Need software for testing LAN Bandwidth

[MaestroG]

Does anyone have suggestions for some free or cheap software tools/utilities for testing throughput and bandwidth from the desktop to the server in a LAN?

If you want background on what I need and why: I am trying to convince my boss who will need to convince his bosses that the 100MB hubs we have aren't cutting it for the Engineering department. Essentially, everyone in Engineering, Customer Service and Estimating are all connected at 100MB to a 100MB hub that is connected to another 100MB hub in the server room via 100FX fiber. Simply put, about 25 people are sharing a 100MB connection to the servers and the Engineers running 3-D AutoCAD store all their assemblies on servers. I see this as a major bottle neck, but I need hard numbers based on good (software) tests to backup my claims or nothing will ever happen.

I realize there are some very good hardware devices that will do exactly what I am looking for, but they are way too expensive. Furthermore, I am trying to avoid hiring a consultant just yet...that is if I can find and sucessfully use some good software tools.

Thanks
G

 

[Voyager1]

Go out to

http://www.download.com

and search on "Sniffer". It shows several that I have heard of before, and most are either shareware or freeware.

You may also get some of what you need using Microsoft's Network Monitor, which somes with NT.

Hope this helps... - Bill

"You can get anything you want out of life, if you'll just help enough other people get what they want" - Zig Ziglar

 

[MasterRacker]

1. You could go to Lucent.com and get VitalAgentIT. It's a free traffic monitoring app that shows all your connections in realtime.

2. Do your hubs have any kind of management? ie:can you telnet into the hub and look at port statistics?

3. If your drawings are all stored on one server, even getting 100BT switches with 1Gb fiber backbone between them will leave a bottleneck at the single 100Bt link coming out of the server itself. you woul also need to either do fiber out of the server or, if possible add 1 or 2 NICS and link them to get a 200-300Mb channel out of the server itself. Jeff

If everything is coming your way, you're on the wrong side of the road...

 

[wybnormal]

Solarwinds.net has something called "Wankiller" that will apply a specific load to the LAN/WAN with the type of packet you ask for or a mix. The demo is good for 30 days and even if you buy it, it's cheap at 700ish plus all the other "stuff" you get with it. Most of us router guys swear by it as a "must have" suite of tools.

As far as sniffer goes, you can look at the loads etc using expert advisor. And you could capture a certain data stream and play it back in the lab to experiment around with equipment settings. SNiffer can also act as a RMON probe for certain switches ( mostly cisco).

Mike S
"Diplomacy; the art of saying 'nice doggie' till you can find a rock" Wynn Catlin

 

[Guest_imported]

If you need to measure bandwidth, use the free analogx software called netstat Live. It will show you a graphic with the values for transmission and reception from your NIC. There you will show them if the workstation is sending and receiving data at 100Mbps or not.

http://www.analogx.com

hope it´s what you are looking for