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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.

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 \\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