ICSI Netalyzr

I recently came across a very nifty online tool for analyzing a host’s network called Netalyzr. It’s basically a java applet that, when started, kicks off a series of tests that can help users troubleshoot problems with their network.

The Netalyzr analyzes various properties of your Internet connection that you should care about — including blocking of important services, HTTP caching behavior and proxy correctness, your DNS server’s resilience to abuse, NAT detection, as well as latency & bandwidth measurements — and reports its findings in a detailed report.

Of course, it doesn’t seem to offer anything that other network analysis tools don’t, and it’s not very customizable with regards to which tests are run. However, the benefit is that it’s free, VERY easy to use (you basically just click the “Go” button), and accessible (provided you can access the internet). Since it’s a 3rd party tool, users may want to exercise caution when using this to analyze sensitive networks. But for a quick and dirty job, it’s certainly worth checking out.

http://netalyzr.icsi.berkeley.edu

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