Statistics function

Hello everybody, How does the behind the scenes work by PHP exactly go? Does the PHP thread remain active so long as the information is sent to the visitor? Or will PHP parse the code and send it to Apache which will send the data to the user itself? The reason that I'm asking this is I'm writing a statistics add-on for one of my sites and was wondering whether the code below would give the time in which PHP parses the code or in which the data gets streamed to the user. $time_one = microtime(void); fpassthru($file); $time_two = microtime(void); // + here will be the code to calculate the difference // betweeen $time_one and $time_two Would I get information about my server (parsing time) or would I get some information about the requesters internet connection (how fast will my files get to the user). Both would be pretty important! PS What are the advanced statistics programs out there? I wouldn't mind seeing a sample report (any commercial or non-commercial). Thanks in advance in advance! Yours, Lauri