testing network connection speed

[projector1]

i was just think the other day, what is the performance like on the various network segments around the site. What do you folks in ICT support land use to test the network connection speeds. I have thought on just timing how long it takes to download a 100 mb file to a workstation.
Is there any tools or processes you guys use that i can utilise?

[plexer]

http://www.ixiacom.com/solutions/display?skey=qcheck

Qcheck will help.

Ben

[Geoff]

Linux box with Bing installed:

root@proxy:/var/log/squid# bing proxy stmichaels01
BING    proxy.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk (127.0.1.1) and stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk (10.81.104.2)
        44 and 108 data bytes (1024 bits)
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 39.385Mbps 0.026ms 0.025391us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.286Mbps 0.056ms 0.054688us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.618Mbps 0.055ms 0.053711us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.286Mbps 0.056ms 0.054688us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.618Mbps 0.055ms 0.053711us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.286Mbps 0.056ms 0.054688us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.618Mbps 0.055ms 0.053711us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.286Mbps 0.056ms 0.054688us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 17.655Mbps 0.058ms 0.056641us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 17.965Mbps 0.057ms 0.055664us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.286Mbps 0.056ms 0.054687us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.618Mbps 0.055ms 0.053711us/bit
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk: 18.286Mbps 0.056ms 0.054687us/bit

--- proxy.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk statistics ---
bytes   out    in   dup  loss   rtt (ms): min       avg       max   std dev
   4430853483085348          0%         0.021     0.023     1.713     0.003
  10830853483085348          0%         0.020     0.022     1.474     0.002

--- stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk statistics ---
bytes   out    in   dup  loss   rtt (ms): min       avg       max   std dev
   4430853473085347          0%         0.169     0.188    20.570     0.157
  10830853473085347          0%         0.225     0.243   104.665     0.165

--- estimated link characteristics ---
host                              bandwidth       ms
stmichaels01.st-michaels-ce23.lancsngfl.ac.uk    18.286Mbps       0.148