Networking is not my main job and i am hoping you guys can comment on my test procedure so far to identify PCs best to host a few voip softphones. Our 100Mb LAN comprises of 40 Win XP/2000 PCs and a Windows SBS server, an enterprise switch and various consumer switch/hubs around the office.
I have run a udp test (using iperf) between all nodes of our LAN against a single workstation (on the same switch/hub as our server) primarily interested in the jitter results. I used the JPerf user interface which sets bandwidth max setting at 1Mb by default. I ran each workstation test individually so as not to overload the single PC they tested against. Each test runs for 10 seconds.
Ive collated the results: a few workstations stand out with having poor results (jitter above 1ms), some workstations have 0ms jitter and others have 0.0x jitter. All workstations were able to sustain the 1Mb connection, though some workstations jitter results varied greatly during the 10 second test. I have identified 3 workstations on one switch/hub with poor results to i will change about that setup.
Having run the test once, how much faith can i put in the results as being representative of the quality of the connection paths tested?
It may be time to just trial the softphones avoiding those PCs with poor results rather than spend too much time trying to decipher test results i am not experienced enough to fully appreciate, but your input would be a greatly appreciated on what i have done so far.
Other info: I will not be utilizing QoS, softphones in use will be limited, our internet connection is than sufficient for the voip, other network load is limited.