# Network Test

BurnInTest provides two different network tests. The standard network test and the advanced network test. The standard network test is included in both the Standard and Professional editions of BurnInTest, while the advanced network test is included in the Professional edition. This section describes the standard network test. For information on the advanced network test please click here.

The Network test, tests your networking hardware and software. This is done by sending special ICMP_ECHO message using the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP). The ICMP_ECHO message is more commonly known as a ‘ping’. This message is echoed but to your computer by a remote host. This allows the reliability of the network connection to be determined. Up to 4 remote hosts can be selected by setting the Destination Network address in the Test Preferences window. These values are used for the Network test. Each one must be a URL or an IP address (or left blank).

A URL is the name of a network host, e.g. www.hostname.com

An IP address is a sequence of 4 numbers that correspond to a network host. e.g. 169.192.0.1

The host selected must be accessible from the computer and capable of responding to the ‘ping’ command. PassMark recommends the selection of a local host to minimize data link problems, which are fairly common on the Internet. The IP address 127.0.0.1 can also be used for local loop back testing.

The packet sent to the remote host contains a data payload and a checksum. Every time a packet is echoed from the remote host the checksum is verified and the data payload is compared byte by byte with the data that was sent. Any differences in the payload or an incorrect checksum will result in an error. The data payload is 64 bytes in length.

To use this test the TCP/IP Internet protocol must be installed on your computer. This can be determined from the Windows Control Panel, Network Window. If you try and use this test without the Internet protocol being installed, you will get a message like, “Could not create a Network Socket”.

The amount of time BurnInTest will spend waiting for a packet can also be set in the Test Preferences window

The meaning of the information displayed in the network test window is given below.

Packets Sent

The number of packets sent to the remote host

Packets Received

The number of packets received back from the remote host. This should remain at the same level as the Packets Sent counter. If after 2 second a sent packet is not echoed, this causes a timeout error and Packets Sent will be greater than Packets received.

Average Delay

The average round trip time in milliseconds for a packet.

Max Delay

The maximum round trip time in milliseconds for a packet. The maximum values often happen at the very start of the test session. This is because Windows is still loading and caching the required networking software.

Current delay

The round trip time in milliseconds for the last packet sent.

Bytes sent

The total number of bytes transmitted to the network.

Flow rate

The average number of packets sent per second for the test period. The duty cycle set for the Network Test determines how many packets are being sent per second.

Errors

The number of errors that have been detected and the percentage of packets that had an error are displayed. The definition of what an “error” is can be changed from the Test Preferences window. Depending on the settings in the preferences window, the error count can be incremented for every detected error or alternatively it can be set to only increment when the specified error ratio is exceeded.

When the specified error ratio is exceeded, the ratio is reset to zero to avoid triggering a continuous stream of errors. Thus the ratio value displayed is the ratio of bad errors to good packets since the last time the threshold was crossed.

For the purposes of detecting a crossing of the threshold and signaling an error, the ratio is ignored until a sufficient number of packets have been sent to make the ratio valid. For example, if the ratio is set to 2%, at least 50 packets must be sent before the ratio is deemed to be valid. If the ratio is set to 0.1%, at least 1000 packets must be sent before the ratio is deemed to be valid.

Compatibility issues

If you are running Windows 2000, XP or above, you need to have administrator privileges to run this test.