[mike_electron]

Any recommendations on the best network monitoring tool? We have problems in intermittent internet connections, I want to know how to check if these is from our side or from the ISP?

[chuckhole]

For the free tools, try Wireshark at Wireshark: Go deep.. It is a protocol analyzer.

How do you want to monitor your connection? Are you looking for connection statistics? Speed tests?

[mike_electron]

For the free tools, try Wireshark at Wireshark: Go deep.. It is a protocol analyzer.

How do you want to monitor your connection? Are you looking for connection statistics? Speed tests?

Sometimes we have some problems on the internet. Sometimes it becomes very slow and sometimes it goes back to normal. Is there a way where I can monitor that one and check what is the cause, could it be due to ISP or from our side?

[KISS]

Before you do anything try pinging your router with a packet length of 8192 nonstop until ^C'ed and look at the errors.

Usually finds gross errors which are probably cabling related.

[mike_electron]

Before you do anything try pinging your router with a packet length of 8192 nonstop untill ^C'ed and look at the errors.

Usually finds gross errors which are probably cabling related.

Could you show me how?

[KISS]

From the CMD prompt ping 192.168.1.1 -t -l 8192

-l (lower case L) is packet length
-t is forever
192.168.1.1 replace with the address of your router

[mike_electron]

From the CMD prompt ping 192.168.1.1 -t -l 8192

-l (lower case L) is packet length
-t is forever
192.168.1.1 replace with the address of your router

What should I look for after executing this one?

[KISS]

It will look something like:

Pinging 10.93.119.123 with 8192 bytes of data:

Reply from 10.93.119.123: bytes=8192 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 10.93.119.123: bytes=8192 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 10.93.119.123: bytes=8192 time<1ms TTL=128
Reply from 10.93.119.123: bytes=8192 time<1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 10.93.119.123:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms

You want to pay attention to "time" and if there are any 'timeout errors".

Usually if you reduce the packet size, it gets better.

[chuckhole]

Unless you are paying about $300 to $500 a month or higher for an Internet connection, it is likely that you do not have a dedicated business class connection. Most inexpensive connections are shared bandwidth and will burst at or even above the rated speeds but will not consistently stay at the rated speeds.

All things being considered, your rated connection is only for the "last mile". Once you hit the Internet backbone, there are no guarantees that your response times will be at your rated speeds to all locations and all web sites.