The DICOM Toolbox, Network Tools Guide

A comprehensive guide to DICOM network validation, active listening, and bandwidth stress testing.

MWL

Worklist (MWL) Query Analyser

Validates inbound C-FIND requests from modalities against DICOM standards. It automatically checks Type 1 attributes, verifies Application Entity (AE) titles, and displays the raw dataset.

How to use it If an MRI scanner cannot pull the daily worklist, start the Analyser to catch the query and prove whether the scanner is sending an incorrectly formatted C-FIND request.
Store

C-STORE SCP Listener

A passive receiver that listens for incoming DICOM image transmissions. Includes automatic disk saving, real-time session logging, and support for all major Transfer Syntaxes.

How to use it Verify a scanner's outbound routing and network connectivity by pointing it at the Toolbox's IP and port, bypassing the need for a full clinical PACS in the loop.
Privacy

In-Flight Anonymisation

When receiving images via the C-STORE listener, you can toggle an option to instantly strip PHI/PID from the files before they are ever written to disk.

How to use it Safely capture test images from a live clinical modality directly to your laptop, automatically enforcing HIPAA/GDPR compliance during your network testing.
View

Integrated Image & Tag Viewer

Instantly preview the pixel data and dive into the complete DICOM tag hierarchy of any file received by the C-STORE listener. Features multi-frame scrubbing and windowing.

How to use it After receiving a test ultrasound, double click the file in the log to verify that the video loop was transmitted cleanly without corruption.
Speed

Diagnostic Speed & Quality Tester

Perform rigorous upload, download, and bidirectional stress tests against custom DICOM targets (using the AET@host:port format). Accurately measures throughput, jitter, latency, and packet loss.

How to use it Diagnose slow image transfers by running a 60-second bidirectional stress test against the hospital's VNA to detect severe packet loss on a specific clinical subnet.
Simulation

DICOM Compression Simulation

Simulate the exact network overhead of sending clinical data by selecting specific DICOM Transfer Syntaxes (e.g., JPEG 2000, HEVC, HTJ2K, Explicit VR) during bandwidth testing.

How to use it Test if the firewall inspection engine is throttling heavily compressed cardiology runs by simulating an upload stream packed in the MPEG4 AVC/H.264 High Profile syntax.