Endpoint Agent TCP Support
ThousandEyes supports using TCP as the communication protocol for Endpoint Agent scheduled tests. Two modes of operation are supported:
- SACK-based measurements
- SYN-based measurements
SACK-based network measurements require a single TCP connection to perform the measurement, whereas SYN-based measurements use a stream of up to 50 SYN packets, each being sent from a unique source TCP port. For this reason, SACK-based measurements are preferred. However, some networks do not support SACK, and so SYN is necessary.
For more information on the difference between SACK- and SYN-based measurements, see Network Tests Explained.
There are a number of reasons to use TCP-based tests over ICMP-based tests. Some of those reasons include:
- Large enterprise networks often block ICMP packets entirely to protect against device discovery.
- For networks running QoS or similar configurations, ICMP packets are often assigned a low priority, and packet loss/latency can occur.
- ICMP packets take different routes to TCP packets, and are often slower.
TCP support is available for Endpoint Agent version 1.75.0 and above.
- For Mac users: No additional configuration is required for TCP support.
See Configure Scheduled Tests for instructions on creating tests, and Endpoint Agent Test Settings Reference for specific configuration options.
Last modified 1yr ago