testing bandwidth between 2 pc's

eggcup · 30 Dec 2010 at 20:04

As per title really, does anyone know of a free application that can test bandwidth between 2 home pc's?

#Chri5# · 30 Dec 2010 at 20:12

Run an FTP server on one, a FTP client one the other (eg Filezilla). They'll report throughput.

kirkster · 30 Dec 2010 at 20:35

Not aware of any freebies that can do this. If there were many of us network engineers/troubleshooters would be out of a job...

Steve

Qu3 · 30 Dec 2010 at 21:03

Aida32, included is a network benchmark test...

ecksmen · 30 Dec 2010 at 21:30

iperf.exe dead simple to use.

On the "server"

iperf.exe -p 1500 -s

where

-p is the listening port (can be anything not in use)
-s makes it the server

then on the guest

iperf.exe -c 192.168.0.1 -w 1m -p 1500

where

-c makes it the client
192.168.0.1 is the ip or hostname of the iperf machine with -s
-w 1m is a TCP window of 1mb
-p target listening port (can be anything thats not in use, but must match server)

Example -

"server mode"

Code:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6002]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation.  All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>cd..

C:\Windows>cd..

C:\>iperf.exe -s -p 15000
------------------------------------------------------------
Server listening on TCP port 15000
TCP window size: 8.00 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------

Guest

Code:

D:\>iperf.exe -c 192.168.255.201 -w 1m -p 15000
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to 192.168.255.201, TCP port 15000
TCP window size: 1.00 MByte
------------------------------------------------------------
[988] local 192.168.255.48 port 58977 connected with 192.168.255.201 port 15000
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[988]  0.0-10.9 sec  24.6 MBytes  18.9 Mbits/sec

Edit -

http://openmaniak.com/iperf.php

^ better examples. Can be used across platforms.

kirkster · 30 Dec 2010 at 21:37

ecksmen said:
iperf.exe dead simple to use.

On the "server"

iperf.exe -p 1500 -s

where

-p is the listening port.
-s makes it the server

then on the guest

iperf.exe -c 192.168.0.1 -w 1m

where

-c makes it the client
192.168.0.1 is the ip or hostname of the iperf machine with -s
-w 1m is a TCP window of 1mb

Hi ecksmen, yes of course and that works well. My advice above was more in terms of a GUI tool to do something similar. There are some trial offerings from Solarwinds but not sure of any totally free point and shoot GUI type testers between two given endpoints. But your advice would work well for the OP if he is a techie (and I would suppose most of us on this forum are by defiition :cool:

) !!

I would be interested if anyone knew of some Windows/MAC GUI tools that could do this task that were free? I am certainly now aware of any....

Steve

ecksmen · 30 Dec 2010 at 21:43

Check out jperf, I like iperf as there's no install and it just works (copy the .exe to where ever you need it). It may not be suitable for everyone but for just checking a few links periodically its great and quite flexible with the more advanced switches.

Chief Wiggum · 30 Dec 2010 at 23:53

Yep, a second vote for jperf (iperf) here too. I use it all the time to prove that the network is not 'slow'. It's quite good at saturating links too if you ramp the connections up, the gui is ok in jperf, simple enough to get going, plus you can save the results to a csv for graphing into excel later

Only thing I've noticed, if you're using a laptop, make sure it's plugged in. My IBM managed better throughput on mains than on battery running in 'full power' mode...

kirkster · 31 Dec 2010 at 10:50

Brilliant guys - I will check this jperf out. If ot can change the tcp/udp port on the fly as well would be a potential useful DoS tool for customers to be aware of and configure the network to protect against.....

SK

owl101 · 31 Dec 2010 at 14:12

kirkster said:
Brilliant guys - I will check this jperf out. If ot can change the tcp/udp port on the fly as well would be a potential useful DoS tool for customers to be aware of and configure the network to protect against.....

SK

Not really. Two provisos which flatten this plan, one, your outbound bandwidth would need to be higher than your customer's then yeah, you could saturate their bandwidth, but only if you have the server side of iperf listening on an open port and public address which is highly unlikely.

Current DoS and DDoS trends tend to point to an increase application level attacks which abuse the target system's processor resources although the majority of attack are still connection or request floods.

Zarf · 31 Dec 2010 at 15:51

Chief Wiggum said:
Yep, a second vote for jperf (iperf) here too. I use it all the time to prove that the network is not 'slow'. It's quite good at saturating links too if you ramp the connections up.

Don't even need to ramp up the connections if you put in a reasonable window size

It's multiplatform too, the above was from an Intel Gigabit CT on Server 2003 to an onboard Broadcom in my HP Microserver running Solaris.