# tcpdump -ni en0 port 80 -w output.trace # tcptrace -G output.trace # xplot *tput.xpl From the online manpage: Yellow: instantaneous packets Red: Throughput for the last few packets Blue: Throughput since the start of the stream/connection Other useful graphs: _owin.xpl - outstanding data/congestion _rtt.xpl - round trip time/time _ssize.xpl - segment size/time _tput.xpl - throughput/time _tsg.xpl - time sequence graph _tline.xpl - Timeline graph - W Richard Stevens style Just some notes here so I don’t forget the basics - manual over at here

Following reply by iljitsch van Beijnum about queueing delays in IP, looked to be a good little summary. The answer is that delay is only one aspect of performance, another important one is packet loss. As link bandwidth increases, queuing delays decrease proportionally. So if you’re using your 10 Mbps link with average 500 byte packets at 98% capacity, you’ll generally have a 49-packet queue. (queue = utilization / (1 - utilization)) Our 500 byte packets are transmitted at 0.

Nice little tool called tcptraceroute, just uses TCP syns instead of ICMP/UDP to give you a more meaningful traceroute; still relies on ICMP time exceeded messages, but still, every little helps when trying to debug someone elses problem!