Console tool to test internet bandwidth

testing utilities console bandwidth

31,531

Solution 1

ttcp is a simple, possibly too simple, speed test utility.

pchar is another one people cite a lot, I've had bad luck with it, personally.

Here's how I'd use ttcp. You need two machines, each with ttcp (http://playground.sun.com/pub/tcp-impl/ttcp/ttcp.c) compiled on them.

HostA % ./ttcp -r -s -p 9401 
...

HostB % ./ttcp -s -p 9401 < /boot/vmlinuz

Once you've figured out how to get it to run, try different length files to see how speed varies. Use UDP (-u flag on both reader and sender command line) for even more fun!

Solution 2

I'm just repeating the answers listed on this (deleted?) stackoverflow question: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/426272/how-to-test-internet-connection-speed-from-command-line

k2z:

wget --output-document=/dev/null http://speedtest.wdc01.softlayer.com/downloads/test500.zip

git clone https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli
cd speedtest-cli 
python2.7 speedtest_cli.py

Then you have the exact style results from speedtest.net with cli.

petermolnar:

You could use iperf to test the speed between two machines, since 'iperf' was designed to measure bandwidth.

on machine1 (host, this one will receive)

iperf -s -p 65000

on machine2 (client, this one will upload)

iperf -c [ip of server] -p 65000

Reverse the machines to test the other way (upload->download or vice versa).

billcarroll:

It looks like there is a tool available on sourceforge that uses speedtest.net from the terminal.

Terminal speedtest: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tespeed/

Solution 3

You might be interested in TeSpeed. It is described as:

If you are looking for tool that is able to test internet connection speed fron Linux terminal, you have found it! :) TeSpeed uses speedtest.net servers to check upload and download rate and it puts that information on charts.

http://tespeed.sourceforge.net/

Solution 4

Very basic, but I use a simple shellscript to download a 10MB file from my provider or nearby FTP-server:

#!/bin/sh

wget ftp://ftp.xs4all.nl/pub/test/10mb.bin ; rm 10mb.bin
## debian.unnet.nl is down...
#wget http://debian.unnet.nl/speedtest/10mb.bin ; rm 10mb.bin
#curl -LO http://debian.unnet.nl/speedtest/10mb.bin ; rm 10mb.bin

The output will look like this:

($:~)-> speedcheck.sh 
--2011-06-27 23:36:21--  ftp://ftp.xs4all.nl/pub/test/10mb.bin
           => `10mb.bin'
Resolving ftp.xs4all.nl (ftp.xs4all.nl)... 194.109.21.26
Connecting to ftp.xs4all.nl (ftp.xs4all.nl)|194.109.21.26|:21... connected.
Logging in as anonymous ... Logged in!
==> SYST ... done.    ==> PWD ... done.
==> TYPE I ... done.  ==> CWD (1) /pub/test ... done.
==> SIZE 10mb.bin ... 10485760
==> PASV ... done.    ==> RETR 10mb.bin ... done.
Length: 10485760 (10M) (unauthoritative)

100%[===================================================>] 10,485,760  1.09M/s   in 9.8s    

2011-06-27 23:36:31 (1.02 MB/s) - `10mb.bin' saved [10485760]

Use wget or curl as shown in the script according to your wishes and try to find a server more close to your region (Slovenia). Most are in NL, but maybe .IT will fit your needs: http://www.filewatcher.com/m/10mb.bin.10485760.0.0.html

Solution 5

You can also try http://dl.getipaddr.net

They use curl (which is a well known command line utility) to run a speed test.

The code is published on GitHub as well. In short,

wget https://raw.github.com/blackdotsh/curl-speedtest/master/speedtest.sh && chmod u+x speedtest.sh && bash speedtest.sh

View more solutions

31,531

giZm0

Student of Computer Science

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

giZm0 over 1 year

I'm looking for a tool that will test my internet connection bandwidth and create an simple report like speedtest does.

Do you know some program/tool that do this? Something with CentOS packages would be nice.
giZm0 almost 13 years

can you give me an example how to use ttcp?
giZm0 almost 13 years

If I don't have 2 machines?
Admin almost 13 years

If you don't have two machines, ttcp is worthless. It just sends a specified number of bytes over TCP or UDP as fast as it cam, and reports how long it took. Too simple, like I wrote above.
giZm0 almost 13 years

I try it, but it doesn't work...
J.C. Yamokoski almost 13 years

@wolfy, can you give me some more details? error messages perhaps...
giZm0 almost 13 years

Thanks for this. Do you know how can I measure my upload?
Henk almost 13 years

Try using cURL. Look into the cURL manpage under uploading: cs.sunysb.edu/documentation/curl/index.html and improve / enhance the above script yourself ;-)
giZm0 almost 13 years

when I run it, it only print that it starts testing and quit... no error, no info... maybe something in code is missing... I corrected the full path to speedtest.php, but this doesn't helped...
J.C. Yamokoski almost 13 years

sounds like it might be dying when it attempts to run curl_init. run "php -m | grep curl" to make sure you have the curl module installed and if not that would be your problem.
giZm0 almost 13 years

I will try and let you know :)
giZm0 almost 13 years

OK, now I have curl module, but when it runs I get: download: 0 M/s (but I have 2M)... then testing upload and nothing...
Janhouse over 11 years

It has been updated and moved to Github. github.com/Janhouse/tespeed
ekoeppen over 11 years

This would be considered as link only answer. Add more elaborative info from the link to your answer.
manatwork about 11 years

Offtopic, but if somebody has no git installed, wget https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli/archive/master.zip seems easier then installing git just to clone.