How to use Macintosh LanTest - Benchmark test program 
for AppleShare-compatible fileservers.

HELIOS Software GmbH
Hannover, Germany
tel: +49 (511) 3681093
internet: postmaster@helios.de AppleLink: ger.xse0082

****

Helios manufactures the "EtherShare" Macintosh-Unix networking software and the "PCShare" MSDOS-Unix networking software. We also manufacture the "SLIC" LocalTalk card for Sun SBus and an OPI server for graphical and pre-press applications.

Click "About EtherShare" to read short product descriptions of these and other Helios products. Please contact Helios if you need more information, or brochures. You can find Helios distributors in 16 countries.

****

**Using Macintosh LanTest**

After starting the LanTest program, open the File menu and choose the network volume and folder in which to carry out the tests. Some of the tests create files on the selected volume of around 3 MB in size, so make sure you have enough disk space. If you choose "Macintosh HD", you will be testing the local hard drive and not a network drive. You can also choose which of the tests to carry out (with the seven checkboxes or in the Options menu), and the total number of test cycles to make.

You can save your settings with an option in the File menu - they are stored within the application itself. Accordingly, if you want to running LanTest on several Macintoshes simultaneously, it is more convenient to start it from a network volume, so everyone gets the same preferences automatically. 

You can run LanTest on multiple networked Macintoshes simultaneously. LanTest recognizes this automatically by scanning the current network zone for AppleTalk entities of type "LanTest", and it stores the test files for each Macintosh in separate folders whose names are based on the unique AppleTalk node number and network number of each Macintosh taking part in the test.

After each test cycle is finished, LanTest writes to a log file in the same folder as the LanTest program itself. The name of each logfile is based on the unique AppleTalk node number and network number of the Macintosh which run the test. Each line of the logfile shows the results of each test cycle (unlike the LanTest display it does not average the results) and also the number of users using LanTest while the cycle took place (the number of users is only checked once each cycle, at the beginning). The logfile is not deleted, even if you quite LanTest and start it again later - new results are just appended to the end.

If you abort the test series with the Stop button, LanTest displays a trash can cursor while it deletes the test files, and it displays a network symbol cursor for several seconds each time it scans the current network zone for AppleTalk entities of type "LanTest".

**Judging the results**

Test data is read from and written to the Macintosh's RAM, so the local hard disk speed is not relevant. 

When judging the results, it should be remembered that the performance in any network situation is dependent on the type of application (3 Macs copying large TIFF files can fill the entire Ethernet bandwidth whereas 200 Macs is no problem if they are running client/server database applications, for example). 

Please note, too, that overall Macintosh performance (including network performance) is  reduced significantly by each additional INIT or screen saver that you use.  

Furthermore, the unusually small size of AppleTalk data packets (about 600 bytes, compared with up to about 1500 for Ethernet and up to about 8 kB for Token-Ring) results in a physical upper limit to the network performance, regardless of which AppleShare networking media you are using (Ethernet, Token-Ring, FDDI etc.).