This is a
Windows utility for diagnosing network problems.
It is intended as a utility for gamers playing
SubSpace so they can diagnose
lag, but it's very handy whether or not you play the game.
The basic network diagnostic tool is ping, which simply confirms if you can contact a particular host and how long it takes to contact it. The main drawback of this program is that if there is a problem you don't know if the problem is on your end, the host's end, or somewhere in between.
traceroute is a Unix program which can tell you the list of systems that connect you to a particular host. (The Windows equivalent of traceroute is tracert.exe.) It gives you more information, but its weakness is diagnosing intermittent problems.
Sub-O-Tronic is similar to traceroute except that it repeatedly contacts each of the systems between you and your target host. It aggregates the results, telling you what the average round trip time is, how much packet loss can be attributed to each hop, and so on. If you're having trouble connecting to a host, Sub-O-Tronic makes it easy to identify where the problem is.
As of 2/12/2001, Sub-O-Tronic is available at http://www.subspacezone.net/downloads_utils.shtml
The Unix equivalent to Sub-O-Tronic is mtr.