patrolling network thoughput

["James K. Lowden" <jklowden%speakeasy.net@localhost>]

What do you use to measure network thoughput over time?  netstat(8) seems to be 
designed to debug a tcp stack, not to measure throughput.  

I'm getting ping times > 1000 ms on my DSL line to my default gateway.  I think 
those times should be ~20 ms, and I think the ping times do *not* vary (nor 
should they) with line utilization.  But I don't have a good way to show that.  

I'd like something simple: to measure bytes/time in and out.  I'll run ping 
during while the measurement is taking place to verify it's not traffic that is 
delaying the ping times.  

Many thanks.  

--jkl