ZDNet IT Resource: A bandwidth lifesaver [using iperf]

“In my last column I showed you how adjusting TCP window size
settings can dramatically affect network throughput. In this column
I’ll show you how to download and install the free Iperf network
performance testing tool from the National Laboratory for Applied
Network Research (NLANR). I’ll also walk you through a real-life
case study to show you how using the information provided by Iperf
can help you bust those network performance bottlenecks.”

“A quick review: Iperf is a performance measurement tool for
TCP/IP and UDP/IP that provides network throughput information and
statistics on jitter, packet loss, and maximum segment and
transmission unit sizes. It was designed to overcome limitations in
older tools such as ttcp and nettest.“

“Iperf is available in both source code and binary formats. If
you downloaded a binary distribution, use the appropriate tool (rpm
if you’re running Linux) to install Iperf. Otherwise, download the
source code from NLANR and uncompress it using the command tar xvfz
iperf-1.1.1.tar.gz. Change to the iperf-1.1.1 directory and type
make install.”

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