Thanks for all of the replies / suggestions. Yes, I thought of ping, but that's really not a good indicator of how a given www server is operating nor how a given page is being sent is it ? I also thought of traceroute as well, but again, that is very similar to ping and wouldn't really show what I'm looking for.

The webperf.org deal looks pretty good, but they were having troubles earlier and I couldn't see much of the site. Will check again later.

Saint Aardvark, my keyboard and I thank you for your blessings, however, I think the task you hope my keyboard and I might accomplish is a bit too deep for me at this point. Perhaps your blessings might better be bestowed on someone like Merlyn (like he needs it). If I come up with some workable code for the task, I'll certainly post it.

Thanks to all !