tracking network slowdown

Sorry to be off topic, but I thought everyone here might be able to
offer some help.

Hello, I am trying to find a way to measure network speed without
purchasing any special software. We are a company of about 90 PCs so
my budget for software items like this is pretty much none. We are 2
separate buildings connected with a fiber cable. It seems everyone in
building 2 is slower then in building 1. So I was considering going
around from various locations and trying to measure the speed to try
and find if I have a switch or something that is bogging down my
network. The only thing I have thought of is to ping an IP of 1 main
switch or something and look at the milli-seconds it takes to respond
but that has never seemed to be consistent. Any one have any
suggestions? Thanks.

Re: tracking network slowdown

scott wrote in news:1190655949.627874.317630
@n39g2000hsh.googlegroups.com:
>
> Hello, I am trying to find a way to measure network speed without
> purchasing any special software. We are a company of about 90 PCs so
> my budget for software items like this is pretty much none. We are 2
> separate buildings connected with a fiber cable. It seems everyone in
> building 2 is slower then in building 1. So I was considering going
> around from various locations and trying to measure the speed to try
> and find if I have a switch or something that is bogging down my
> network. The only thing I have thought of is to ping an IP of 1 main
> switch or something and look at the milli-seconds it takes to respond
> but that has never seemed to be consistent. Any one have any
> suggestions? Thanks.


You might give this one a try:

http://www.ixiacom.com/solutions/display?skey=qcheck


--
Rick Simon rsimon@cris.com

Include "spam(trap)key" somewhere in the
body of any email to avoid spam filters.

Re: tracking network slowdown

scott wrote:
> Sorry to be off topic, but I thought everyone here might be able to
> offer some help.
>
> Hello, I am trying to find a way to measure network speed without
> purchasing any special software. We are a company of about 90 PCs so
> my budget for software items like this is pretty much none. We are 2
> separate buildings connected with a fiber cable. It seems everyone in
> building 2 is slower then in building 1. So I was considering going
> around from various locations and trying to measure the speed to try
> and find if I have a switch or something that is bogging down my
> network. The only thing I have thought of is to ping an IP of 1 main
> switch or something and look at the milli-seconds it takes to respond
> but that has never seemed to be consistent. Any one have any
> suggestions? Thanks.
>



Well if you want more specific advise you need to provide more details,
but I would start by figuring out what traffic is slow on the network,
make sure you separate possible DNS issues from your analysis.

I would start by installing wireshark on one of the PCs and observe the
traffic this should show why the problem is occurring to determine the
cause you may need to go look at firewall logs or other places.





If you don't want to install any software on the PCs you might look at
one of the Live CD distro's, for this type of stuff I like Backtrack




If you are using this in a corporate environment you should get approval
as there are pen testing tools on the CD


Hope this helps get you started

John