Found an interesting resource thanks to a close friend. Ping.eu is a free service which would let you test various aspects related to networks which would typically be pain inducing doing it on your own. For seasoned network professional having a MAC address of their own instead of a name :) this might not be that useful. However for a layperson like me this an invaluable resource.

These guys provide you with following services:

Ping – Shows how long it takes for packets to reach host

Traceroute – Traces the route of packets to destination host from our server

DNS lookup – Look up DNS record

WHOIS – Lists contact info for an IP or domain

Port check – Tests if port is opened on specified IP

Reverse lookup – Gets hostname by IP address

Proxy checker – Detects a proxy server

Mail relaying – Tests relaying capabilities of specified mail-server

Bandwidth meter – Detects your download speed from our server

Network calculator – Calculates subnet range by network mask

Network mask calculator – Calculates network mask by subnet range

Country by IP – Detects country by IP or hostname

Unit converter – Converts values from one unit to another

Taken straight from their site.

Thanks Ping.eu