Network Performance Toolkit: Using Open Source Testing Tools

• In these times of reduced corporate budgets, this book shows how to test for performance problems and how to install and run freely available tools, instead of buying costly new hardware and software testing packages
• Network performance is the #1 headache for network operators; this book gives IT professionals straightforward guidance
• Author is a troubleshooting practitioner, a hands–on networking computer specialist for the Department of Defense

From the back cover:

All of the tools you ll need to ensure that your network and its applications are performing properly for your environment

As a network administrator, you are the first person customers come to whenever there are performance issues with the network. You have to keep the customers satisfied, but the complaints don t make your job any easier. However, once you re armed with the techniques and options presented in this hands–on book, you ll be able to identify and fix network problems before your customers even notice! Troubleshooting expert Richard Blum takes you through some of the basic elements that affect network performance and then supplies you with information about the Open Source tools used for monitoring the network to uncover any of these problems.

In addition, he shows you how to use application performance tools to analyze how network applications behave in different environments and determine potential conflicts. All of the tools discussed are freely available, eliminating the need to purchase costly new hardware and software testing packages. In addition, Blum provides you with clear instructions on how to install and properly use each one.

With this complete toolkit, you ll discover how to keep your network running at peak performance. You ll gain the necessary skills to:

• Determine the cause of network performance issues in the production network
• Uncover any bottlenecks in network traffic
• Install, configure, and use various Open Source tools, including Netperf, dbs, and ntop
• Monitor network performance using select programs
• Use emulators and simulators to see how network applications will perform

About the Author:

RICHARD BLUM is a networking computer specialist for the U.S. Department of Defense. He is responsible for managing a 3500+ user network that contains Novell^®, UNIX^®, and Windows^® servers along with a remote mainframe connectivity. He has managed many types of network monitoring programs and has written network monitoring and client/server programs using C, C++, Java , and C#. Blum is also the author of several computer books.