Checking hashrate

[rearwheels]

Hi all,

Just starting mining and this is my first post here. There's a lot of valuable information here that I've used while setting up my rig.

One thing is that most people will say "my 8570 is giving me XXX mHash/s".
Can I know how do you determine this other than staring at the poclbm/guiminer screen? The hash rate will keep changing. Even the information at the mine pool website.

So can I understand that the hashrate is just via eyeballing an estimate? Or am I missing out some log files to get this information?

Secondly, is there a way to see my hashrate across multiple pools other than refreshing the mine pool's website on multiple browser tabs?
(I've registered with a 2 mine pools, just in case one pool goes down)

Thanks in advance!

[Tukotih]

The hashrate shouldn't change that much. Leave your computer and quit all unnecessary processes. Come back 2 min later and lock at your miner's highest number within the next 10 seconds. That is probably the highest hashrate you can get at current settings/clock and it shouldn't differ that much. The hashrate that pools report are far from 100%.