Tools for troubleshooting the network performance

xiaofan

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1. Speedtest related

1) OOkla speedtest apps
https://www.speedtest.net/apps
2) OOkla speedtest cli
https://www.speedtest.net/apps/cli
3) Fast.com app or using website
https://fast.com/
4) DSLreports (also testing bufferbloat)
http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest
5) waveform.com (also testing bufferbloat)
https://www.waveform.com/tools/bufferbloat
6) iperf3
https://iperf.fr/iperf-download.php
Newer version of Windows binary:
https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1234695-iperf-3101-windows-build/
https://files.budman.pw/
https://github.com/ar51an/iperf3-win-builds/releases

Public iperf3 server
https://github.com/R0GGER/public-iperf3-servers?tab=readme-ov-file#asia

7) Cloudflare speedtest, not giving best speed but with more info
https://speed.cloudflare.com/?
8) Google Speedtest to check out for Stadia (not for generic speedtest) --> shutdown already
https://projectstream.google.com/speedtest
9) Nvidia Geforce Now speedtest
https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5224
10) Microsoft ntttcp for Windows and Linux
https://github.com/microsoft/ntttcp
https://github.com/microsoft/ntttcp-for-linux

11) Microsoft ctsTraffic for Windows
https://github.com/microsoft/ctsTraffic

12) SGIX SpeedTest
http://speedtest.sgix.sg/
 
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xiaofan

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xiaofan

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ping and routing test
1) ping
2) traceroute
3) tracepath
4) mtr
5) irtt
6) tsping
7) fping

DNS related tools
1) nslookup
2) dig

Network traffic analyzer
1) wireshark
2) tcpdump

More: common Linux networking commands, many of them will work under macOS and some will work under Windows.
https://haydenjames.io/linux-networking-commands-scripts/
  1. aria2 – downloading just about everything. Torrents included.
  2. arpwatch – Ethernet Activity Monitor.
  3. bmon – bandwidth monitor and rate estimator.
  4. bwm-ng – live network bandwidth monitor.
  5. curl – transferring data with URLs. (or try httpie)
  6. darkstat – captures network traffic, usage statistics.
  7. dhclient – Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol Client
  8. dig – query DNS servers for information.
  9. dstat – replacement for vmstat, iostat, mpstat, netstat and ifstat.
  10. ethtool – utility for controlling network drivers and hardware.
  11. gated – gateway routing daemon.
  12. host – DNS lookup utility.
  13. hping – TCP/IP packet assembler/analyzer.
  14. ibmonitor – shows bandwidth and total data transferred.
  15. ifstat – report network interfaces bandwidth.
  16. iftop – display bandwidth usage.
  17. ip (PDF file) – a command with more features that ifconfig (net-tools).
  18. iperf3 – network bandwidth measurement tool. (above screenshot Stacklinux VPS)
  19. iproute2 – collection of utilities for controlling TCP/IP.
  20. iptables – take control of network traffic.
  21. IPTraf – An IP Network Monitor.
  22. iputils – set of small useful utilities for Linux networking.
  23. iw – a new nl80211 based CLI configuration utility for wireless devices.
  24. jwhois (whois) – client for the whois service.
  25. “lsof -i” – reveal information about your network sockets.
  26. mtr – network diagnostic tool.
  27. net-tools – utilities include: arp, hostname, ifconfig, netstat, rarp, route, plipconfig, slattach, mii-tool, iptunnel and ipmaddr.
  28. ncat – improved re-implementation of the venerable netcat.
  29. netcat – networking utility for reading/writing network connections.
  30. nethogs – a small ‘net top’ tool.
  31. Netperf – Network bandwidth Testing.
  32. netplan – Netplan is a utility for easily configuring networking on a linux system.
  33. netsniff-ng – Swiss army knife for daily Linux network plumbing.
  34. netwatch – monitoring Network Connections.
  35. ngrep – grep applied to the network layer.
  36. nload – display network usage.
  37. nmap – network discovery and security auditing.
  38. nmcli – a command-line tool for controlling NetworkManager and reporting network status.
  39. nmtui – provides a text interface to configure networking by controlling NetworkManager.
  40. nslookup – query Internet name servers interactively.
  41. ping – send icmp echo_request to network hosts.
  42. route – show / manipulate the IP routing table.
  43. slurm – network load monitor.
  44. snort – Network Intrusion Detection and Prevention System.
  45. smokeping – keeps track of your network latency.
  46. socat – establishes two bidirectional byte streams and transfers data between them.
  47. speedometer – Measure and display the rate of data across a network.
  48. speedtest-cli – test internet bandwidth using speedtest.net
  49. ss – utility to investigate sockets.
  50. ssh – secure system administration and file transfers over insecure networks.
  51. tcpdump – command-line packet analyzer.
  52. tcptrack – Displays information about tcp connections on a network interface.
  53. telnet – user interface to the TELNET protocol.
  54. tracepath – very similar function to traceroute.
  55. traceroute – print the route packets trace to network host.
  56. vnStat – network traffic monitor.
  57. websocat – Connection forwarder from/to web sockets to/from usual sockets, in style of socat.
  58. wget – retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS.
  59. Wireless Tools for Linux – includes iwconfig, iwlist, iwspy, iwpriv and ifrename.
  60. Wireshark – network protocol analyzer.
 
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xiaofan

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Good one with download speed and ping combined with nice charts. The speed seems to be slow though even with the SG server. My connection is using IPv6 but SIngtel IPv6 (6rd) is worse, not so sure if this also affect the speed.

Only thing I really do not like is that sharing is only for Twitter and Facebook.
 

bert64

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Good one with download speed and ping combined with nice charts. The speed seems to be slow though even with the SG server. My connection is using IPv6 but SIngtel IPv6 (6rd) is worse, not so sure if this also affect the speed.

Only thing I really do not like is that sharing is only for Twitter and Facebook.
The overhead of 6rd itself *should* be quite small assuming a good implementation and local tunnel server (maybe 1-2% and 5ms latency), but most routers don't support tunneling in hardware (and why would they, any decent provider has implemented native ipv6 10+ years ago and tunnelling should only be needed for old adsl/dialup links)... As such they will fall back to doing it in software which is gonna be a LOT slower for most typical devices.
BT in the UK for instance had a tunnel server in 2000, which you could use from dialup or their early 0.5mbps ADSL lines. It's long since gone, and replaced with native for all users - even those still on ADSL.

The poor routing of singtel is even worse for ipv6, try a traceroute to tserv1.sin1.he.net for instance. You might find that you're getting routed to a foreign country and back.

For a native connection with dual stack taking the same path, IPv6 should be slightly faster due to more efficient routing, especially for local destinations where the route processing makes up a significant amount of the latency. For far away destinations the difference is smaller as the latency is mostly caused by the speed of light over physical distance.

For additional diagnostic tools btw, add to the list:

https://bgp.he.net - see your current AS# and how they're peered.
https://atlas.ripe.netMyTraceroute (MTR)
 

BradenHeat

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adding to the list :

macOS : Wireless Diagnostics, very rough scanning software for good Channels, but should be easier than guess work

link from 9to5


Think the guist is to ensure the signal quality, is at least above -40 to not assume its always 100%, from the RSSi at least,

from there the Channels can be recommended to fine tune much quicker




 

firesong

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The poor routing of singtel is even worse for ipv6, try a traceroute to tserv1.sin1.he.net for instance. You might find that you're getting routed to a foreign country and back.
Now, if we were awarded frequent flier miles for all the mileage accrued by our internet packets for "local traffic", Singtel would be the #1 ISP of choice...
 

firesong

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adding to the list :

macOS : Wireless Diagnostics, very rough scanning software for good Channels, but should be easier than guess work

link from 9to5


Think the guist is to ensure the signal quality, is at least above -40 to not assume its always 100%, from the RSSi at least,

from there the Channels can be recommended to fine tune much quicker




Nice to see someone else who knows this tool exists and uses it. ;) It's an easy alternative to using other apps, but it's also not perfect - just quick n dirty.

I prefer an Android app tho. The one I use also shows the estimated brands of the APs around. ;)
 

BradenHeat

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Nice to see someone else who knows this tool exists and uses it. ;) It's an easy alternative to using other apps, but it's also not perfect - just quick n dirty.

I prefer an Android app tho. The one I use also shows the estimated brands of the APs around. ;)
But its not as good as freaking windows :sad:

but im a macOS lover, yet the windows tools are better sob sob


android, technically is gonna be a wild ride, too many apps too many interface to navigate.


Would have gone with the paid one, but not everyone needs to pay a 10$ app just to determine the best wireless


FYI, if neighbours are on automatically, best to tune the power level i reckon,

hence why i would still tell newbies/ my new coworkers got ALOT of money and time go with pro-sumer products, less headache, if not always asus with merlin for flexibility
 

ksw2010

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Now, if we were awarded frequent flier miles for all the mileage accrued by our internet packets for "local traffic", Singtel would be the #1 ISP of choice...

Traceroute from my ST line in Jurong location, I think it also depends on the destination owner whether they have connection relationship to ST directly or not. This kind of things can be happened with any ISPs (but maybe other local ISPs have lesser than ST from community experiences). Maybe this HE in your example does not have good connection to ST so far.

tracert tserv1.sin1.he.net

Tracing route to tserv1.sin1.he.net [216.218.221.42]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.254
3 4 ms 3 ms 3 ms 165.21.193.22
4 3 ms 4 ms 2 ms 165.21.193.21
5 4 ms 3 ms 3 ms 165.21.138.245
6 4 ms 3 ms 6 ms SN-SINQT1-BO403-ae1.singnet.com.sg [165.21.138.85]
7 5 ms 5 ms 4 ms unknown.telstraglobal.net [210.57.30.69]
8 50 ms 43 ms 48 ms e0-31.switch1.sin1.he.net [216.218.221.141]
9 40 ms 38 ms 38 ms tserv1.sin1.he.net [216.218.221.42]

Trace complete.
 
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bert64

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Traceroute from my ST line in Jurong location, I think it also depends on the destination owner whether they have connection relationship to ST directly or not. This kind of things can be happened with any ISPs (but maybe other local ISPs have lesser than ST from community experiences). Maybe this HE in your example does not have good connection to ST so far.

tracert tserv1.sin1.he.net

Tracing route to tserv1.sin1.he.net [216.218.221.42]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 192.168.1.254
3 4 ms 3 ms 3 ms 165.21.193.22
4 3 ms 4 ms 2 ms 165.21.193.21
5 4 ms 3 ms 3 ms 165.21.138.245
6 4 ms 3 ms 6 ms SN-SINQT1-BO403-ae1.singnet.com.sg [165.21.138.85]
7 5 ms 5 ms 4 ms unknown.telstraglobal.net [210.57.30.69]
8 50 ms 43 ms 48 ms e0-31.switch1.sin1.he.net [216.218.221.141]
9 40 ms 38 ms 38 ms tserv1.sin1.he.net [216.218.221.42]

Trace complete.

It depends on the peering policies of the providers, and the peering locations. For instance take a look at:
https://www.sgix.sg/peering-participants/
Any provider which is "Open" on that list will freely peer with any other. Selective means that they will only peer with other parties that they have made specific arrangements with.

Most of the providers have open peering there because that provides the best chance of traffic routing locally and thus the best service for their customers. There are also other peering locations, SGIX is just the biggest one here.

ST don't want open peering, rather they want to use their customer base to make other parties buy transit from them. Basically you are not a customer, you are a product that they are trying to sell to other providers - those providers are the customers they care about as they will happily provide poor service to end users as leverage to get other providers to buy transit.

Lets say you set up a streaming video service. You sign up to SGIX and have open peering - now your traffic is delivered locally over SGIX to M1, SH, MR, TPG users etc at minimal cost to you and low latency / high performance for the users. If you want to deliver traffic to ST users you either need to buy a direct connection from them, or buy transit from a third party who already peers with them. Alternatively you can ignore them, although that would result in a sizeable number of potential customers who would then have a poor connection to your service. The users would typically not know why the connection was poor, and are likely to blame you rather than the ISP.

Small providers cannot pull this kind of stunt as their small user base means they just get ignored, larger ones can but don't always do so.

In the particular instance highlighted Hurricane Electric (HE) will freely peer with any provider, and do so with all "Open" members of SGIX. It is ST who refuse to peer with them for free, and expect them to pay for peering. SG is not a major market for HE, so they have no real reason to pay for that.
 

ksw2010

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It depends on the peering policies of the providers, and the peering locations. For instance take a look at:
https://www.sgix.sg/peering-participants/
Any provider which is "Open" on that list will freely peer with any other. Selective means that they will only peer with other parties that they have made specific arrangements with.

Most of the providers have open peering there because that provides the best chance of traffic routing locally and thus the best service for their customers. There are also other peering locations, SGIX is just the biggest one here.

ST don't want open peering, rather they want to use their customer base to make other parties buy transit from them. Basically you are not a customer, you are a product that they are trying to sell to other providers - those providers are the customers they care about as they will happily provide poor service to end users as leverage to get other providers to buy transit.

Lets say you set up a streaming video service. You sign up to SGIX and have open peering - now your traffic is delivered locally over SGIX to M1, SH, MR, TPG users etc at minimal cost to you and low latency / high performance for the users. If you want to deliver traffic to ST users you either need to buy a direct connection from them, or buy transit from a third party who already peers with them. Alternatively you can ignore them, although that would result in a sizeable number of potential customers who would then have a poor connection to your service. The users would typically not know why the connection was poor, and are likely to blame you rather than the ISP.

Small providers cannot pull this kind of stunt as their small user base means they just get ignored, larger ones can but don't always do so.

In the particular instance highlighted Hurricane Electric (HE) will freely peer with any provider, and do so with all "Open" members of SGIX. It is ST who refuse to peer with them for free, and expect them to pay for peering. SG is not a major market for HE, so they have no real reason to pay for that.

You may be right, looks like not everyone is willing to give the free access for example few million users for a friend with few hundred users without any agreement?
 
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