How to run a command line speedtest (not web!)

[Anyar Bakalin]

For two reasons, it's a pain to run a web-based speedtest:
1. My Linux browser doesn't have flash (so most don't work)
(eg speedtest.comcast.net, speedtest.net).
2. It's faster to run a quick speedtest via the command line
(eg ping 8.8.8.8, traceroute 8.8.8.8)

Of course, I run a traceroute and ping, but is there a command-line
speedtest ability that will get us up and down megabits per second?




$ traceroute !$
traceroute 8.8.8.8
traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
1 * * *
2 * * *
3 * * *
..... same thing all the way to 30.


$ ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=114 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=233 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=3 ttl=53 time=135 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=4 ttl=53 time=151 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=5 ttl=53 time=179 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=6 ttl=53 time=176 ms
^C
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
6 packets transmitted, 6 received, 0% packet loss, time 5003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 114.146/164.989/233.309/38.050 ms

[Mike Easter]

Anyar Bakalin wrote:
> is there a command-line speedtest ability that will get us up and
> down megabits per second?

https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli Command line interface for
testing internet bandwidth using speedtest.net

http://ubuntuserverguide.com/2014/01/how-to-test-internet-connection-speed-using-speedtest-cli-on-ubuntu-server.html
how to test the Internet connection speed on ubuntu server using the
command line tool called speedtest-cli.



--
Mike Easter

[John Hasler]

Mike Easter writes:
> https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli Command line interface for testing
> internet bandwidth using speedtest.net

It's in Debian as well. Thank you. I did not know about that.
--
John Hasler
jha...@newsguy.com
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA

[William Unruh]

On 2015-11-06, Anyar Bakalin <abak...@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> For two reasons, it's a pain to run a web-based speedtest:
> 1. My Linux browser doesn't have flash (so most don't work)
> (eg speedtest.comcast.net, speedtest.net).
> 2. It's faster to run a quick speedtest via the command line
> (eg ping 8.8.8.8, traceroute 8.8.8.8)

That is not a speedtest.

>
> Of course, I run a traceroute and ping, but is there a command-line
> speedtest ability that will get us up and down megabits per second?

Transfer a large file from one computer to another. Use rsync or ftp or
scp say. rsync with --progress will even give you a running "speed"
although it is a bit upset by the intial setup of rsync.

>
>
>
>
> $ traceroute !$
> traceroute 8.8.8.8
> traceroute to 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
> 1 * * *
> 2 * * *
> 3 * * *
> ..... same thing all the way to 30.

It means that the intermediat steps do not respond to echo requests. Not
unuaual these days.
But why 8.8.8.8?

[Anyar Bakalin]

On Fri, 06 Nov 2015 21:52:22 +0000, William Unruh wrote:

> Transfer a large file from one computer to another. Use rsync or ftp or
> scp say. rsync with --progress will even give you a running "speed"
> although it is a bit upset by the intial setup of rsync.

What machine on the net can I transfer that file to from my home?

[tjoen]

John Hasler wrote:

> It's in Debian as well. Thank you. I did not know about that.

What does it mean to "be in debian"?
I'm on Ubuntu. But this failed.
$ sudo apt-get install speedtest-cli

This worked:
$ sudo apt-get install python-pip
$ sudo pip install speedtest-cli

I don't know what "pip" is, but can I delete it now?
If I delete "pip", will it affect the speedtest-cli?

[Anyar Bakalin]

On Fri, 06 Nov 2015 12:05:54 -0800, Mike Easter wrote:

> https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli

> testing internet bandwidth using speedtest.net

Thanks!
Worked like a charm!

$ speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from Cox Communications (72.203.195.92)...
Selecting best server based on latency...
Hosted by CCI Systems (Lake Buena Vista) [164.86 km]: 160.869 ms
Testing download speed................................
Download: 6.26 Mbit/s

Testing upload
speed.................................................
Upload: 1.48 Mbit/s

[John Hasler]

I wrote:
> It's in Debian as well. Thank you. I did not know about that.

tjoen writes:
> What does it mean to "be in debian"?

It means that there is a speedtest-cli package in the Debian archive.

> I'm on Ubuntu. But this failed.
> $ sudo apt-get install speedtest-cli

How?

> This worked:
> $ sudo apt-get install python-pip
> $ sudo pip install speedtest-cli

> I don't know what "pip" is

Package: python-pip
Version: 1.5.6-7
Installed-Size: 455
Maintainer: Debian Python Modules Team <python-mo...@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Architecture: all
Depends: ca-certificates, python-colorama, python-distlib, python-html5lib, python-pkg-resources, python-requests, python-setuptools (>= 0.6c1), python-six, python, python:any (<< 2.8), python:any (>= 2.7.5-5~)
Recommends: build-essential, python-dev-all (>= 2.6), python-wheel
Description-en: alternative Python package installer
pip is a replacement for easy_install, and is intended to be an improved
Python package installer. It integrates with virtualenv, doesn't do partial
installs, can save package state for replaying, can install from non-egg
sources, and can install from version control repositories.
Description-md5: 8d21e4048f43043df36daaae334010b5
Homepage: http://www.pip-installer.org/

[Mike Easter]

tjoen wrote:
> I don't know what "pip" is, but can I delete it now?
> If I delete "pip", will it affect the speedtest-cli?

There is plenty to read about at the Python Packaging User Guide, but
the fastest way for you to find out is to uninstall python-pip and see
if speedtest-cli still runs; I think that it would, as speedtest-cli is
simply a python script and you still have python.

https://python-packaging-user-guide.readthedocs.org/en/latest/install_requirements_linux/




--
Mike Easter