1.3 Monitoring Network Performance
If
your network feels sluggish, it could be that the server or node you’re
working with is sharing data slowly or that network traffic is
exceptionally high. To see whether the latter situation is the cause of
the problem, you can check out the current network utilization value, which is the percent of available bandwidth that your network adapter is currently using.
To check network utilization, open Task Manager, and then display the Networking tab, shown in Figure 4.
If you have multiple adapters, click the one you want to check in the
Adapter Name list. Now use the graph or the Network Utilization column
to monitor the current network utilization value. Notice that this
value is a percentage. This means that the utilization is a percentage
of the bandwidth shown in the Link Speed column. So, for example, if
the current network utilization is 10 percent and the Link Speed value
is 1Gbps, the network is currently using about 100Mbps bandwidth.
The Network Utilization value combines the data sent
by the server and the data received by the server. If the utilization
is high, it’s often useful to break down the data stream into the
separate sent and received components. To do that, select View, Network
Adapter History, and then select Bytes Sent (which displays as a red
line on the graph) or Bytes Received (which displays as a yellow line
on the graph).
As with the Processes tab, you can view much more
information than what you see in the default Networking tab. Select the
View, Select Columns command. As shown in Figure 5,
the Select Columns dialog box offers a long list of networking measures
that you can monitor. To add a value to the Networking tab, activate
its check box and click OK.
Tip
By
default, the Networking tab doesn’t collect data when you’re viewing
some other Task Manager tab. If you prefer that the Networking tab
always collects data, select Options, Tab Always Active.
Here’s a summary of the columns you can add:
Adapter Description— This column shows the description of the network adapter.
Network Utilization— This is the network utilization value.
Link Speed— This value shows the network adapter’s connection speed.
State— This column displays the general state of the adapter.
Bytes Sent Throughput— This value shows the percentage of connection bandwidth used by traffic sent from Windows Home Server.
Bytes Received Throughput— This value shows the percentage of connection bandwidth used by traffic received by Windows Home Server.
Bytes Throughput— This value shows the percentage of connection bandwidth used by traffic both sent from and received by Windows Home Server.
Bytes Sent—
This column tells you the total number of bytes sent from Windows Home
Server over the network adapter during the current session (that is,
since the last boot).
Bytes Received—
This column tells you the total number of bytes received by Windows
Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.
Bytes— This
column tells you the total number of bytes sent from and received by
Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.
Bytes Sent Per Interval—
This value shows the total number of bytes sent from Windows Home
Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.
(For example, if the Update Speed value is set to Low, the display
updates every 4 seconds, so the Bytes Sent/Interval value is the number
of bytes sent during the most recent 4-second interval.)
Bytes Received Per Interval—
This value shows the total number of bytes received by Windows Home
Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.
Bytes Per Interval—
This value shows the total number of bytes sent from and received by
Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent
update interval.
Unicasts Sent—
This column tells you the total number of unicasts sent from Windows
Home Server over the network adapter during the current session (that
is, since the last boot). A unicast is a packet exchanged between a single sender and a single receiver.
Unicasts Received—
This column tells you the total number of unicasts received by Windows
Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.
Unicasts—
This column tells you the total number of unicasts sent from and
received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the
current session.
Unicasts Sent Per Interval—
This value shows the total number of unicasts sent from Windows Home
Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.
Unicasts Received Per Interval—
This value shows the total number of unicasts received by Windows Home
Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.
Unicasts Per Interval—
This value shows the total number of unicasts sent from and received by
Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent
update interval.
Nonunicasts Sent—
This column tells you the total number of nonunicast packets sent from
Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session
(that is, since the last boot). A nonunicast is a packet exchanged between a single sender and multiple receivers.
Nonunicasts Received—
This column tells you the total number of nonunicasts received by
Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the current session.
Nonunicasts—
This column tells you the total number of nonunicasts sent from and
received by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the
current session.
Nonunicast Sent Per Interval— This
value shows the total number of nonunicasts sent from Windows Home
Server over the network adapter during the most recent update interval.
Nonunicast Received Per Interval—
This value shows the total number of nonunicasts received by Windows
Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent update
interval.
Nonunicast/Interval—
This value shows the total number of nonunicasts sent from and received
by Windows Home Server over the network adapter during the most recent
update interval.