How to use pfSense to do a speed test?

[torontob]

Hi everyone,

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

Thanks,

[GruensFroeschli]

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

[torontob]

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,

[stephenw10]

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

[mr_bobo]

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

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

[stephenw10]

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

Steve

[GruensFroeschli]

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.

[stephenw10]

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

Steve