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Network Performance Testing?

Posted by Cliff on from the simulating-bits dept.

ItsMr.Data asks: "Recently, the department I work in has been planning on rolling out a new gigabit backbone network. We have been looking for ways to test network congestion. I am looking for a simple but accurate tool to test different paths through the network. I looked at Iperf, but I wonder what other test setups are out there, and if any are customizable to emulate differing types of traffic, such as streaming media, file sharing traffic, and video conferencing. So, what network performance testing setups do you use?"

3 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Re:MRTG by darnok · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Parent is absolutely right - MRTG's capabilities are top notch, and adding RRDTool enhances it even further.

    I've been an HP Openview consultant in a previous life, and MRTG+RRDTool is at least as good in terms of reporting and data management as anything HP has to offer. On top of that, it's free, simple to set up and doesn't require a lot of grunt to drive it.

  2. Re:MRTG by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Personally, I moved from MRTG/RRD to Cricket with RRDtool, but aye, nothing says 'I know what I'm talking about' like having historical data to point at.

    --
    Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  3. Commercial Load Tests by noah_fense · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I work in a next gen telecommunications testing lab. You gotta look at the big boys:

    ADtech is famous for their ATM test equipment

    IXIA http://www.ixiacom.com/ is a newcomer on the block, but is run by seasoned pros and

    Empirix (formerly hammer) makes loads of application specific test equipment.

    Iperia does a lot of voip testing, but they are more of an ISDN/SS7 test equipment manufacturer.

    -n