Streamyx

If you are in a quandry over how to test the performance of your computer network you're in luck. A little research lead me to an amazing set of tools online availabe to everyone as a free service. You can pretty much measure or analyze anything broadband related with the tools provided via the online techie community forum at SpeedGuide.net. Whatever it is you need to look at.....performance or design related.....you can get it done with the free SpeedGuide tools. Nice little resource you should take advantage of.

Here's a list of what they have available to you:

* SG TCP/IP Analyzer

The SpeedGuide TCP/IP Analyzer is a program designed to display your Internet connection parameters, extracted directly from TCP packets sent by your browser to their server. The Analyzer program then displays recommendations based on the settings extracted from the headers of those packets.

* SG TCP Optimizer

The TCP Optimizer is a free Windows program designed to help optimize your Internet connection. The program makes it easy to find the best MaxMTU value, test latency and tweak the important Registry Parameters. The Optimizer can be helpful with tuning any Internet connection type, from dialup to Gigabit+ :) If you need help with the program, check the TCP Optimizer Documentation, read their broadband tweaking articles and the related FAQs, and/or visit their Forums.

* SG Security Scanner

The SpeedGuide.net Security Scanner audits certain ports on your computer detecting potential vulnerabilities.

Note: Some firewalls might log a potential attack from their server if you choose to test the security of your system since they are testing for vulnerabilities.

* SG Speed Test

A quick download speed test to estimate your connection speed at the time.

* SG Network Tools

The SG Network tools section includes many common network tools such as PING, TRACEROUTE, WHOIS, etc.

* SG Bits/Bytes Conversion Calculator

The Bits/Bytes calculator is a useful tool for quickly converting bits/bytes, etc. It takes into consideration the different conventons while calculating data communication rates and storage space.

* SG RWIN/BDP Calculator

The RWIN/BDP calculator can be used to estimate TCP Window values, based on the Bandwidth

*Delay Product (BDP for short).

It can also calculate maximum bandwidth based on RWIN and latency values, and perform a number of different conversions as well.

Drop in at SpeedGuide.net and test out (no pun intended) these tools. At the very least you may learn something about your current system needs or performance. While you're there I suggest you also check out their community forum. Great place to ask questions and get answers for whatever broadband issues you may have.

Michael is the owner of FreedomFireCommunications....including Business-VoIP-Solution and DS3-Bandwidth.com. Michael also authors Broadband Nation where you're always welcome to drop in and catch up on the latest BroadBand news, tips, and insights.