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    How to use pfSense to do a speed test?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • T
      torontob
      last edited by

      Hi everyone,

      Are there any GUI packages or CLI packages that can allow for speed test on pfSense?

      Thanks,

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • GruensFroeschliG
        GruensFroeschli
        last edited by

        You can use the "iperf" package.
        However this only tests traffic "to" of "from" the pfSense.
        What you're interested in is throughput.

        So basically:
        Put a PC in front and behind the pfSense and do the iperf between those two.

        This thread might help you:
        http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,54034.0.html

        We do what we must, because we can.

        Asking questions the smart way: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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        • T
          torontob
          last edited by

          Looking for something more like speedtest.net results. And I don't want to invovle any other devices as I only have access to pfSense and want to use it to show me the throughput to various speed test sites that do NOT belong to me.

          Thanks,

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            You can get a good measure of the download speed by just fetching a file from known good source. E.g.

            [2.0-RC3][root@pfsense.fire.box]/root(2): fetch -o /dev/null http://download.thinkbroadband.com/50MB.zip
            /dev/null                                     100% of   50 MB 1961 kBps 00m00s
            

            Upload is a lot more difficult to test.
            You can't use a site like speedtest.net because they rely on using a javascript client.

            Steve

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            • M
              mr_bobo
              last edited by

              You can test upload and download speed at dslreports.com but you have to have Java installed.

              http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest?java=1

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                There's this:
                https://github.com/sivel/speedtest-cli
                It would require compiling and needs python. Not exactly straight forward.

                Steve

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                • GruensFroeschliG
                  GruensFroeschli
                  last edited by

                  Maybe you need to define first what you want to test:
                  Do you want to test the pfSense or do you want to test the link to the internet (with pfSense).

                  If you just want to test the link, you can use the iperf package.
                  There are free and open to the public iperf servers.
                  (example: iperf.eltel.net)

                  If you want to test the pfSense there's no way around using additional devices besides the pfSense itself.

                  We do what we must, because we can.

                  Asking questions the smart way: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    Ah, I did not realise that. Public iperf servers. Thanks!  :)

                    Steve

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