TROUBLESHOOT NETWORK PROBLEMS WITH THE LINK SPEED UTILITY

Have you ever wondered just how fast the server you're working at is really communicating with a remote system on your network? Sometimes it just "feels" slow, or something seems to be taking an inordinate amount of time. Or maybe a workstation seems to be having a problem communicating with a server.

These kinds of problems sometimes require network management systems to drill down into, but if you just need a quick way to obtain the information, consider using the Link Speed utility.

The Linkspeed.exe tool is available as a part of the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit, which you can download from Microsoft's Web site. Link Speed works on both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&DisplayLang=en

This command-line utility has two major switches:

linkspeed /S <SystemName>,<IPAddress or UNC name> and linkspeed /DC

You can use the /S parameter to test the speed of the link between the current system and any system on the network. The /DC parameter lets you test the link speed to the domain controller serving the current system.

The sample below indicates that the link from the current system to the machine named "testsystem" is 76 Mbps with a 150-ms delay.

linkspeed /S file:///D:/PlanetEr/tutor/2000/\\testsystem

Here's an example of evaluating the performance using the MultinetGetConnectionPerformance function:

System : TESTSYSTEM
Flag : WNCON_DYNAMIC
Link Speed (in Mbps) : 76
Delay (in milliseconds) : 150
Data Packet Size : Unknown