Use TCPING to view how your network is performing
TCPING is a unique tool that packs a lot of tools into a
small application. It’s a console application that works like the built-in Windows ping,
but it’s much more powerful and can provide you a lot more information. I use
the version written by Eli Fulkerson from his web site at the following
link. You can use this tool to get a glimpse your network performance.
I’m not going to write a lot about the tool because it can
all be found at that site; however, feel free to comment if you have any questions.
Download the tcping.exe file and place the file in your C:\Windows\System32 folder. Then you will be able to run an Administrative
Command Shell window and run the command form any location.
The Usage is listed on that site and you can also get it from
the command line by typing tcping /?
So, maybe you want to see how your network is performing
between two devices, or just your overall network?
Here is an example of a command line execution
tcping -4 -d -t -j localhost 2638
This would just ping my machine on port 2638 and the
output would come to screen. If you want
to capture that output to a file, he has a mechanism in the tool but I found it
easier to just use some ole DOS knowledge and add some parameters to the end
like follows: (make sure the location in the command window that you have rights to save a file before proceeding)
tcping -4 -d -t -j localhost 2638 >File.txt
When the above is executed the output is written to a
file, and it looks like nothing is happening. If you want you can use Baretail to open the File.txt and watch the
pings. When you want this to stop simply
press Ctrl-C a few times in the window and you should get the statistic summary
also in the file.
Here is the meat of what you are looking for
Ping statistics for 127.0.0.1:2638
93 probes sent.
93 successful,
0 failed. (0.00% fail)
Approximate trip times in milli-seconds: Minimum =
0.231ms, Maximum = 1.431ms, Average = 0.490ms
Jitter: Minimum = 0.002ms, Maximum = 0.919ms, Average =
0.208ms
You want to see all of the probes being successful, less
than 1ms average for trip times and a low average for jitter – if you are
seeing failed probes, higher than 1ms trip times and high jitter averages, you
may want to have a professional take a look at your network. If you see failures you can review the file and it will show you the date and time the failures occurred which may help you pin point what is happening.