Now it is not very often that I find Firefox extensions that Web hosting professionals and enthusiasts can get behind and get excited about. That is why I was so excited to see ServStats sent to me by person who both listens to this show and reads my Firefox blog – FirefoxFacts.com.

So what does ServStats do? Here is what the developer of the extension has to say via the Mozilla Add-ons Web site:

ServStats is a Firefox extension that lets users share statistics about web server connectivity and diagnose network failures. When a network failure occurs, ServStats automatically conducts diagnostic tests and infers the most likely cause of failure.

Now while this might not help you figure out internal server issues to your own network, it is a nice start to something that could be used to really see the inside details on how some servers do when compared with others. Also just by checking the extension you can see the number of times other people have attempted to connect to a server, the average latency and rate of failure for that server, and more.

ServStats is part of the Knowledge Plane research project at MIT. If you want to learn more about the project behind this extension you can do so at their official Web site servestats.mozdev.org.

Related Podcast Link: Listen to Episode 99!