WiscNet hosted speedtest.net
For a quick and easy speed test you may use WiscNet's HTML based browser test here speedtest.wiscnet.net.
Please note:
The accuracy of this speed test diminishes with larger bandwidth circuits
The hardware performance of the client running this test has a significant impacts results
WiscNet hosted Iperf
Iperf is a measurement tool developed by ESnet / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For more information please visit http://software.es.net/iperf/ and https://github.com/esnet/iperf
Please note:
The hardware performance of the client running this test has a significant impacts results
WiscNet has noticed that the Iperf clients for Linux, Unix, and macOS perform better than the ports for Windows
Some common Iperf flags
Enter iperf -h or man iperf depending on your operating system. Here are some common flags:
Flag | Details | Example |
---|---|---|
-c | Client mode | -c |
-t | Time to run the test in seconds | -t 30 |
-P | Number of parallel connections | -P 2 |
-u | UDP (default is TCP) | -u |
-b | Bandwidth per thread | -b 250m |
-i | Interval between bandwidth reports in seconds | -i 1 |
-L | Listen on port | -L 5001 |
-r | bidirectional test (individually) | -r |
-d | bidirectional test (simultaneously) | -d |
TCP vs UDP testing
Iperf uses TCP by default. TCP has built in congestion avoidance. If TCP detects any packet loss, it assumes that the link capacity has been reached, and it slows down. This works very well, unless there is packet loss caused by something other than congestion. If there is packet loss due to errors, TCP will back off even if there is plenty of capacity. iperf allows TCP to send as fast as it can, which generally works to fill a clean, low latency link with packets. If a path is not clean/error free or has high latency, TCP will have a difficult time filling it. For testing higher capacity links and for links with higher latency, you will want to adjust the window size (-w option).
By using the -u option, you have told iperf to use UDP packets, rather than TCP. UDP has no built in congestion avoidance, and iperf doesn't implement it either. When doing a UDP test, iperf requires that the bandwidth of the test be specified. If it isn't, it defaults to 1Mb/s. You can use the -b option to specify bandwidth to test. iperf will then send packets at the request rate for the requested period of time. The other end measures how many packets are received vs how many were sent and reports its results.
Examples
Unidirectional UDP 1Gbps circuit test
Command
iperf -c iperf.wiscnet.net -t 10 -P 4 -u -b 250m -i1
Results
When runing multiple threads you must look at the SUM lines for total throughput. Output below shows successfully getting 953Mbits/sec through
Bidirectional UDP 1Gbps circuit test
Check your firewall settings and NAT to ensure port 5001 is open to your host
Command
iperf -c iperf.wiscnet.net -t 10 -P 4 -u -b 250m -i1 -r