network analysis

[Terri]

Could someone recommend software for beginners to analyze a network? Our
company is having trouble with it's WAN and I would like to learn about how
to check it for problems. Any suggestions?

[Patrick Klos]

Post by Terri
Could someone recommend software for beginners to analyze a network? Our
company is having trouble with it's WAN and I would like to learn about how
to check it for problems. Any suggestions?

That depends largely on what kind of problems you're having and how much
network expertise you have at your disposal? (not to mention what kind of
budget you have for this?)

Network Physics (http://www.networkphysics.com/) appears to have some nice
tools for collecting traffic information and drilling down to who is doing
what? Don't know about prices, but they had a pretty impressive demo at
InterOp.

========= For LAN/WAN Protocol Analysis, check out PacketView Pro! =========
Patrick Klos Email: ***@klos.com
Klos Technologies, Inc. Web: http://www.klos.com/
==== I don't think infinity is as big as it seems - P.Klos, 20-Mar-2005 ====

[Terri]

Our remote sites are connected via 56k frame relay and my boss wonders why
everyone is complaining that their email attachments take forever to open.
Someone has her convinced that there should be no problem. I would like to
be able to look at the traffic and learn bandwidth utilization.

Post by Patrick Klos

Post by Terri
Could someone recommend software for beginners to analyze a network? Our
company is having trouble with it's WAN and I would like to learn about how
to check it for problems. Any suggestions?

That depends largely on what kind of problems you're having and how much
network expertise you have at your disposal? (not to mention what kind of
budget you have for this?)
Network Physics (http://www.networkphysics.com/) appears to have some nice
tools for collecting traffic information and drilling down to who is doing
what? Don't know about prices, but they had a pretty impressive demo at
InterOp.
========= For LAN/WAN Protocol Analysis, check out PacketView Pro! =========
Klos Technologies, Inc. Web: http://www.klos.com/
==== I don't think infinity is as big as it seems - P.Klos, 20-Mar-2005 ====

[T. Sean Weintz]

Post by Terri
Our remote sites are connected via 56k frame relay and my boss wonders why
everyone is complaining that their email attachments take forever to open.
Someone has her convinced that there should be no problem. I would like to
be able to look at the traffic and learn bandwidth utilization.

You don't need to analyze this-

point#1 - a 56K frame relay connection is pathetically slow
point#2 - even worse, do you know what the CIR on the frame circuits is?
Dunno about your case, but typically it is 50% of the max rate of the
circuit. In that case the circuit is only garunteed to have 23K
available bandwidth. Not to mention the latency added by adding the
frame relay layer into the mix.

In otherwords, using a 56K frame relay for a site with a 50% CIR is
WORSE that using a single 28.8 modem for the whole site.

No WONDER users are complaining. Shoot your boss and whomever the
numbnutz that "has her convinced that there should be no problem"
happens to be.

If you need to PROVE it to her, best way is to run MRTG. You'll need a
dedicated box running either windows NT (or 2K or XP) or a linux box,
and a lot of patience depending on your skills set.
Look at "www.mrtg.org"

You can see the results a quick and dirty setup can produce (at least MY
quick and dirty setup) at www.hanh-ct.org/mrtgdata.

When I first started at my current job, first thing I did was rip out
our 56K frame garbage and replace all with Pt. to Pt T1 cicuits. We were
able to do that for only $50 a month more per site than frame relay, but
that's beacuse all the remote offices were in the same city as
headquarters. Once you start covering larger distances pt to pt circuits
get real expensive real fast.