Adjust Timers…

You can adjust two time-outs in MacPing:

•
the no-response time, the time to wait for a response to return from a node; and 
•
the inter-sample time, the time to wait before probing another node.

No-Response Time:

The no-response timer should be set to a value longer than the expected response time, but short enough that you can get a reasonable number of samples.  MacPing adjusts the no-response timer whenever you select a new network or zone.  MacPing uses the time between the NBP lookup and the first response as the default no-response timer.

If you check the Automatic box, MacPing will recompute the no-response timer as the network response changes.  The timer will be calculated to be 150% of the longest successful response.  

Inter-Sample Time:

Normally, MacPing will poll devices as fast as possible.  This tends to make a LocalTalk wire busy, but doesn't slow the network too badly.  There are two reasons:  this polling uses only 30-45% of the capacity, and MacPing abides by the standard LocalTalk access rules to slow its requests for access to the bus in response to other traffic on the bus.  Thus, when the bus is lightly loaded, the tester takes much of the bandwidth; when other machines are trying to do useful work, the tester backs off.  

In the event that MacPing seems to be hurting performance, increase the inter-sample time.  The value is in milliseconds.