A method, apparatus (22), and program are provided for determining an amount of bandwidth available in at least a portion of at least one communication path (5, 3, 6, 7, 10-1, 9, 12, 13, 14, 24a, 24b) coupling a plurality of nodes (1, 15, 22) together. The communication path (5, 3, 6, 7, 10-1, 9, 12, 13, 14, 24a, 24b) is exercised using information signals, to determine the amount of time it takes for at least one of those information signals to traverse the communication path (5, 3, 6, 7, 10-1, 9, 12, 13, 14, 24a, 24b) in at least one direction, and the amount of bandwidth available in at least a portion of the communication path (5, 3, 6, 7, 10-1, 9, 12, 13, 14, 24a, 24b) is determined, based on the amount of time determined in the exercising step. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, the bandwidth available in both uplink and download directions of the communication path is determined by transferring a file between a test node (22) and a user communication terminal 1, by way of the communication path, and a router (15).