How Do I Check A Server? Checking response time

I received an email from Xisto - Support today:

I am sorry, but we have done everything from our end to fix up ftp. I can suggest that you can check response of following servers :-
alpha.xisto.com
siva.xisto.com
theta.xisto.com

Let me know, which server responds to ftp faster and I will switch your account to that server. I hope there is not too much data to move.

Thank you,

shree

OK, fine, the only question is: "How do I do that"?
How can I check data on a server which contains no data I own (ie. which I do not have access to)?
And, that last sentence is not exactly "customer-friendly", if they need to move data because something is not working properly, then they should not complain about the amount of data, but get on with the job, or are they reluctant to do what they are paid for now?

server status

Thank you, anwiii, but, I'm afraid that does not make me much wiser.According to the diagram, ALPHA and THETA both have a green tick for HTTP, FTP and POP3, SIVA is not even there, but so does my current server, which is GAMMA.Also, THETA has a server load of 2.56, GAMMA of 2.05, while ALPHA's server load is not available.Also, ALPHA's Uptime is not available.Since what they said was "that you can check response of following servers :-" it does not show me anything about response time, unless they mean the server load, in which case GAMMA (my current server) has the lowest figure.Nicely explained by support how or where I am supposed to check it.

i know it's not much help, ut it's all i can offer at the moment unless you ask the person you talked towhen information is not available, it means the server is down. they wont admit that fact, but any website hosted on alpha at that time will be down. i've run across that issue before on beta. now i am on gamma.since you talked to shree, then he should know what server is best for your needs. i've had a LOT of issues with servers lately and they finally put me on gamma which might tell me gamma is most stable since i doubt they want to continue hearing my *BLEEP*ing.

Well, the thing is: I AM on GAMMA.However, I did not talk to Shree.He responded to a ticket that was submitted long ago, and I lost my wick and told them they had written they were going to look into it and let me know when they had a solution.That was about a month ago, and I told them so.That is when I got Shree's reply.

Hi,The best way is to ping the hostname. ping alpha.xisto.com or ping theta.xisto.com. You will get a reply similar to this:-Pinging alpha.xisto.com [208.87.241.118] with 32 bytes of data:Reply from 208.87.241.118: bytes=32 time=404ms TTL=51Reply from 208.87.241.118: bytes=32 time=395ms TTL=51Reply from 208.87.241.118: bytes=32 time=441ms TTL=51Reply from 208.87.241.118: bytes=32 time=463ms TTL=51the Time is the important factor. The lower the time, the better is the server for you (network wise). I suggest, you run a check this way and make a decision.-shree

I think he's asking how to do that. Gosh...

By the way, the FTP upload speed is superslow for me too, like 4 KB/s. That's just a load of <something>. No matter which server it is, it shouldn't be that low.

Edited August 6, 2011 by Baniboy (see edit history)

well you could have told him how in your last post too :)to ping a site or in this case a server, you need to open the command prompt. then just follow the instructions opaque gave "ping <servername>.xisto.com"