Re: [gentoo-amd64] Measure network speeds between machines?

[David Klann]

On Thu, 6 Jun 2013 12:09:14 -0700 you coerced some electrons to say:

> Hi,
>    Just taking a shot at the dark on this list before I ask something
> in the forums. Is there a simple app (or even something at the command
> line) that I can use to measure network throughput between two Gentoo
> machines on my internal network?
>
>    Background: We sold our house & moved. Comcast talked me into
> getting there new 'Blast' level Internet service with "speed up to
> 50Mb/S" but darned if it isn't slower than regular Comcast ISP service
> was a the previous house. In our house I typically got about 27Mb/S
> download using something like www.Speakeasy.net/speedtest at a
> measurement tool. Here I've never gotten higher than 22Mb/S. I do
> however get much better upload speeds - about 12Mb/S instead of the
> 5Mb/S I got at the house.
>
>    Granted, 'up to 50Mb/S' might mean 1Mb/S, but that's not the way
> they market it. ;-)
>
>    Before I engage Comcast this apartment has wired Ethernet and a
> provided 8-port switch in the wiring closet. I want to measure speeds
> between machines going through that switch to ensure it's not causing
> any problems.
>
> Thanks,
> Mark
>

Hey Mark,

emerge net-analyzer/{netperf,nttcp, etc.}

on both machines and run the client and server (one on each end). That'll
tell you what throughput you can get (between any two machines, actually).

I've used ttcp (and nttcp) for a long time, but netperf is one I've not
tried until now. Seems pretty usable. With netperf you run "netserver" on
one machine and "netperf" on the other (the "benchmark"). Man pages are
helpful...

There are plenty of other tools out there for measuring network throughput
have a glance at some of them in net-analyzer.

Hope this helps.

  ~David