[ NNSquad ] Re: Using BitTorrent to detect network problems

[Barry Gold <bgold@matrix-consultants.com>]

Lauren Weinstein wrote:
> Using BitTorrent to detect network problems
>
> http://www.aqualab.cs.northwestern.edu/projects/NEWS.html
>   

This brings up an interesting question: when I see lousy network 
performance, how do I determine where the problem is?

Last night was an example.  I was able to determine that I had a network 
connection (release/renew DHCP address worked properly), but things were 
so slow as to be almost unusable.   A 400x200 image took many minutes to 
download.

I'm on Time Warner cable (used to be Comcast, but we know what happened 
to that).  Even given the shared nature of my connection, it seems 
unlikely that enough of my neighbors are downloading at 2 AM to cause 
the problems I saw.

So that leaves other potential problems: poor signal quality downgrading 
my available bandwidth, network outages somewhere up the line (not _too_ 
far away, as I had problems with several different host on networks -- 
208.100.30.xxx, 66.xxx.xxx.xxx, 208.122.202.xxx.

Or perhaps the dreaded Bit Torrent is clogging my upstream connection, 
preventing my ACKs from getting through?  I hate to jump to conclusions, 
but I would like to get something _vaguely_ approaching the service I'm 
paying for.

Any suggestions?  Something a little more powerful than tracert?