[smokeping-users] how low can it go?

[Aaron Lewis]

Before I dig into setting up smokeping, I would like to ask if I can
monitor very small latency numbers--sub millisecond?  All nodes are in
a single building LAN.  I need to monitor latency over time to track a
baseline, compare changes, etc.  Everything I've looked at on Windows
(What's Up Gold, IPCheck) won't measure smaller than 1 ms.  Is this
because the built in PING in windows doesn't resolve lower than 1 ms?
I notice in any Linux distro, PING gives me numbers like 0.255 ms
which is great.  So will smokeping work at this level?

If so, what is the easiest way for someone to get smokeping running?
I can setup a dedicated machine, maybe a few years old (P4, 1GB RAM,
120+ hdd) polling about 100 nodes on the LAN. I would probably want to
monitor our ISP's DNS, web, and mail servers, which would be measured
on the more "normal" ms level. Do some distros have smokeping
installed already?  I'm fairly new to Linux, but work as a Windows
system admin, Net+ certified.  I'm familiar with basic CLI
administering though SSH.  Is there something like Remote Desktop for
Linux?  Thanks!