[TriLUG] Request for help: residential internet service provider options.

[Thomas Delrue via TriLUG]

I'll second iperf as a tool.
Is there guidance from TriLUG as to whether or not iperf can be run on
pilot as the second endpoint?

On 05/25/2016 11:35 AM, Matt Flyer via TriLUG wrote:
> Good Question,
> 
> Most of the quality tests seem to be oriented on one of a handful of
> testing sights for upload, download, and ping, which may not give you the
> best results; like you seem to be experiencing with netalyzer.
> 
> The first one that comes to mind is MTR, which should show you what node
> hops are slow and perhaps let you pinpoint the exact problem spot.
> 
> Other things that come to mind include using WGET to try to download a
> large file and see what the transfer rate is or if it speeds up and slows
> down or even stalls.  You could run this at various times to compare.
> 
> Have you looked at the diagnostic output for your network interfaces?  For
> example, are they showing a large packet drop or large number of errors?
> 
> Are there any services you could connect to that would remain active and
> inform you if you have a dropped connection?  E.g. log into a shell at
> Pilot or another machine and set the SSH to send a packet every 45 seconds
> or so to keep the link open.  If the connection dies, you should know it. 
> Similarly, I have a server connected to Jungledisk and I get an alert in
> the logs when TWC drops out (which they do much more often than I would
> like).
> 
> Some searching on this subject brought up a tool called iperf
> (https://github.com/esnet/iperf) which is supposed to test quality via 
> bandwidth, delay jitter, and datagram loss.  The downside is that it
> requires a connection on two ends, though I am sure someone, including
> myself, would be willing to help you run this test, which might be good in
> that it would be fairly local to the area but still cross ISP boundaries.
> 
> Last, this fairly lengthy Linux How To has a lot of suggestions for
> troubleshooting various network issues, including DNS through standard
> command line tools and mentions the diagnostic switches.  Perhaps it will
> have some suggestions that will help you collect data:
> http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch04_:_Simple_Network_Troubleshooting
> 
> One of the big things I have discovered with dealing with ISP problems is
> that their support group likes to engage in transaction management in
> order to make you go away.  You often times need to hit them upside the
> head with actual data and evidence PROVING that THEY have a problem on
> their end. (It reminds me of when I kept getting inbound RFC 1918 packets
> FROM the TWC modem, which should never have been routed to me in the first
> place).  They denied, denied, denied until I showed them repeated logs
> with MAC addresses and proved to them that I had no devices in that IP
> range on my LAN.
> 
> 
>> Hi Matt-
>>
>> Can you suggest any alternatives?
>>
>> I'm looking for something that can be called from a command line, but also
>> lightweight enough to complete successfully under these conditions.
>>
>> I've tried the CLI version of Netalyzr (
>> http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu/index.html) but it reports so many
>> problems it's hard to pinpoint any corrective action i can take.  Plus it
>> always complains it can't measure downstream bandwidth because the packets
>> are blocked.