Gray periods in the timeline graph.

Question

I have gray periods in the timeline graph. What does that mean?

Solution

A gray (ie: background) period in a time graph means that PingPlotter didn't *expect* any data from that host during the period the graph shows gray (think "disabled"). There are two main possibilities why this might happen:

• PingPlotter (or MultiPing) was paused or stopped during this time. We obviously don't expect any results if we're not sending out any requests, and the background shows gray.
• A route change happened, and another router was participating in routing data rather than the router you're looking at. Setting "Samples to Include" to some small number (or 0) will allow you to double-click on that period in the time graph which will show the route that *was* participating at that point.

When examining the final destination, only the first of these two situations is possible, as the final destination should always be participating. If it's not, then we record a timeout.

When examining an intermediate hop, a gray background can indicate that either of these situations apply. If the final destination is non-gray, then you know that another router was participating at this point.

Often, you'll have a single hop that normally "oscillates" between several similar IP addresses. If this is the case, it might make sense to combine these two (or three) routers so that PingPlotter treats them as a single router. To do this, right-click on the hop in question and select the "Add route change mask" option. This will add a mask, and it will also combine the data for the routers existing in the current route - which should remove the gray periods as well.