NetQuality facilitates realistic testing and judging of network connections (layers 1 and 2) as well as TCP/IP connection tests (layer 3). The software consists of two independent parts: a sending and a receiving process. The receiver can be used for "echoing" the packets back to the sender. This realizes a two way test between two stations on a network.
Test results showing the sequence of received and missing frames, the percentage of received frames and the delay times including graphics can be stored in HTML-pages.
Tests can be automated by defining profiles.
NetQuality is a 32 bit software for Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT and Windows2000. The software needs a network board with a NDIS interface. For layer 1-2 test you need two PCs running NetQuality or another device which is able to "echo" packets on MAC layer directly. For testing TCP/IP connections you need only one NetQuality PC and a "echoing" station with ICMP Ping. The MAC layer echo tests is not for the usage in routed networks, because non routable packets are exchanged.
To run NetQuality you will need a valid licence. The software checks the existence of a licence on startup. If you already have purchased a licence you will find it on your installation disk (File NETQ.SNP). Use the menu item Licence - New Licence from file to activate this licence. In addition you can use the menu item Licence - New Licence from clipboard if you have your licence code in another file from where you can paste the licence information to the clipboard.
Otherwise you can purchase a licence via internet or request for testing purposes a temporal restricted licence from RzK via email (netq@rzk.com) or via fax (49 2683 940009).
If no licence is found NetQuality will start in demo mode, where a packet receiving process will be simulated.
Uninstallation:
Close the application if it is currently running. Click the Windows "Start" button, and select "Settings", then "Control Panel". Double-click the "Add/Remove Programs item". Proceed by double-clicking the line corresponding to NetQuality and follow the instructions. Note that some files, generally the licence file (netq.snp) and the ini file, may be created by the application and will not be deleted for your convenience in case you wish to refer to them at a later date. Delete these files manually if you do not want them.
If no licence is found only a demo mode showing the receiver window is accessible.
By using the File menu you can start the configuration and finish NetQuality. In the View menu you can enable and disable the status window for the NDIS interface. By using the Licence menu you can activate a new licence.
Before using NetQuality in licensed mode we recommend to configure it.
NetQuality has four different modes:
Start the appropiate mode by clicking one of the four buttons.
For using this test with MAC layer packets you have to set up another (remote) PC with NetQuality first. That remote NetQuality must run in the Echo only mode. Alternatively you can use the RzK Ethernet Box as MAC layer remote echo.
For using the test with ICMP-Ping packets you only need a remote station with TCP/IP installed.
The test with a remote echo starts sender and receiver simultaneously. If you press the Start Button of the Sender the Receiver starts automatically.
| PacketHeader | PacketContents | Send Frequency | Determine minimal Send Delay |
Before you can start to send packets with the Start Button you have to select the address of the destination (echoing station), define the packet contents and send frequency.
Source Address:
NetQuality always uses the MAC-address of the selected NDIS interface (network board). This address can´t be changed.
Destination:
First of all you have to choose the type of echoing
station:
.
1. NetQuality MAC layer echo:
Using a second PC with NetQuality or a special hardware (the RzK Ethernet
Box) as echo has the advantage of getting the best performance. The test
result will not be influenced by any protocol overhead.
For selecting a remote NetQuality PC, which will receice and echo the packets, you have to know its MAC address. If you have installed and started the other NetQuality program already, simply start there the Echo only mode and you will see the MAC-address in the NetQuality part of the Windows task-bar. Alternatively you will see the address in the configuration menu in the register page NDIS interface.
2. TCP/IP Ping:
If you use an ICMP Ping echo, you have to input the corresponding IP
address (i.e. 194.127.156.150) or symbolic name (i.e. "www.rzk.com"). When
you start the sender and the selected station responds, the MAC- and IP-address
of that station will be shown below the IP address selection box.
Resolving names is realized either over a local Hosts-list or by nameserver requests. Winsock uses so-called blocking-calls. This means, that the individual request can take a relatively long period of time, if the address is not known.
NetQuality will store all used MAC- and IP-destination addresses as well as the symbolic names in text files, which will be saved automatically. So you don´t have to reenter the addresses.
Transfer mode:
NetQuality can send packets filled with identical bytes or it can transfer files (NetQuality PC to Netquality PC only).
Usually you will use the first option. Transfering files is possible only between two PCs running NetQuality. This mode is useful only if you suspect, that packets contents are changed. (And if you want to see the proof that there really is a data transfer by NetQuality). Received files are stored in the program subdirectory RECVFILES. If a file with the same name exists there already, the new file will get the extension .000, the next one .001, and so on.
If a file transfer is choosen NetQuality will stop sending after transfering the file, sending of packets with identical bytes will not stop until you press the Stop button or the Checkbox Stop after n packets is set and the number n of sent packets is reached.
NetQuality uses a high resolution timer to send packets. The interval of this timer is set in the Delay input field in milliseconds. On each timer event NetQuality tries to send burst count packets. You can choose if you want to have a fixed burst count or a random one. The latter is useful for generating a random netload.
Checking the maximum allowed packet length and send frequency:
Of course the maximum number of packets to send is limited by the PC
capabilities. For evaluating a network connection with NetQuality you should
check first the capabilities of the used PCs. This is realized by the
Button. The test is performed
with the selected destination. This may be a NetQuality or a Ping echoing
station.
For ascertaining that the test result is valid for the both PCs in use, it should not be influenced by a "bad" network connection between the two NetQuality PCs.
If you are using a twisted pair network, you should connect sender and receiver directly with a crossover cable or both to one hub. If you are using BNC, you should build a litte isolated network with the two PCs.
The test sends for testing period seconds packets with the defined starting delay and the defined packet length to the selected echoing station. If all echoed packets are received, the test parameters are changed. This is done by decreasing the delay or by increasing the packet length. The tests stops if packets are missing and the last delay and the last packet length where no packets were missing is displayed as test result. If you close the test window NetQuality stores the test result for this destination address. The corresponing value will be displayed on the Set Limit.. Button in the sender window.
Burst Count:
Setting the burst count to more than one packet is only useful, if you want to test the capabilities of the receiving NetQuality PC.
| Statistics | Graphic: packet sequence | Graphic: received packet percentage | Store Results to Web-Page |
If you are using only the receive-part of NetQuality and are waiting for the packets from a remote receiver you have to start the receiver manually with the Start button.
With the Send packets back to sender checkbox you can enable/disable the echoing of packets back to the sender. This is only possible if no sending process is active on this PC.
The status panel shows the MAC-source address of the sending station, the size of the last received packet and the last received NetQuality frame number.
At the botton of the receiver window are three panels:
Graphical display of received packet sequence:
(To open via the Graphs-Menu or with the
button.)
This display makes it simple to detect lost packets:
Each green marker stands for a received and each red marker for a missed packet. If more than 100 packets are missing in a row a yellow marker is used.
Graphical display of received packet percentage:
(To open via the Graphs-Menu or with the
button.)
In this display you don´t see each packet but only the percentage of received frames for a defined interval of time.You can define the length of the intervals at the bottom of the receiver main window.
This graphic representation is more convenient for longer time analysis.
Graphical display of packet delays:
(To open via the Graphs-Menu or with the
button, only possible, if the
CheckBox in front of this button is set.)
In this display you see for each received (echoed) packet the time in milliseconds between sending the packet and receiving the echo. Please note, that echo times depond on the capabilities of both involved station (hardware, used operating system and running applications).
All graphic displays are using the same setup-panel:
Set first the number of values to be stored in the graphic with (Max. saved:). If this number is reached, older values will be deleted.
Each graphic is divided into pages. You can define the number of values to plot on one page (max. points per page) values.
With the four buttons at the left side of the panel you can switch between the pages.
If the box Autom. Update is checked and the test is running, than the display will stay automatically on the last available page. If you want to browse through the pages while the receiver is active, you have to switch this box to off.
(To open via the menu Results-HTML)
All NetQuality test results including the graphics may be saved to a HTML-file. All files for one test will be saved in one directory (store to directory:). The default directory name is the MAC-address from the sending/echoing station. All these directories will be stored in the program subdirectory RESULTS.
You can decide if you want to save
to the HTML-file.
If you start the Echo Only Mode NetQuality switches the receiver on and sets the echo to on. The program window minimizes. In the windows task bar you will see the number of echoed packets.
You can start the Echo only mode automatically with the command line parameter ECHO. This is useful if you want to install a NetQuality Echo in the autostart program group.
(Call: File, Configuration or Alt-C)
Interface/IP-Configuration:
NetQuality uses the RzK NDIS interface to receive and send packets. If you have installed more than one NDIS interface in your PC first of all you have to choose the appropriate interface. The MAC address for this interface will be displayed. It is not possible to use a dial up network interface.
If you want to perform echo tests via ICMP Ping, the IP-Configuration has to be set:
The "arrow-buttons" right of the input fields for editing the own and the router IP-address are for transfering the address shown in the right listboxes into the appropiate edit field. (The addresses listed here are read from the Windows registry).
You can test, if the router responds with the Check button. The MAC address of the router will be displayed.
Receiver:
NetQuality will not retransmit lost packets, so in case of a file transfer where packets are lost the received file will be corrupt. You have the choice to delete the received file at once is one packet is lost.
The receive window size is used to enable receiving of packets which arrive in an incorrect order. For example: if you have defined a receive window size of 3 and NetQuality receives the frame number 3,4,7,5,6 the receiver will show no error. (The receive window size 2 would show an error).
The receive window size is NOT used for receiving a file. These packets must be received in the correct order.
Sender:
The simulation of packet loss is only useful for getting an overview of the capabilities of NetQuality for displaying this packet loss.
Animation:
(Call: File, Profiles or Alt-P)
NetQuality echo tests can be automated by defining profiles. Profiles are in stored in textfiles with the extension .NQI.
By starting NetQuality with the commandline parameter "PROFILE:<Profilefilename>" you can use NetQuality in Batchmode. The profile stored in the file "PROFILE:<Profildateiname>" is executed directly.
Example call: "NETQ PROFILE:TEST.NQI"
A profile defines up to 50 echo tests. For each test the following items must be defined:
Example of a profile file:
[TEST1] ECHO = 194.127.156.150 PKTLEN = 128 DELAY = 500 TESTLEN = 300 CANCELTIME = 30 [TEST2] ECHO = 194.127.156.150 PKTLEN = 512 DELAY = 1000 TESTLEN = 300 CANCELTIME = 30
Each Section (TEST1 to max. TEST50) defines one echo test.
The optional parameter CANCELTIME=n defines, if the test should be cancelled after n seconds, if no packets have been arrived during that time.
Testresults are stored automatically in the file Profilefilename.LOG. So executing the profile TEST.NQI generates a resultfile TEST.LOG.
The Profile menu:
The profile window shows the current status of the tests defined by the profile.
(Starting directly behind the Ethernet type field - mac layer echo or as contents of the ICMP-Ping echo:)
| Bytes | Len | Name | Contents | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15-21 | 6 | NetQPattern | "*NetQ*" | |
| 21-27 | 7 | FrameNoPattern | " Fr.No:" | |
| 28-31 | 4 | FrameNo | <FrameNo> LongWord Value 0 - 4294967295 | |
| or | 23-31 | 9 | RestartPattern | "*START*" |
| 32-33 | 2 | PacketLength | Word Value | |
| 34-38 | 5 | ByteTransferPattern | "BYTES" | |
| 39-44 | 6 | MAC-Source-Address | ||
| 45-49 | 5 | Pattern for following TimeStamp | "TIME:" | |
| 50-53 | 4 | Timestamp in milliseconds | DoubleWord value | |
| 54-End of Packet | Fillbytes | |||
| or | 34-38 | 5 | Filetransfer Pattern | "FILE:" |
| 39-59 | 21 | Filename | nullterminated Filename | |
| 60-63 | 4 | Filesize in Bytes | Size of complete File | |
| 64-65 | 2 | Bytes in this Packet | Number of Bytes transferred in this packet | |
| 66-End of Packet | File contents | File contents |
Only NetQuality packets will be recognized (and echoed) by NetQuality.
Automatic start of NetQuality Echo
Batch Mode
Configuration
Determine minimal Send Delay Echo
Graphical display of received packet
sequence
Graphical display of received packet
percentage
Graphical display of packet delays
HTML-Pages
Main menu
Installation
Licence
Minimal Send Delay Receiver
Profile Mode
Receiver Statistics
Sender
Sender: Frequency
Sender: PacketHeader
Sender: PacketContents
Systemrequirements
Statistics
Store Results to Web-Page