>Thanks for the input. I failed to mention an important piece of info. The network person is unapproachable (I'm being kind).
>
>Is there anything I can do to get an overall "speed of the network" that would serve as a benchmark without installing any new software (that would not be an option because of the network person)?
>
>I mean would PING tell me anything that I could come back here and say here is the results. What does it mean?
>
>Thanks,
>John
PING tells you that the network is reachable. It also tells you that the packet you send takes a certain time to go back and forth. Since the PING packet is sent as individual packets, which are quite small, this really doesn't tell you anything about the bandwidth, which is what you are interested in.
The same goes for TRACERT; it informs you about basic connectivity (showing you which path packets take), but it is not designed to measure bandwidth.
Probably you can get some software (perhaps from
www.download.com ) which measures the actual throughput, but remember that this will also depend on what other machines are connected, and what they are doing.
Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether whistling be a vice or a virtue; whether it be better to kiss a post, or throw it into the fire... (from Gulliver's Travels)
