How can I test bandwidth and response times

[Rob Boteler]

I will be creating a 1GB backbone for our internal network next weekend. We are connecting 4 10/100 switches (in separate cabinets) to one a central Gigabit switch, using 1GB Transceivers on the 10/100 switches.

Does anyone know of a good way to test the bandwidth and response times of our backbone before people start using it (Particularly as all the client ports are 10/100)?

[cenk sasmaztin]

can you want choice monitoring your network
(and managemet,reporting etc.)

you can use PCM

http://www.hp.com/rnd/products/management/ProCurve_Manager_Plus/overview.htm

[Gerhard Roets]

http://sourceforge.net/projects/iperf

This is good. But bear in mind there is a lot of factors.

Do not only do TCP tests also do UDP tests. This can go on for hours, so i would recommend reading through iperf faqs online as well. But this should give you a good baseline.

Just bear in mind the one thing about testing and specifically benchmarks is that you create extreme conditions that won't necessarily be seen in real life scenarios.

HTH
gpr