Kitz Forum

Internet => General Internet => Topic started by: aesmith on November 19, 2015, 07:25:48 PM

Title: Application to send data at known speed
Post by: aesmith on November 19, 2015, 07:25:48 PM

Hi,

I was wondering if there's a test application which transfers data at a pre-set rate, rather that your normal speed test which runs as fast as possible then reports the speed achieved.   The reason, Plusnet have a bit of a thing about upload speeds, I see a number of people including ourselves where Plusnet are excusing poor response on the basis that people are "uploading".  Unfortunately neither my existing router nor the Plusnet supplied one support SNMP making it difficult to measure instantaneous speeds, however some of the figures that they've given me suggest sustained rates of around 190k bits per second.  However hourly data doesn't show the peaks so I can't quite dig my heels in and say it shouldn't degrade at 1/2 the line rate.

What I'd like to be able to do is run some tests with known upload data rates - if the line continues to perform with rates of up to say 380k or so before RTTs start to go through the roof then that's all fine.  If the line falls on it's knees when uploading at 300k or less then that shows a bottleneck elsewhere.

Thanks,  Tony S

Title: Re: Application to send data at known speed
Post by: Dray on November 19, 2015, 07:57:16 PM

Netlimiter? http://www.netlimiter.com/products/nl4

Title: Re: Application to send data at known speed
Post by: jelv on November 19, 2015, 08:26:49 PM

Monitor the instantaneous transfer speed and watch to see if upload is high when you see issues?

https://www.softperfect.com/products/networx/

Title: Re: Application to send data at known speed
Post by: ejs on November 19, 2015, 09:37:10 PM

It's not really fine, it's bufferbloat, and it may be a common problem affecting many different routers, but the Plusnet 2704N seems especially bad at it.

I haven't tried it but I expect you could use iperf, of course you'd need a server somewhere to upload the test data to.

Title: Re: Application to send data at known speed
Post by: aesmith on November 19, 2015, 09:37:30 PM

Thanks, will look into "netlimiter", looks like that might do the trick.

Title: Re: Application to send data at known speed
Post by: AArdvark on November 20, 2015, 02:07:29 AM

@Dray @Jelv
Thanks both look useful tools.

Title: Re: Application to send data at known speed
Post by: aesmith on November 22, 2015, 07:23:19 PM

Quote from: ejs on November 19, 2015, 09:37:10 PM

It's not really fine, it's bufferbloat

There is that to consider as well, but first I want to be sure that the service itself isn't brought to it's knees by uploads below line rate.  As for the router, I'm currently using the same Linksys WAG320N that I used with my previous provider on the same line, and it certainly seems the case that uploads hit Plusnet performance harder than that of some other ISPs.

Tony S