LAN & WAN How To

In the last part of our series, we'll use Jperf results to make changes to a PC to improve network performance.

Meet Iperf's graphical cousin: Jperf.

Updated - Iperf is a network performance tool used for measuring the bandwidth and the performance of TCP and UDP data flows between two endpoints.

With all the component and configuration options for constructing and managing a small network, it is important to numerically evaluate network performance. Performance measurements provide facts and statistics about the amount of data on your network and identify opportunities for improvement. Without measuring performance, the only indications of functionality are simple up and down states, as well as subjective statements based on user experience.

In my last two posts on this subject, I've covered some of the basics and tools used to perform packet captures, highlighting the well known software from Wireshark. In this installment, I'm going to show how I used Wireshark packet captures to solve a real network problem.

Using packet papture software like Wireshark is a useful troubleshooting technique that can be used to examine packets and gather details to help find the root of a problem. In my previous post, I talked a little bit about how to use Wireshark and walked through some steps to run a simple packet capture from a PC. This time, I'm going to go a bit deeper into the how to for doing packet captures.