Nperf not same speed as Pfsense traffic graph

Autourdupc

Hello.

I'm running pfsense 2.7.2-RELEASE (amd64) on PC Engines APU2 (BIOS v4.19.0.1).

Wan is linked in Gb to a box (fiber link to the Internet)
Lan is linked in Gb.

When I run a speed test with nperf, the speed differs from the speed measured in traffic graph.

What is wrong ?

johnpoz

@Autourdupc looks your showing Bytes in graph vs bits..

Divide the numbers your seeing /8 to get Bytes..

Autourdupc

@johnpoz

Thanks... But not this !

Any other idea ?

MoonKnight

@Autourdupc

Hi,
Did you test from www.speedtest.net also to make sure nothing is wrong with nperf?

Autourdupc

@MoonKnight said in Nperf not same speed as Pfsense traffic graph:

Did you test from www.speedtest.net also to make sure nothing is wrong with nperf?

It seems not better !

stephenw10

That's still the difference between bits and Bytes. What exactly are you expecting to see on the traffic graph there?

pwood999

Just to make it clearer, speedtest websites generally use Mb/s which is "Mega-Bits per second".

PfSense has the option to display in either Bits/sec or Bytes/sec. You need to select "bits" for the Unit Size.

Autourdupc

@pwood999 @stephenw10

What I found strange is not bits, bytes, ...
It concerns the values.
I mean :
Measured by speedtest : 150 while pFsense measure more than 200
Same with nperf measure : 189 while pFsense measure much more than 200

But you are right.
Setting pFsense using "Bits" give the same as Speedtest.

Thanks you very much for answering and explanations.

stephenw10

What sort of WAN connection do you have? Something with overhead like PPPoE or over some VPN?

Autourdupc

@stephenw10
Just a fiber link with a french box named "Freebox".

Fiber ------>  Freebox -----------> pfsense  ------------->  LAN
     82.x.x.x          192.168.0.x            192.168.20.x

stephenw10

So just DHCP?

Autourdupc

@stephenw10
pfsense ?
DNS resolver, DHCP, VPN (OpenVPN) when I'm out of home, PABX (via WAN to SIP account and via VPN when I'm out of home) + IP phone on LAN, VLAN for cameras, pfBlockerNG
And also some QoS for VoIP.

stephenw10

No I mean the WAN type? If the WAN is something encapsulated then that would mean additional traffic on the NIC.

Autourdupc

@stephenw10

Nothing special... Only Gigabits IP link with Freebox

johnpoz

@Autourdupc No he means like some sort of tunnel, or something like PPPoE

Also keep in mind speed test is only showing you from and to your specific client and their servers.. while the interfaces on pfsense are going to show all traffic.. If your network is quiet while testing there shouldn't be much difference.. But its never going to be exactly the same - for starters on the wan there always going to be some noise level.. And same with lan you could have other traffic that doesn't even go out the wan or it might.

Also they are presenting you with 1 number, which is not the case with pfsense showing you a graph.. that data flow rate is going to fluctuate - they present just 1 number, which is never the case.. It doesn't jump to 100, and stay exactly at 100 for 30 seconds.

Also the graph on pfsense is going to do smoothing of what it presents of some different degrees..

I really wouldn't worry about it as long as your in the same ball park number.. But yeah you have to look at the numbers either both bits or both bytes and or do the math conversion in your head.. Because there is a 8X difference between B and b..