Question

Application to simulate network traffic for network stress test

Asked by: wparrott

I'm looking for an application, preferrably a free one, that will allow me to simulate traffic on my network to test my WAN links. I will be testing my links one at a time and all together. Please relate any experiences working with a suggestion.

Thanks

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Asked On
2004-08-26 at 20:04:55ID21109255
Tags

network

,

simulate

,

stress

,

traffic

,

test

Topic

Miscellaneous Networking

Participating Experts
4
Points
125
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: magus123Posted on 2004-08-26 at 20:10:22ID: 11909553

The question heres what kind of traffic do you want to simulate.

port # 's

 

by: wparrottPosted on 2004-08-26 at 20:22:55ID: 11909607

I'm looking for something to simulate typical network traffic. I'm running a Win2k3 AD network. I have Win2k, WinXP, and a few Win9x clients. I'd like to simulate traffic such as web browsing, file transfers, e-mail, DHCP requests, DNS querys, Client-Server authentication, etc.

I'm attempting to troubleshoot a problem with a particular WAN link but plan to test all links at a later date.

I've used QCheck to test maximum throughput and What's Up Gold's throughput tester, but I am looking for something that goes beyond a network ping test.

 

by: pseudocyberPosted on 2004-08-27 at 04:25:32ID: 11911618

I use a program called "WAN Killer" that is part of the Solar Winds Engineers Edition toolset.

 

by: wparrottPosted on 2004-08-27 at 20:14:16ID: 11919181

Thanks for the responses. While both of these will do throughput testing, I am trying to locate something that emulates workstation activity. So far I've only seen one product that will this but that appears to be a very expensive product and there is no evaluation available. I'm going to leave the question open for a couple of days to see if I receive any other responses before awarding points.

Thanks again to both of you.

 

by: passmarkPosted on 2004-08-27 at 20:54:37ID: 11919269

Sure.

I assume you realise that web browsing, file transfers, e-mail, DHCP requests, DNS querys etc.. all get put inside a TCP packet and sent off using TCP? So from a testing point of view, if a WAN link works for TCP, all these other services will also work.

More interesting would be running services that use different protocols, like video streaming on UDP or NetBIOS.

David



 

by: ibradshawPosted on 2004-08-28 at 16:08:14ID: 11923634

Have a look here

http://www.phoenixdatacom.com/traffic-generation-network-simulation.html#sim

or type

simulate network wan traffic for software testing

into google. plenty of options.

I'd suggest making sure you get one that 'records' network traffic and can they plays that back to you repeatedly so that this simulates your actual conditions, rather than you having to specify amount of traffic etc. the good ones aren't cheap though...

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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