typed in that can help you troubleshoot if you’re just having general network connectivity issues. [![change settings then click trace](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/change-settings-then-click-trace.png)](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/change-settings-then-click-trace.png) Here you can see I’ve made a few adjustments: **Address to Trace:** example.com **Sampling** – **# of times to trace** 10 **Sampling** – **Trace Interval** 15 seconds **Statistics** – **Samples to include** 10 Then click on **Trace** to begin the test. 6. [![running a trace with pingplotter](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/running-a-trace-with-pingplotter.gif)](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/running-a-trace-with-pingplotter.gif) In this case we did **10 traces** with a **15 seconds interval** in-between them. So you’ll see that **PingPlotter** graphs the response we’re getting on each interation. We can see from this test that **hop 5** is experincing some packet-loss. But overall we are averaging around a **8ms** round-trip response time. [![final test showing packet loss](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/final-test-showing-packet-loss.png)](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/final-test-showing-packet-loss.png) Finally at the end, we’re left with the results of the whole test, and in this case we can clearly see that **hop 5** with the IP address of **68.1.4.246** is encountering an average of **22.28%** packet-loss. So if my website seemed to be responding slow at this time, this could possibly be the culprit. 7. [![arin info for cox ip address](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/arin-info-for-cox-ip-address.png)](/support/images/stories/website/slow-websites/tools/pingplotter/arin-info-for-cox-ip-address.png) Now that we know which IP address seems to possibly be affecting our network performance, we can go over to [ARIN.net](https://www.arin.net/whois_tou.html) who is in charge of IP address assignments, and use their **SEARCH Whois** function at the top-right of the page. In this case we can see this router belongs to **Cox Communications** out of **Atlanta, GA**. So they might temporarily be having some issues affecting the connection between my local computer and the server. In this case because the network connectivity issue doesn’t reside within a network that InMotion Hosting has any control over, contacting us regarding the network slowness won’t help resolve the issue. These types of routing issues are typically temporary as the Internet can find multiple routes for a connection to go through. Using **PingPlotter** can help you keep tabs on just how frequently these issues are happening, and if any further investigation should be done.