Method for testing bandwidth/speed between two set points

I often work from home and wanted to see how good the connection was between the two points. I can speed test both locations of course, but that isn't necessarily representative of the actual throughput between the two points.

Given the different ISP's and service speeds, I imagine I'd get different results depending on which end I test from. One connection has 3x the upload speed making it the better server end I believe.

The results of a test like this test would be useful and interesting for determining how I might configure network services.

Enigma

Posted 2013-02-07T18:03:47.563

Reputation: 3 181

1I was going to suggest thrulay. – Dan D. – 2013-04-22T03:33:55.860

@DanD.- You should put that as an answer. – Enigma – 2013-04-22T14:31:56.560

Answers

Setup an FTP server on the end points.
Setup an FTP client on the other end(s).
Use FTP to transfer a large(ish) test file in each direction (do upload and download tests on both ends).
Do it a few times to get an average time/speed.
Repeat after making configuration changes.

Recommended FTP Server/Client: FileZilla

Perhaps check out these related questions for some ideas as well:

Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007

Posted 2013-02-07T18:03:47.563

Reputation: 103 763

I was thinking of a different approach requiring less set-up but this would certainly work. Is there a port 80/443 based approach not necessarily FTP? – Enigma – 2013-02-07T18:29:10.137

You can set FileZilla to use any port you'd like (in both the server and client). – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-02-07T18:31:46.090

True. The something I had in mind was along the lines of a VPN style Point-to-Point routine that would send a good sized dummy file. Is there no automatic testing metric like this? The install would be similar to configuring FTP regardless but it would be more representative of my usage given the different nature of VPN/remoting protocols. – Enigma – 2013-02-07T18:36:42.960

1OK, hook up a VPN between the points, then use FTP over the VPN. :) Generally, pipe size is pipe size; which protocols are used across the pipe make little difference unless they're specifically being shaped by your ISP in between (like say, torrent traffic). – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2013-02-07T18:43:26.213

Ah, simple enough. I was thinking that encryption/encapsulation may be different but I guess that doesn't make a difference in this scope. – Enigma – 2013-02-07T18:44:43.720

iperf3 seems good. It works in linux:

sudo apt-get install iperf

On one computer, you run iperf -s and on the other computer you run iperf -c <first computer hostname>

For a Windows version, try iperf2:

http://iperf.fr/

Eyal

Posted 2013-02-07T18:03:47.563

Reputation: 543