How to make an internet speed test on a Raspberry Pi

Hello!

In today’s world, where high-speed Internet access is crucial, monitoring and optimizing network speeds is becoming increasingly important. In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at how to use the speedtest-cli tool on the popular Raspberry Pi to conduct an effective test of Internet access speed.

Learn how to quickly and easily install and configure this tool to get valuable information on the performance of your local network. Discover how to track download and upload speeds, which can be useful for monitoring your Internet connection.

What is speedtest-cli?

Speedtest-cli is a command line interface (CLI) tool for conducting Internet speed tests without using a browser GUI. It was created by Matt Martz, who is a software developer and an active member of the open source community. It is a simple, easy-to-use application that allows users to quickly and conveniently check the download speed, upload speed and latency of their Internet connection.

The speedtest-cli tool uses Speedtest.net, a popular platform for measuring Internet speeds. During the test, the tool establishes a connection to the nearest Speedtest.net server, uploads and downloads data, and then presents results such as download speed (download), upload speed (upload) and latency (ping).

Preparation

Before we start checking the speed of the Internet, it is a good idea to properly prepare our device – I will use Raspberry Pi version 4B for the tutorial. We will issue commands to our device via SSH.

• Currently, you can already use the commercially available Raspberry Pi 5, however, its availability is very low. I recommend using rpilocator.com to see where you can currently get a reasonably priced device;
• For Microsoft Windows operating system I recommend PuTTY, while for Apple macOS operating systems I recommend Termius.

Step 1 – Update package list and upload updates

• Launch PuTTY (Windows OS) or Termius (macOS), then connect to your device,
• Enter the following command to update the package list and install available updates: