Measuring Throughput - Cool Tool 1

[mpennac]

Many times when I go out on a job to troubleshoot a problem the question of network throughput comes up. This has been especially true when looking at the difference in network performance when upgrading from one network type to another.

One of the tools that I have been using for many years is QCheck from NetIQ. There are many nice features about this tool, most notably, it is free. You install a small sofware "endpoint" on the machine at each end of the connection you want to test. Then using the QCheck application, you tell the endpoints how much data you want to transfer. This can be up to 1 megabyte. After you run the test, the applicaton will report back the bits per second that could be transferred over the link.

This tool can be used for isolating bottlenecks in communications, the impact of increasing TCP Windowsize, or even the performance of the new wireless network you just installed.

There are endpoints available for a number of different operating systems, so if you are one of the many moving away from Windows, you can still take advantage of this tool.

Hope this helps you out!

mpennac

http://www.netprospecialists.com

 

[mpennac]

Oops, I forgot the link,

http://www.qcheck.net.

mpennac

 

[Grenage]

It asks you to fill in 5000 questions of irrelevant information then the download link doesn't work ?

 

[janpraet]

button works fine hier

 

[Grenage]

lol just me then

 

[patrckb]

I fully agree with mpennac!

I've used QCheck many times in self-defence mode to prove that "the network" was not slow. The packets were flowing fast, it was just the s/w on one of the ends was being sluggesh.

I've also used it when I found that there WAS a network slowness. It turned out to be a duplex mismatch between the client PC and the switch.

Try QCheck, you'll like it!

Patrick

Patrick Bartkus, CCNP, CNX, SCM Sr. Network Engineer
GA Dept of Labor IT Network Services
If truth were not absolute, how could there be justice?