FastNet99 is a network utility that will speed up your web browser every time you want to connect to a web site on the Internet, by avoiding time consuming DNS lookups. It provides all the tools you need to help diagnose network problems and get information about users, hosts and networks on the Internet or on your Intranet. It combines DNS Lookup, Ping, TraceRoute, WhoIs, Finger, Time Synchronizer, KeepAlive and more...

DNS (Domain Name Server) is a service offered by your ISP; it consists of a huge table of URL names and the corresponding IP addresses, so your browser may know what is the correct IP to use for satisfying your request. However, a DNS server cannot hold all exisisting URL-IP addresses but it is linked to other DNS's throughout the world in a hierarchical manner. In other words your web server may ask for informations to another linked DNS until it reaches a master DNS server that should have the complete list of IP addresses (there are only 5 master DNS servers in the world). This means that your request could imply many requests to other DNS servers while you are expecting for the right reply.

FastNet99 is based on the same idea; it holds a local table of DNS-IP addresses (the Hosts file located on your Windows directory) and tell your browser to check that table before asking the DNS at your ISP. Therefore there is a local search without generating TCP/IP network traffic at all. DNS lookups occur whenever you use URL for finding an Internet resource - so mail, FTP, gopher, IRC can all benefit.