Here, we see a 24 hour summary of the packet loss statistics for the 86 ISPs (and related services) covered in Jon Stevens' "Internet Weather Report" (which used to be at http://www.internetweather.com/).

At the left end of the picture, you can see what was happening Thursday night: things were pretty congested, even in the middle of the night (Thursday was a really bad day). This activity wasn't confined to a single ISP or two -- it was widespread. The congestion cleared up by 3am.

Friday was a more normal day, with occasional peaks (in red, 75% or higher loss), and some ISPs having moderate packet loss (blue is 25-50%). There's a brief mid-afternoon slump (while people snooze after lunch?), and then a little end-of-the-week activity in the late afternoon. Once the work day is over, it quiets way down.

Here's Saturday, 1998feb07, about 8 pm:

A pretty quiet day, for most of the day. What's that burst of activity at about 5 am? I don't know. But most of the day is pretty peaceful -- until about 6 pm, when all hell breaks loose! Is this everybody getting home and surfing the web in the evening? Does more of that happen Saturday night than Friday night? Again, I don't know.

Navigation

Clicking on a location in this summary screen could show a close-up of that area, like this: