On Sat, 01 Jan 2011 20:56:14 -0800, David Nebenzahl
wrote:

On 1/1/2011 4:19 PM Jeff Liebermann spake thus:

Incidentally, if you want to do useful performance measuring, with
clues as to what's going on behind the magic curtain, I suggest you
look at IPerf and JPerf.
http://openmaniak.com/iperf.php
http://code.google.com/p/xjperf/

Regarding that: I looked at the first site and am intrigued, but don't
understand something. I see you need a host and client to make this
work, which makes sense, and as you point out you might (or might not)
be able to use someone else's web-based host; but if not, what then?

If you can't find an iperf server, you're stuck. I did some quick
Googling and couldn't find one that's publicly accessible.

I use IPerf and JPerf mostly for local wireless testing. I setup one
machine to act as a server, and test thruput via wireless under
various conditions. For testing a dialup connection, you would need
an IPerf server located at your ISP or somewhere on the internet. I
could set a temporary server here, at my house, but you would be
limited to my 384Kbit/sec DSL outgoing thruput. Probably good enough
for a dialup modem test. If you want to try that, please let me know.

Can
you somehow set up both host and client on your computah and have the
packets make a "round trip"? (Although that would be a problem since I
notice my upload speeds are a lot slower than download.) How would I use
this to test my dial-up connection?

No. It's not possible to use one computer for both a client and
server. Well, actually, I haven't tried it, but I suspect there will
be problems.

Also, do I want to test using TCP, UDP or both? Which are used when I
talk to my ISP?

Do TCP and forget about UDP for now. UDP testing is tricky and
sometimes results in bizarre results. TCP is reliable.



--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558