Packet generator allows sending chosen number of packets to selected interface (choose Constant number and set number of packets), or unlimited number of packets (sends packets until user cancels). Set the content of the packet in main field in hexadecimal form using numbers and upper-case characters A-F. Other characters are ignored. Set complete packet including MAC header. You should therefore enter at least valid MAC header (see actual RFC, describing MAC header) Second field displays the entered values of the packet in ASCII and is designed as a reference only. Invalid entered MAC header could in combination with paranoiac switches or another active network parts configuration, cause failure of specific network segment or collision state at a specific segment, which could cause failure of station where has the collision occurred. We recommend to set the MAC header with correct destinating as well as originating MAC address, if you do not intend to change the identity. In case of willful entering of invalid MAC header, we recommend to check the active parts of the network in order not to disconnect the appropriate network segment after first packet with this spurios MAC header arrives, or do not stop its function completely in consequence to collision state detection.

If you click the start button, packets will begin to be sent to network interface. The speed of send depends especially on given hardware drivers, on processor speed and on loop timing setting of the operating system. Generally stands that it reaches the speed of singles or tens of percent of network interface speed (this concerns especially Ethernet or FDDI, but does not concern modems and similar interfaces with very low transmission speed). To simulate the network load, we recommend to use for this purpose designed packet generators, usually implemented for Unix-based OS, because the Windows platform is generally unsuitable for these activities. Exception are programs with own drivers for majority of commonly used network hardware and which enable direct access to the hardware and do not use NDIS, but these are commonly unstable and at least have problems with uncommon hardware compatibility. For testing the network transmissivity, we recommend trying libraries PCap.

The progress of sending packets is displayed in the upper part of the window, where you can see number of sent packets, and number of packets to be sent together with graphical representation of these values. In case you chose unlimited number of packets, only number of sent packets is relevant and graphical representation does not have any sense too.