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rgomez101

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Bandwidth & Stress test

Hi:

We just installed a new T1 line in our office and I would like to fully test it before we put it in production.

The T1 will work as a LAN extension to our remote office. I would like to now how to do kind of a "stress" test where I can see how much data can travel accross and how fast. You know that one is the Theory and other is the reality.

We have implemented not only one but three connections to create a full mesh connection between our 3 offices in Canada.

There was a 1Mbps line between Montreal and Toronto, but the speed was really bad. We increased that to 3Mbps but the users (and the IT department) can not notice any improvement in speed. All the services are centralized in Toronto.

I would like to know how I can test which applications are the one eating the bandwidth. Any help is appreciated.

RG
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prashsax

A simple test, would be to setup a FTP server on one side.
Try and download files from other side.

Must keep different file sizes.

1GB
100MB
10MB
5MB
1MB

Use windows commandline FTP client(As it shows you what is the speed with which the files are downloaded).

Repeat the test, few times and average the results.
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Ok,

FTP tests sounds ok, but I was wondering If I could measure with some tool the traffic travelling accross. We have an In-House developed application which works with MS-SQL server and is very slow even in the central location.

For the PRTG: The routers belong to the ISP and we don't have access to them. I don't have any information about the SNMP settings.

Ideas ?
If you can, you could ask your ISP for the public SNMP string, for your interface.

Where does your bandwidth is terminating. It has to be a router in your office. Then you must have connected that routers Ethernet port to your switch.

the ethernet port of your router will be the gateway to access other office.
If your setup is like this, then you can use port mirroring and put a bandwidth meter to measure the traffic flow.

Please let me know, your network setup. then I will be able to help you more.

Let me ask my partner in the remote office.

In the main office is going from the router to the Firewall directly. What can I do in that case ?

RG
Simple, put a 3 port HUB in between router and firewall.

But, since you have a firewall, and if it is Inhouse. Then you could setup SNMP on firewalls interface as well.

SNMP is a simple network management protocol. It can be used to measure the amount of traffic passing through that inteface.

If you can't enable SNMP on firewall as well. Then all you need to do is to connect a machine on one port of the hub. (Just like a tap inbetween router and firewall).

This machine will then measure the amount of traffic flowing through that link.

Here is a tool to measure Bandwidth.

you can download a trial version to test.
http://www.absolutefuturity.com/BBMonitor.htm
No, you are right,

It ends in a switch:

Dell 3324 in Toronto
Dell 2324 in Vancouver
Dell 2724 in Montreal
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Is the T1 a direct leased line between the two offices, a PVC on a Frame Relay cloud, or is it a connection to the Internet?

If PVC on a Frame Relay cloud, what is the CIR and what is the link speed and CIR at the other locations.

Was the 1MBps (upgraded to 3) a direct leased line, a PVC on a Frame Relay cloud, or Internet?  If you tripled the bandwidth and nobody notices then the problem may not be network related, but server/application related.

What type of switches/router do you have within your network?

Even though the link provider owns the router, you own something that passes traffic to the router and you should be able to get an idea of the bandwidth used.  However to isolate the type of traffic (HTTP vs. Samba) or specific applications/hosts, would require something other than PTRG.
All these lines are leased lines . That is PVCs using MPLS

I'm looking into the contracts to see what is the CIR. If I recall correctly, it should be now 10 Mbps between Toronto and Vancouver, and 3 Mbps between Toronto and Montreal.

We need to make sure the lines are clear because we are deploying VoIP in two months from now.

Raul
prashsax :

The BBMonitor requires a License.  I was testing a trialware of networx.

Raul.
This means you have 13+ Mbps into your Toronto office?

I hope you are talking to the MPLS provider.  They can setup QOS for you so that VoIP traffic get priority, at least they should be able to.  If they do it correctly then VoIP will not have any issues.
Yes, they will provide QoS but we are concern about the current traffic IN addition to the new VoIP traffic.

I just don't want to sit down and cross my arms waiting for the ISP to tell me everything is Ok, when I clearly see they are not meeting the expectations.

Raul
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OK, time for me to work. I installed a PTRG traffic grapher. I am trying to sniff the traffic.

They do not provide the minimum help, so let's no talk about reports.

I will write with an update tomorrow.

Thanks,
RG
With PRTG I was able to view the traffic in the switches.  With the FTP test I'm going to be able to measure the real deal.

I also discovered we have only 2 T1, meaning we have only a 3Mbps connection and not a 10Mbps as the ISP said. I just arrived to the company so I am just lerning the network infraestructure.

Thanks guys for your help.

Raul.
I would verify what you have at all sites, as I am sure you are going to do.  If you have 3 Mbps at each location then the central site could be a bottle neck.  Even though Vancuover and Montreal are in different time zones, they overlap for the majority of the day for a normal business day.