Testing network speed

[Ayaz]

Does anyone know of a utility that can test the speed at which a workstation is connecting to the network? I know network connections will say what the max speed possible is like 1Gbps or 100Mbps but Im after a utlity that will tell me exactly the speed at which it connects at any given moment. For example if a ws is connected to a 100mbps full duplex switch and its only doing 3mbps, id like a utlity that will say, 3mbps.

[srochford]

Task manager? Performance monitor?

The first is very quick - just press Shift Ctrl ESC to bring it up and then click networking. Start copying a big file (something like an ISO image) and just watch.

Perfmon will give more info - click on the + to add a counter, find network interface and then add (eg) bytes received per second and bytes sent per second. Make sure you choose the correct network card if more than one is available.

You can also write a trivial batch file to give you some useful info:

set file=\\server\share\bigfile.iso
dir %file% > %temp%\speed.log
echo | time >> %temp%\speed.log
copy %file% %temp% /y
echo | time >> %temp%\speed.log

You'll end up with a file called speed.log in your temp folder; it will contain the name and size of the file and the start and end times (the echo | time is just a crude way of getting the time logged to the file; you can use time /t but it only gives whole minutes) - a quick bit of maths on the 3 numbers will give you the speed in Megabytes per second (or whatever other unit you want)

[CyberNerd]

here is a method to test network speed with netcat.
The instruction is for *nix but netcat is cross platform
Using netcat to test network speed

it took me a while to find the windows version though...
Netcat 1.1 Windows Version - Forums

[spc-rocket]

Does anyone know of a utility that can test the speed at which a workstation is connecting to the network? I know network connections will say what the max speed possible is like 1Gbps or 100Mbps but Im after a utlity that will tell me exactly the speed at which it connects at any given moment. For example if a ws is connected to a 100mbps full duplex switch and its only doing 3mbps, id like a utlity that will say, 3mbps.

You could also use iperf.

NLANR/DAST : Iperf - The TCP/UDP Bandwidth Measurement Tool

Ash.

[plexer]

qcheck from IXIA.

Ben

[SimpleSi]

Just was going to ask a similiar question and this thread popped up as being suitable - isn't Edugeek nice

Simon

[Marci]

Install TheDude from Microtik (free), drop on your switch, drop on your workstation, link the two and set the link's snmp monitor to the port on the switch that either the source or destination are connected to, start the copy, watch the figures, hover for graph. Once you've gotten more familiar with it, do your core switches and server links and monitor the lot in realtime. S'a damn fine tool (which I keep banging on about, I know).

I can max out both 10/100 and gigabit connections copying from mac to x-server, or freebsd workstation to x-server... not found a PC yet capable of doing the same.

[mac_shinobi]

I can max out both 10/100 and gigabit connections copying from mac to x-server, or freebsd workstation to x-server... not found a PC yet capable of doing the same.

Is that good or bad ?

[Marci]

Good for the Macs/BSD based OSs, an embarassment for the PCs.

[zag]

There is a windows gadget called network meter, just add that and copy a large file to the file server

[SimpleSi]

There is a windows gadget called network meter,

I'd forgotton about that

(And I use it on KS1 computers instead of normal windows net icon so I can tell if the networks up and running but it stops the little ones disabling the network! - just forgot it does logging as well! - Ta )

Si

I was tired yesterday