How do I measure network congestion?

[djminus1]

I have a fairly complex home network now. I'm running a Plex media server, tons of home automation devices, Ubiquity wireless AP's, a reverse proxy, Roku's, IP Cameras, Laptops, NAS, iPhones, iPads, smart tv's...the list goes on and on. I'm noticing that there seems to be times where the network feels congested.

I'm curious if there are tools or methods to examine the network at various points to try to determine what's causing the congestion? My goal is to improve the overall network performance. I *suspect* that my Dlink DIR-645 router is choking but I have no way to tell. I'm considering replacing it with a Ubiquity EdgeRouter but I don't want to throw money at a new router if it's not the problem

Any suggestions?

 

[bill001g]

Pretty much you are going to need a way to capture the data flowing though the network. No a simple task in a home network. In a more commercial setup a central device can anaylze the data. Many times this is a switch that every thing is plugged into that can make a copy of all the data and give it to a machine. If all the traffic flows through a firewall you can also do it that way.

Most routers are faster than internet connection so you almost always run out of internet before the router slows you down. Lan-lan should not be slowed down at all since it is a simple switch. If your issues are wireless it is almost impossible to find even with commercial equipment. Mostly wireless problems are devices interfering with each other and the wireless chips just keep retransmitting data until they get a clean copy but other than the delay the chips do not even indicate there was a issue.

So if you feel you are over utilizing your internet you might be able to find what is using it by loading other software on your router if it supports it. Generally you should be able to guess what application is using all the bandwidth.....maybe some of the simple open session tables in the router will give you a clue

 

[schwatzz]

Try this https://www.wireshark.org/

 

[bill001g]

Try this https://www.wireshark.org/

Yes that is a nice tool but does not solve his problem how to get the data in the first place to allow wireshark to analyze it. You would have to run wireshark on every end device most do not support it and you will would still have to combine it.

Like most cases this is not a issue with what tool to run there are many it is getting a device that can see the data in the first place