6 EVALUATION AND CONCLUSION 

6.1 Introduction 

The objective is this chapter is to evaluate the design and flexibility of the overall framework 

and the usefulness of the information that it can provide. Following this, a conclusion of the 

completed dissertation will be given and possible future work that could be undertaken to 

improve and extend the framework. 

6.2 Evaluation  Overview 

This evaluation first examines a case study that was conducted using the framework to 

monitor a Web delivered email service. The aim of this was to demonstrate how the 

framework could be applied to monitor a Web delivered service and provide useful 

information on availability and performance from the user perspective.  

6.3 Case Study: Yahoo Mail 

It was decided that to properly evaluate the framework, a demonstration of its capabilities 

should be undertaken against an actual Web delivered service. The target service that was 

chosen was Yahoo Mail. Yahoo Mail is a free Web based email service. It allows its 

subscribers to receive and send email via the Internet using a standard Web browser as an 

interface to the service. It supports all the traditional features that typical mail user agents 

possess including the capabilities to send, receive, attach files to messages, search for 

messages etc, except the interface is a normal Web browser. 

6.3.1 Test Environment 

The test environment that was used to demonstrate the service consisted of a host with a 

Web browser and the Jigsaw proxy running with the HTTPQoS filter enabled. The Web 

browser was configured to pass all requests via the proxy. The Internet connection was via a 

dialup account to a local ISP over a 56kbps modem. It was expected that the performance of 

a