WAN Killer tool

The WAN Killer tool in ETS for the Desktop is a wide area network traffic generator that interactively tests the connection and adjusts the traffic generated to achieve the desired load. You can adjust the packet size, bandwidth of the circuit, and percentage of the bandwidth to load with randomly-generated data.

Open the WAN Killer tool

• To launch the tool from the Toolset Launch Pad, locate the WAN Killer tool and click Launch.

• You can add the tool to a tab in the Workspace Studio, and access it from there.

• To launch the tool from the Windows Start menu:

  1. Click Start > All > SolarWinds Engineer's Toolset.

  2. Right-click WAN Killer, click More, and click Run as administrator.

Generate network traffic

1. Enter the IP address or host name of the device you want to target.

2. Select the protocol to use from the Protocol list.

3. Select or enter the port to receive traffic from the Port list.

   For example, enter 7 Echo to designate traffic on port 7.

   • You can enter any number, but the remote device may disconnect before any random data is sent. For example, if you select port 80 HTTP on a remote web server and start WAN Killer, the remote machine may close or reject the session before any random data is sent.

   • Use port 7 to generate traffic going both ways. When data is sent to port 7 (echo), all traffic that is received by the target device will be sent back to WAN Killer. This will generate a load in both directions.

   • Use port 9 (discard) to generate one-way traffic. Port 9 discards all data when received.

4. Enter the size of WAN circuit in Kbps (kilobits per second) in the Bandwidth field.

5. To send packets even when the host does not reply to ICMP echoes, clear Do not send packets if host does not return ICMP echoes.

6. To configure the source port in the packets, complete the following procedure:

1. Click Source Port.

2. Enter the IP address and port number you want to use in the designated fields.

3. To set the source port configuration as your default setup, select Use these settings when creating any new WAN Killer Gadgets.

4. Click OK.

7. To use Quality of Service (QoS) settings, complete the following procedure:

1. Click QoS Settings.

2. If your computer does not have QoS settings enabled, you must install a registry entry. Follow the onscreen instructions to install the registry entry, and then reboot your computer before proceeding.

3. Select the QoS service you want to use from the QoS list.

4. To use custom DSCP settings, select Use Custom DSCP Settings, and then configure the settings for your network test.

5. Select the Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) you want to use, and then click OK.

   For more information, see http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc758910.aspx.

8. Set the size of the packet you want to send using the Packet Size slider.

   WAN Killer always attempts to send the percent of bandwidth selected. Setting the packet size higher generates fewer packets. Setting a smaller packet size generates more packets.

9. Set the traffic percentage of the total bandwidth you want WAN Killer to generate using the Generate data equivalent to x% of Circuit Bandwidth slider.

10. Click Start.

    It may take WAN Killer up to 30 seconds to adjust to the Windows operating system, IP stack, and network. WAN Killer will continually make adjustments in order to send the percentage load specified.

    • To adjust packet gap, clear Automatic inter-packet gap adjustment.

    • To suspend data generation, click Pause.

    • To stop data generation, click Stop.