3
3
Is there an utility that can test the speed between my pc and the wireless access point i am connected to?
To clarify why i need to know this. My isp is providing me with a speed of 20mbs. Now if my access point can sustain that speed then it's all fine. If not then i have a bottleneck, i need to know
Tomasi
Posted 2010-04-24T22:23:14.970
Reputation: 785
6
Transfer a file from one PC to another PC via the wireless link and watch the transfer speed. Seriously, it can be that easy. Unless you're searching for much more specific metrics... but no mention of that was in your post.
Wesley
Posted 2010-04-24T22:23:14.970
Reputation: 4 359
3I don't know why this was downvoted; it's correct. – Jeff Atwood – 2010-04-25T06:40:00.373
@JeffAtwood: My guess would be the downvote was because it could be read to suggest transferring a file between two wireless PCs. – David Schwartz – 2013-07-06T19:06:39.433
4
sudo ping -f 192.168.1.1 -s 65000
And watch some download-upload meter as gkrellm or du meter or such.
Exclude sudo if on Windows, replace 192.168.1.1 with your router's IP adress.
mama
Posted 2010-04-24T22:23:14.970
Reputation: 41
This may cause massive packet loss - I got that, so I reduced the -s argument until the packet loss was more realistic. – Robin Green – 2016-01-23T14:42:32.267
3
Got it, here are the steps i took to determine the speed:
Tomasi
Posted 2010-04-24T22:23:14.970
Reputation: 785
So as you can see it is far less than the theoretical max of 54 mbs. – Tomasi – 2010-04-24T23:09:57.933
4Unless the main use of your wireless network consists of sending icmp packets back and forth, that is probably the worst possible test you could perform. – user23307 – 2010-04-24T23:15:50.197
Well, I tend to disagree. My download speed hovers at exactly that speed. – Tomasi – 2010-04-24T23:21:40.727
1so download speeds over a long lived tcp connection are what you really care about? That is what you should be testing then, not icmp. – user23307 – 2010-04-24T23:44:19.643
You really think that there is a significant difference in transfer speed between TCP and ICMP? If there is any it must be less than 1% which is negligible. – Tomasi – 2010-04-25T00:02:12.987
1Most times they you will pay for a speed (say 20Mb/s) but they will only guarantee 80% of that. – Josh K – 2010-04-25T00:22:46.260
Even if people say it's a bad test - it's surprisingly pretty accurate. Obviously you wouldn't use such a test in a PhD thesis, but for testing home/small business it works. Motorola AP vs E1000 running DD-WRT shows a huge difference. – Natalie Adams – 2014-05-31T20:37:03.683
3
As others have pointed out, it is very, very unlikely that your access point hardware is a realistic candidate to be the bottleneck.
The possible bottlenecks are
your router / access point -- so unlikely it's not even worth considering, frankly, unless the hardware is literally broken with wires poking out of it.
wireless signal quality -- if it's low enough, it will be slower throughput than your ISP. It'd have to be terrible though. Can happen, though, depending how sketchy the wireless signal is from your current location.
your ISP's bandwidth -- for most people, unless you have a ridiculously crazy stupid fast internet connection, I can safely say how much bandwidth your ISP provides to you will be the bottleneck for transferring files over the internet.
Bottom line, do some file transfers and see. If you want to rule out your ISP and test wireless signal quality, just copy a file from one WiFi connected PC on your network to another WiFi connected PC.
Jeff Atwood
Posted 2010-04-24T22:23:14.970
Reputation: 22 108
1
Ping it. Grab the IP address of the router and measure ping response times. This won't give you a kb/sec rate unless you want to do some math with the ping packet size and the ms time.
Josh K
Posted 2010-04-24T22:23:14.970
Reputation: 11 754
The ping utility does not have a sufficient precision. The results i get is 1ms. It is rounded, so even if i calculate the speed it will be very approximate. – Tomasi – 2010-04-24T22:46:27.643
And besides if i am not mistaken the ping command send's the packet and then get's it back, so there is an overhead. – Tomasi – 2010-04-24T22:48:12.837
Right, so it's wicked fast. As mentioned, if you're looking for 20mbs you can almost take a turd and plug an ethernet cable into it and get 20mbs. Wireless-N routers are looking at 300mbs, G is 54mbs. – Josh K – 2010-04-24T23:01:51.913
54 theoretical at optimal conditions. In practice they manage much much less. – Tomasi – 2010-04-24T23:03:49.257
1so "practice" and see what sort of throughput you get. – user23307 – 2010-04-24T23:12:39.673
0
Ping it with various packet size, but forget the math. Get a network speed showing utility (like Gkrellm) and see what speed does it show to you. This is the exact speed of your wireless link. Don't forget that speed is variable due to different parameters, like distance between your laptop and the router and obstacles between them.
Ivan Petrushev
Posted 2010-04-24T22:23:14.970
Reputation: 1 591
1If that is what you are trying to determine then transferring data between a wired computer and a wireless computer on your lan is a perfectly acceptable test. Also, 20mbs is nothing, a piece of crap wrt54g can do 20mb – user23307 – 2010-04-24T22:59:40.017
Providing you with 20mbs speeds doesn't mean you will necessarily get 20mbs – cutrightjm – 2013-07-06T18:51:24.987