Monitor Net Traffic
Mark Haney
mhaney at ercbroadband.org
Tue Sep 9 15:30:14 UTC 2008
Derek Broughton wrote:
> Mark Haney wrote:
>
>> John Hubbard wrote:
>>> Here is my problem; I want to know what kind of bandwidth my isp is
>>> really giving me. I have looked at a few different speed tests and I
>>> get different results from them, and they often seem far faster than
>>> what I actually get. Now I realize that the bottle neck might be coming
>>> from whoever is serving the content, but I am not sure.
>>> So the question is; is there any way to generate any kind of report of
>>> my bandwidth? I only care about how fast I am able to get data when I
>>> am trying to download it. Often the connection is not being used at all
>>> and I don't want to factor that in.
>>> Any thoughts?
>>>
>> I deal with this a lot, working for a regional ISP. The problem with
>> most speed test sites is that they preload (some not all) the file they
>> use to test (be it an image or whatever) to exaggerate the results.
>
> Exaggerate? It's just common sense. If the file isn't preloaded, you're
> testing server speed as well as network speed. You want to reduce as much
> as possible any effect the server has on the connection.
Not exactly, it's preloaded in the sense that the browser will being
loading the test file before performing the test. It's a fairly common
trick. (That's not the most accurate way to explaining it, but it's
better than nothing.) I am certainly not talking caching the test file
in the RAM of the testing server.
>
>> This
>> has been a common problem I've seen over the last few years.
>>
>> It's been our choice to have a ftp server sitting on our end of the
>> network and have the customer ftp down various size empty files to test
>> the bandwidth used.
>
> Which is certainly a fine test of the combination of your network and your
> FTP server - all ISPs should offer such service.
>
> <smart-ass comment>of course, empty files can't really have different
> sizes</smart-ass comment>
Yeah, it was kinda smart assed, but accurate. The files are just 'dd'
created files with nothing but zeroes in them. Empty from a content
standpoint, not a size standpoint.
I only point this out so Karl doesn't come screaming back pointing out
that I should be more exact in my terminology.
--
Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt -- Caius Julius Caesar
Mark Haney
Sr. Systems Administrator
ERC Broadband
(828) 350-2415
Call (866) ERC-7110 for after hours support
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