Network Testing

The Microsoft WAS web stress tool is designed to realistically simulate multiple browsers requesting pages from a web site. You can use this tool to gather performance and stability information about your web application. It simulates a large number of requests with a relatively small number of client machines. The goal is to create an environment that is as close to production as possible so that you can find and eliminate problems in the web application prior to deployment. You can script actions or record them by using your browser (then customize later by scripting). Simple interface, but very flexible in configuration and supports just about anything you need.

Kiwi Syslog Generator provides an interface to send Unix type Syslog messages to any PC or Unix Syslog Daemon. The program is designed for testing of a Syslog Daemon setup and to diagnose communication problems. Kiwi Syslog Generator supports TCP syslog messages for emulating PIX firewall messages, accepts custom message text (as well as randomly generated strings) and can automatically send repetitive messages, corrupt message data, send oversized packages and more.

SpeedConnect Connection Tester provides a quick and easy way to test the speed of your Internet connection. The program downloads a file from a Microsoft server (or any other server of your choice), analyzes the measured data and reports your speed in kbps. It also provides a graphical display and some statistical data from other users.

SpeedTest enables you to find out how fast your network transfer speed is. It allows you to measure transfer speeds between your computer and any website or networked computer. An optional server component can be run on the remote server, that serves a file to be downloaded to the client. The program displays graphical bar charts for each result, allowing you to easily compare the connection/transfer speed between multiple web sites.

Paessler WMI Tester enables you to test the accessibility of WMI counters on the network. You can choose to query memory, processes, local disks, processors, or run a custom SQL query. Standalone, no install needed.

MAC Spoofer 2006 enables you to change (spoof) the MAC address of your network card, regardless of whether the manufactures allow this option or not. The program comes as standalone executable, no install needed. Just run it, change your MAC address and restore it to the original when you`re done with testing.

ServTerm is a winsock tool which can assist you in debugging client/server communications. You can make it act as a server (eg, a web server or mail server) to examine the data that clients transmit. ServTerm itself transmits data line-by-line to mimic server behaviour. You can also use ServTerm in client mode, in which case it acts like a telnet program except that you can scroll back to see previous output and transmit data line-by-line.

RoboTest makes repetitive connection testing (HTTP/ping) easy. It allows you to define a list of destinations and the type of connection required, RoboTest will test these connections on a schedule you determine. It provides realtime detail and summary analysis, plus continuous logs of detail and summary results. The program does not provide any alert or other actions in case the connection cannot be established.

Proxy Sniffer is a web load and stress testing tool that uses a browser based interface. It enables you to analyze the performance characteristics and stability of your (local) webserver under various load conditions in order to tune web applications. It also comes with a built-in session recorder that captures the data between your browser and a web server. The recorded web surfing session can be transformed into a Java load test program, which can then be compiled and executed. All measured performance data and errors during a test-run are stored inside a single result file, from which consolidated detailed statistics and diagrams can be created. You should have a basic understanding of Java programming in order to get adequate use out of the software. The free version is limited to tests on localhost and has limited user connections for testing. Make sure to read the PDF documentation before getting started. The full version starts at about $3000 per node.