network performance testing

[Lowell Gilbert]

"XR" <xr at sh3lls.net> writes:

> I'm considering purchasing  hosting from a provider that says I will have
> a dedicated 10 Mbit connection with burst to 20 Mbit on a FreeBSD box I
> rebuilt to suit my needs.. The network is Multihomed with three other
> providers. However, I'm a skeptic. I went  ahead and purchased for 1 month
> and now want to see if I am actually getting 10 Mbit uplink to the server.
>  I'm looking at iperf to do this, but I also know taking ping/traceroute
> results from remote host to the server can calculate this, but I dont know
> the math. Would anyone using iperf  guide me towards an example, or show
> me the math using ping/traceroute? Or, suggest running any other test?

There's no "math" magic for this.  You can't test bandwidth without
trying to use all of it, and seeing how much you get.