All -- I'm looking for a consultant or vendor who can emulate a typical Fortune 500 network and test network traffic under two scenarios: a) endpoints are running ad blocking software; b) endpoints are not running ad blocking software.
We want to test specifically Adblock Plus, which works in the browser by detecting traffic coming from known ad servers and either blocking the actual browser requests or hiding the ad from rendering. We want to document any reduction in network traffic or congestion.
If anyone can recommend a vendor, please let me know. -Mark
CA APM, IBM Tivoli, Fluke, Splunk
This may not be the answer you're looking for, but: Why bother?
What are you hoping to get out of this? How much money you might save on your upstream BW? The volume of traffic used by ads is going to be nominal in the context of your overall traffic patterns. It's not 2001 any more. How much would it cost to actually do this sort of test vs how much might you save in BW?
Why not look at what your current traffic patterns are, and understand those better? If you don't understand those, you've got bigger issues, and you would be better off investing in resolving that, rather than wasting money on measuring BW used by ads.
Hi,
Have a look on docs.ipswitch.com/NM/69_WhatsUpGoldv16.2/01_ReleaseNotes/index.htm
Also:
www.whatsupgold.com/products/whatsup-gold-plugins/flow-monitor/
www.whatsupgold.com/products/whatsup-gold-plugins/flow-publisher/
If this is what you are looking for, do let me know; we can do a proof of concept (POC) for you.
Kind regards,
Sailaish.
Naturally tools like TruView from Fluke could provide good answers if this was running in production, but from your question I see you are wanting to set this up and emulate pre-deployment. Park your Network Performance Monitoring tools you need emulation solutions.
The server generation side of this is certainly pretty easy. The ability to emulate a number of ad servers is down to understanding their addresses/URLS and then the actual content. Using capture tools and HTTP debug tools like Fiddler it is easy to understand how to emulate these servers.
The tricky part is to emulate the clients in this particular example. If this type of Ad Blocking was done using a device behind the gateway then that would be easy, but to have actual clients emulated doing the Ad Blocking within the browser then that is a different story. At the moment I am unsure if there is a current solution that can emulate this browser environment.
I know a number of performance test companies can do the easy bit but potentially not the software browser bits you are after. I would suggest talking to people like Spirent Communications (namely the Avalanche team - www.spirent.com/) as well as Aeroflex (actually the old Shenick - ats.aeroflex.com/products/virtualized-ip-test-products) as they can provide this type of emulation. Spirent and Shenick have done a lot of work emulating many types of internet endpoints so potentially there is something there. Additionally coupling a solution like these with iTest (a Spirent acquistion - originally Fanfare) you could in fact control real PCs via an automation script but that certainly wont be a straight forward exercise. iTest works with a number of test tools and interfaces and is essentially a vendor neutral product.
Best of luck. Interested to know if you get through this.
Hello Mark,
After discussing your question with my Director of Network Engineering, I think we understand what you need to do to address your Ad Blocking software network performance problem.
As an fyi my company specializes in network diagnostics & Application Performance Management.
We have a portfolio of technologies that provide excellent visibility and insight into the health, performance and security of network infrastructures.
Fundamentally you need to be able to establish a baseline of network performance which excludes activity/traffic generated by the referenced Adblocking software. You can/should use a data analyzer (Sniffer type) application functioning as a node on your network to collect, analyze and establish baseline traffic parameters. Once the baseline parameters are established you then need to connect the Adblocking software (Adblock Plus) as a functioning entity on your network, capturing again via (Sniffer Type) software or hardware network monitors, the traffic parameters that define the throughput levels you experiences with the Adblocking software in place. You will then be a position to gauge and plot graphically and see statistical data that shows you the impact in terms of performance degradation or not of the Adblocking software you are contemplating
Deploying. This is not say in any that this is a simple task but it is also not an overly complex one either with the appropriate network traffic capture software/hardware tools in place and implemented on your network.
We are a certified VAR with partnerships with seven state-of-the art vendors that have software and or hardware that scale and fit in the smallest to the largest network environments which will enable you (once properly configured on the network) to readily measure the impact Adblocking software has on the performance of your network.
If my feedback is helpful to you and you are so inclined, you can contact me via linkedin and we can set up a teleconference to discuss further and move you towards the solution you want and need.
Regards,
Larry D. Arps
President
Communication Technology Inc.
This sound like instead of looking for Network Performance Monitoring the need is for a application under Data Security which would have ability to block near the firewall specific servers or sites before they are allowed through the network. This can be done at the router or use a NAC device to block the unwanted ads, not allowing the ads to pass into the network will actually speed up the page loads. Network Performance Monitoring is used for monitoring the health of the network. SolarWinds does a very good job showing the health of the switches, routers, servers, and AP’s as deep as you want using snmp, also using the Netflow will show the top network talkers and receivers and where congestion is taking place. Thresholds can be set for alarms when you get to defined levels and e-mail receive notifications. SolarWinds works well in very large environments, we have 1000+ switches/routers, 800+ servers, 6000+ AP’s. SolarWinds will give you real time plus history per device.
Hope this helps.
Regards,
Randolph A. Scott
I would recommend that you contact Network Instruments call ask to speak with Rick Kingsley.
What you describe is a complex exercise that will be nearly impossible accurately perform without Proper TAPs and diagnostic equipment seeing the flows on your network ..... Lab mock ups almost never extrapolate accurately into production environments.
Beware of anyone who quickly answers sure we can do that for x$ (250 or so an hour).... You may well pay a lot for strong legal disclaimer an unimplementable piece of garbage called a report.
Respectfully,
Duane M. Bodle