Method and apparatus for measuring the performance of a network based application program

An arrangement for monitoring the performance of a client-server application, said apparatus comprising:

• a computer network, said computer network for carrying packets between a plurality of client systems coupled to said computer network and at least one server system coupled to said computer network;
• performance monitor machine, said performance monitor machine coupled said computer network in close network proximity to a first server system, said performance monitor machine sniffing packets originating from said first server system and received by said first server system, said performance monitor machine configured to calculate a request round-trip transit time by subtracting a time when said first server system sends a request packet to a second server system from said time when said first server system receives an acknowledgement packet from said second server system, a total response receiving time by subtracting a time when said first server system receives a first response packet from said second server system from a time when said first server system receives a final response packet from said second server system, a second server transit time by adding said request round-trip transit time to said total response receiving time, a second server processing time by subtracting a time when said first server system receives a first response packet from said second server system in response to a request packet sent to said second server system from a time when said first server system receives said final response packet from said second server system, and a total second server response time by adding said second server processing time to said second server transit time.