I am using a new motherboard platform that has an integrated Realtek
10/100MBit interface on it. On my old system I was using a Netgear
10/100MBit NIC which I've had no complaints with. I have both installed in
my new system. I was wondering if there's a freeware utility that will allow
me to test each interface for things like bandwidth, collisions, retries,
packet fragmentation, etc... so that I can see if one is any better than the
other. I've tried both, and the integrated Realtek interface "seems" like it
isn't as smooth as the Netgear card, but I want to see the actual data to
compare. Unfortunately, I can't bring the LAN analyzer I use at work home,
so I'm willing to settle for a reasonable software solution (no, I don't
want to pay $8000 for HP Openview!).

RealTek chip-sets are cheap and thus are widely used. For example, the Linksys Routers use
the RealTek chip-set in the BEFSR41 and maybe others. However, I think they are crap. I
always suggest Intel and 3Com NICS as the best NICS due to the respective companies
attention to bugs and providing a wide base of drivers for different OS's and protocol
managers.

As a good LAN analysis tool that is FREE, I suggest Ethereal - http://www.ethereal.com/

Dave


"Tony" <tonyjunk@comcast.net> wrote in message news:lYSdnT6F2t7GIHiiRVn-jw@comcast.com...
| I am using a new motherboard platform that has an integrated Realtek
| 10/100MBit interface on it. On my old system I was using a Netgear
| 10/100MBit NIC which I've had no complaints with. I have both installed in
| my new system. I was wondering if there's a freeware utility that will allow
| me to test each interface for things like bandwidth, collisions, retries,
| packet fragmentation, etc... so that I can see if one is any better than the
| other. I've tried both, and the integrated Realtek interface "seems" like it
| isn't as smooth as the Netgear card, but I want to see the actual data to
| compare. Unfortunately, I can't bring the LAN analyzer I use at work home,
| so I'm willing to settle for a reasonable software solution (no, I don't
| want to pay $8000 for HP Openview!).
|
|

"Tony" <tonyjunk@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:lYSdnT6F2t7GIHiiRVn-jw@comcast.com...
You may be able to get some of that data (in Windows) by using the
Performance Monitor tool. (Depending on what version of Windows you
have...)

Just go Start, Run, type in "perfmon". There are all sorts of tracking
tools in there. (Note, I dont know how to use it very well so it may or may
not have the tools you want.)

It's free, as in you already have it.

Tony wrote:

You might want to try Ethereal. There are both Linux and Windows versions
of it.

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

James Knott <bit_bucket@rogers.com> wrote in message
news:VhnFb.107428$ea%.9419@news01.bloor.is.net.cab le.rogers.com...
Thanks to all for the recommendations.