[Beowulf] test network link quality?

[David Mathog]

Is there a common method for testing the quality of a network link
between two networked machines?  This is for situations where the link
works 99.99% of the time, but should work 99.99999% of the time, with
the failures being dropped packets or whatever.  This would be used for
tracking down slightly defective patch cables, switch ports, NICs, and
the like.  Is ping used like this:

  ping -i .0001 -c 1000000 -f targetmachine

adequate?  It gives decent statistics, but doesn't seem like a very good
simulation of a typical network load, in particular, the packet contents
aren't varying.

Thanks,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech