Ethereal-users: RE: [Ethereal-users] Using Etheral to pin-point a network throughputproblem

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From: "Visser, Martin" <martin.visser@xxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2005 14:47:49 +1000
As has been said by Scott, Ethereal can't generate traffic.
 
I would :
 
Use Ethereal to cpature and measure 1 cameras traffic at the desired frame rate. Depending on whether the codecs are constant quality or constant bandwidth you may want to make sure you have varied images to view.
 
You can then use this info and use a tool such as iperf to generate appropriate quantities of UDP or TCP traffic. The iperf receiver can give you a general idea of how the network copes. You might also use ethereal to measure a single camera's stream while you load up the network with iperf.
 
Of course you should also make use of the stats available on the network equipment itself looking for various layer 1, 2 or 3 anomolies.


From: ethereal-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ethereal-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of god like
Sent: Tuesday, 12 April 2005 9:08 AM
To: ethereal-users@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Ethereal-users] Using Etheral to pin-point a network throughputproblem

Hi All
 
Getting sent out tomorrow to do some network analysis which I've only done a very little of.
 
Some rental place gave me an ancient version of sniffer pro 3.0.5 on a dinosaur laptop. 
 
 
The problem is that the client has a number of CCTV cameras mainly on 100 mb switches but there may be some 10s or 10 links.
 
When they up the cameras to 25 frames per second they get dropouts - in fact get dropouts at anything above 6.  They've got about 25 cameras and they said they've done 18 camera installs before on 100mbs networks - no worries.
 
So a few Qs: Pointing me to the right bits of the manual would be peachy
(oh and I have to operate in a strictly windows environment)
 
 
- Does ethereal handle switched networks and if so do I have to set anything special up.
 
- Can ethereal generate traffic and do throughput testing if so - how? and if not do people know of any other free tools I can use.  There used to be this thing called Raccoon speed tester that did timed transfers but I can't find it anymore on the web.  I'm guessing if it gets down to some switch not handling the type of packets I'll need something that can throw different packet types.
 
- Reporting - the client wants the problem pin-pointed and proved on paper.
 
- General tips and gotchas
 
- Should I send the sniffer pro back - is it going to give me anything important in this scenario that ethereal won't.
 
Sorry for all the Qs but I've been chucked in the deep end on this one :(


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