Abstract: A monitoring system for monitoring the typical response time required to execute a command at a desired remote site, e.g. a website. The monitoring system includes a mechanism for synchronizing the real-time internal clock at both the administrative node and the transaction node. Once both real-time internal clocks are synchronized, a synthetic transaction is generated by the administrative node and sent to the transaction node. The instant at which the command is sent is recorded by the administrative node. The command is received by the transaction node and each important step involved in executing the command is recorded with a time stamp information. Once the command has been completed, the results of the synthetic command, e.g. the requested data, drawing(s), diagram(s) or information, are sent to the administrative node along with the time stamp information indicating the elapsed time for executing each important step of the synthetic transaction.