The internet is made up of an enormous quantity of networks and servers that all communicate voluntarily with each other. As your ISP we facilitate this global connectivity for you. When you see a value fluctuating, it could be as a result of a few things:
1. The server that is being monitored is undergoing changes. Servers host the content that you view and interact with on the internet. The further away they are located, the more networks between you and them will likely be involved to get to that data. Servers also fluctuate in volume of requests they receive, depending on their popularity. You're likely to find that a very popular gaming server will suffer from more fluctuations than a blog site, for example
2. The network that the server is hosted on is experiencing changes. Hosting providers offer services to thousands of customers at the same time, and often if one of those customers receives an usually high volume of requests (for example) it may impact the services for all other clients who use the same hosting provider.
3. Something in the network path has changed. As your ISP we interconnect with a vast number of other networks to ensure global connectivity over the internet. Between you and the server/website/app you are connecting to, there can be anything from 1 to 100 other networks involved in serving you that content. i.e. if you connect to a website in Australia for example, your network traffic moves through our network and onto our international connections. From there it moves to international peers' networks, and their peers' networks and so on and so forth, until you finally reach your intended destination. The further away the content, the more likely it is that something can happen along the way.
4. The host has changed. More often than not, popular services, apps and websites will use a distributed network to deliver their content to you. This means the "host" that you connect to isn't a single server, but a multitude of servers spread all around the world. These are often referred to as CDNs and they help to make the internet faster and more stable for end-users. But they also switch the location they deliver content from at times, and this can result in changes to the performance metrics, particularly if the new location is geographically different to the original location.
5. EvoNet's network is undergoing changes. When we undergo maintenance on the network, we may switch network paths temporarily or re-route traffic over different routes. Alternatively if we are experiencing an issue (perhaps a problematic switch) that can result in fluctuations. We monitor for this and proactively take action when and where necessary.
6. a combination of the above. Sometimes things are affected for a multitude of reasons at the same time. This is where we step in to report these issues to other networks when we identify that the issue resides within their control, or we take action if it turns out the issue is on our network.
