finding ethernet cards with bad performance

Hi,

does anybody know an easy to know network monitoring tool with which I
can easily find network cards with bad performance?

I am administrating a network of 40 computers and I don't want to test
all the ethernet connections. May be I can even find bad CAT5 cables.

Thanks very much for any hint

Bernd R.

Bernd R. wrote:

> Hi,
>
> does anybody know an easy to know network monitoring tool with which I
> can easily find network cards with bad performance?
>
> I am administrating a network of 40 computers and I don't want to test
> all the ethernet connections. May be I can even find bad CAT5 cables.
>
> Thanks very much for any hint
>
> Bernd R.
Fluke makes all kinds of handy network testing devices
http://www.flukenetworks.com/
--
Marc

On 9 Jun., 10:54, Marc <m...@telenet.be> wrote:
> Bernd R. wrote:
> > Hi,
>
> > does anybody know an easy to know network monitoring tool with which I
> > can easily find network cards with bad performance?
>
> > I am administrating a network of 40 computers and I don't want to test
> > all the ethernet connections. May be I can even find bad CAT5 cables.
>
> > Thanks very much for any hint
>
> > Bernd R.
>
> Fluke makes all kinds of handy network testing deviceshttp://www.flukenetworks.com/
> --
> Marc

Well, that's the easy but expensive way. I was looking for a software
tool. Are there any tools that can make the same. It's not very
understandable that a hardware tool is necessary having various
computers.

Bernd

Bernd R. wrote:

> On 9 Jun., 10:54, Marc <m...@telenet.be> wrote:
>> Bernd R. wrote:
>> > Hi,
>>
>> > does anybody know an easy to know network monitoring tool with which I
>> > can easily find network cards with bad performance?
>>
>> > I am administrating a network of 40 computers and I don't want to test
>> > all the ethernet connections. May be I can even find bad CAT5 cables.
>>
>> > Thanks very much for any hint
>>
>> > Bernd R.
>>
>> Fluke makes all kinds of handy network testing
>> deviceshttp://www.flukenetworks.com/ --
>> Marc
>
> Well, that's the easy but expensive way. I was looking for a software
> tool. Are there any tools that can make the same. It's not very
> understandable that a hardware tool is necessary having various
> computers.
>
> Bernd

I don't know of a software doing cable fault measurements.
with a software you can ping or check broadcast storms on your network,
but it will not tell you that the origin of a problem is a faulty cable or
nic.
Devices like Fluke do cable impedance and reflectometry measurements on the
cables as well.

It may seem cheap at first, because you have to buy the devices, instead of
using a software on an existing PC, but you gain on productivity in the
longer run, at least if you use the device alot.
I work in an ICT company (telecom operator-Internet provider-datacenter
hosting & housing), and all network technicians have Flukes, and they use
it daily for network and datacenter troubleshooting.
I borrowed one occasionally from them to do some troubleshooting myself,
and instead of using a dozen software programs, you let the Fluke device
scan the network, and after 15 minutes, you know what is wrong and where to
find the origin of the fault. so it's very efficient.

I don't think my company would have invested in Flukes as a standard network
troubleshooting tool for all technicians (who also have a laptop) if they
didn't see the need and efficiency of it.

On the other hand if you only occasionally need it, the price tagg may be
high.
--
Marc

Bernd R. wrote:
> On 9 Jun., 10:54, Marc <m...@telenet.be> wrote:
>> Bernd R. wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> does anybody know an easy to know network monitoring tool with which I
>>> can easily find network cards with bad performance?
>>> I am administrating a network of 40 computers and I don't want to test
>>> all the ethernet connections. May be I can even find bad CAT5 cables.
>>> Thanks very much for any hint
>>> Bernd R.
>> Fluke makes all kinds of handy network testing deviceshttp://www.flukenetworks.com/
>> --
>> Marc
>
> Well, that's the easy but expensive way. I was looking for a software
> tool. Are there any tools that can make the same. It's not very
> understandable that a hardware tool is necessary having various
> computers.
>
> Bernd
>
>
Solarwinds on a winblows box maybe ?
something similar and watch throughput on a known file pull/

On 10 Jun., 00:40, Marc <m...@telenet.be> wrote:
> Bernd R. wrote:
> > On 9 Jun., 10:54, Marc <m...@telenet.be> wrote:
> >> Bernd R. wrote:
> >> > Hi,
>
> >> > does anybody know an easy to know network monitoring tool with which I
> >> > can easily find network cards with bad performance?
>
> >> > I am administrating a network of 40 computers and I don't want to test
> >> > all the ethernet connections. May be I can even find bad CAT5 cables.
>
> >> > Thanks very much for any hint
>
> >> > Bernd R.
>
> >> Fluke makes all kinds of handy network testing
> >> deviceshttp://www.flukenetworks.com/--
> >> Marc
>
> > Well, that's the easy but expensive way. I was looking for a software
> > tool. Are there any tools that can make the same. It's not very
> > understandable that a hardware tool is necessary having various
> > computers.
>
> > Bernd
>
> I don't know of a software doing cable fault measurements.
> with a software you can ping or check broadcast storms on your network,
> but it will not tell you that the origin of a problem is a faulty cable or
> nic.
> Devices like Fluke do cable impedance and reflectometry measurements on the
> cables as well.
>
> It may seem cheap at first, because you have to buy the devices, instead of
> using a software on an existing PC, but you gain on productivity in the
> longer run, at least if you use the device alot.
> I work in an ICT company (telecom operator-Internet provider-datacenter
> hosting & housing), and all network technicians have Flukes, and they use
> it daily for network and datacenter troubleshooting.
> I borrowed one occasionally from them to do some troubleshooting myself,
> and instead of using a dozen software programs, you let the Fluke device
> scan the network, and after 15 minutes, you know what is wrong and where to
> find the origin of the fault. so it's very efficient.
>
> I don't think my company would have invested in Flukes as a standard network
> troubleshooting tool for all technicians (who also have a laptop) if they
> didn't see the need and efficiency of it.
>
> On the other hand if you only occasionally need it, the price tagg may be
> high.
> --
> Marc

Well, you've almost convinced me. I'll give it a try. Maybe it's
possible to rent one.

Thanks

Bernd

Hi again,

I found two alternatives which I use together:

1.) Iperf: http://dast.nlanr.net/Projects/Iperf/
measuring TCP and UDP bandwidth performance

2.) Netio: http://www.ars.de/ars/ars.nsf/docs/netio
"measures the net throughput of a network via NetBIOS, TCP and UDP
protocols (Unix only supports TCP and UDP) using various different
packet sizes"

I already tried them and found a bad network card, which was braking
the network.

So I don't need the fluke :-)