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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.

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6 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

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!

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can you give me an example how to use ttcp? – Wolfy Jun 27 '11 at 16:25
If I don't have 2 machines? – Wolfy Jun 27 '11 at 17:04
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. – Bruce Ediger Jun 27 '11 at 17:20
up vote 0 down vote

I recommend the speedtest-cli tool for this. I created a blog post (Measure Internet Connection Speed from the Linux Command Line) that goes into detail of downloading, installing and usage of it.

Install Git (APT)

$ sudo apt-get install git-core

Install Git (YUM)

$ sudo yum install git

Clone the Repository from GitHub

$ git clone https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli.git

Sample Usage and Output

$ ./speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from Comcast Cable (x.x.x.x)...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by FiberCloud, Inc (Seattle, WA) [12.03 km]: 44.028 ms
Testing download speed........................................
Download: 32.29 Mbit/s
Testing upload speed..................................................
Upload: 5.18 Mbit/s
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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. – manatwork Mar 19 at 9:07
up vote 0 down vote

speed testing an internet connection or between two endpoints depends on several factors. Like the window size,jitter,unordered delivery etc. Refer: Internet Speed test through Command line.

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This would be considered as link only answer. Add more elaborative info from the link to your answer. – mtk Feb 5 at 7:49
up vote 1 down vote

I'm just repeating the answers listed on this (deleted?) stackoverflow question: http://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

or

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

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/

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up vote 1 down vote

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

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Thanks for this. Do you know how can I measure my upload? – Wolfy Jun 28 '11 at 7:28
Try using cURL. Look into the cURL manpage under uploading: cs.sunysb.edu/documentation/curl/index.html and improve / enhance the above script yourself ;-) – Henk Jun 28 '11 at 7:49
up vote 3 down vote

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/

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I try it, but it doesn't work... – Wolfy Jun 27 '11 at 19:53
1  
@wolfy, can you give me some more details? error messages perhaps... – jonyamo Jun 27 '11 at 21:12
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... – Wolfy Jun 28 '11 at 12:42
1  
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. – jonyamo Jun 28 '11 at 14:47
I will try and let you know :) – Wolfy Jun 29 '11 at 6:12
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