netstat byte/bit confusion

[Steve Bertrand]

Hey all,

I'm experiencing conflicting information on throughput numbers when
comparing information garnered via MRTG on a 1000Mbps HP Procurve, and
netstat -h -w1 on a server connected to the switch.

What I want to know is if netstat in the below case is actually
displaying the info in bits, even though it is telling me the result is
in bytes:

amanda# netstat -h -w1
            input        (Total)           output
   packets  errs      bytes    packets  errs      bytes colls
      109K     0        90M        200     0        14K     0
      104K     0        88M        201     0        14K     0
^C

On a different server running MRTG (FBSD 7.0-STABLE), I have configured
it to display in bits/s, and it is showing ~90Mbps.

Which one is accurate? I'm trying to evaluate the difference between
Cisco Cat 29xx 100Mb switches and this ProCurve GigE 2848 switch. So
far, my results are that the 100Mb Cisco can peak and sustain a 98Mbps
throughput.

The Procurve, unless MRTG is wrong, and netstat output should be 90M*8,
I'm far less than impressed.

...or could it be that MRTG is broken/capped at ~100Mbps calculations?

Thanks for any insight,

Steve