User Guide

Service monitoring

Is it your network or is it them?

You can tell Network Weather to watch specific websites and services. It checks if they're up and how fast they respond. That way, when Zoom feels slow, you'll know whether it's your network or Zoom's servers.

How it works

The app sends a small request to each service you add, over and over, and tracks:

  • How long it takes to respond, broken down step by step
  • Whether it's responding at all
  • What went wrong if it isn't (timeout, DNS error, connection refused, etc.)

Results show up in the Services link on the network map.

Adding a service

  1. Open the Network Weather window.
  2. Click Services Settings (you can find it from the Services link or the app menu).
  3. Click Add Service.
  4. Type the full URL, like https://zoom.us or https://your-company-vpn.example.com.
  5. Give it a name you'll recognize, like "Zoom" or "Work VPN."
  6. Click Save.

It starts watching right away.

What's worth watching

A few ideas:

  • Video calls: https://zoom.us, https://teams.microsoft.com
  • Cloud storage: https://drive.google.com, https://dropbox.com
  • Work stuff: your company VPN, intranet, or SaaS apps
  • Games: https://store.steampowered.com
  • Anything you'd notice going down

Cloudflare comes pre-loaded as a basic "is the internet working?" check.

Reading the results

Each service shows a response time with a color (green, yellow, red) based on how it compares to its own usual speed.

Click a service for the timing breakdown:

  • DNS: Finding the server's address
  • TLS: Setting up a secure connection
  • TTFB: Waiting for the server to start replying
  • Download: Getting the response

If one service is red but everything else is green, the problem is on their end, not yours.

Editing or removing a service

  1. Open Services Settings.
  2. Click the service you want to change.
  3. Edit the URL or name, or click Remove to stop watching it.

A few things to know

Don't go overboard. Five to ten services is plenty. Each one adds a little background traffic.

Always include https:// in the URL. Just a domain name won't work.

If one service has slow DNS while others are fine, the problem is probably with that service's DNS setup, not your network.