Iperf is a free open-source software tool that provides a capability to measure the throughput between two hosts using both Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) data streams. The software can be run in either server or client mode. To determine the network bandwidth available between two systems, you can run iperf in server mode on one of the systems and in client mode on the other.
NetServer is a pack of servers for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP, controlled and configured by an easy to use interface designed for the project which will run in the systray. This includes Apache+PHP, MySql, Filezilla FTP Server, hMailServer and PHP scrip. In this video, I install iperf3 network speed testing software on a Windows 10 PC.iPerf3 software: Playlist: https:/. The installation is very straightforward if compiled with no parameters:./configure. In that case the installation is successfull. However, I'm installing netperf to run with flent for bandwidth benchmarking, so netperf needs to be compiled with the -enable-demo option. So, when I type./configure -enable-demo, all seems to be ok.
The software is available for a variety of operating systems. You can download iPerf binaries from iPerf - The network bandwidth measurement tool for the following operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows
- Android
- iPhone / iPad
- Apple OS X
- Download iPerf for Ubuntu / Debian / Mint
- Download iPerf for Fedora / Red Hat / CentOS
- Download iPerf for openSUSE
- Download iPerf for Arch Linux
- Download iPerf for FreeBSD
You can also download the C++ source code from that page. Alternatively, if you are using a Linux distribution, you may be able to install it using a standard package management tool for the particular distribution of Linux that you are using. E.g., see Installing iperf on CentOS for instructions on how to install the software with yum.
If you install the software on two systems you control, you can test between those systems. There are also public iPerf3 servers in various parts of the world with which you can test. Those systems are running in server mode, so you use client mode on your local system when testing with them. You specify client mode with the -c option. You can see the available options for the program by issuing the command iperf -h from a command prompt while in the directory where you installed the software on the Microsoft Windows system.
Install Netperf On Windows Download
For a Microsoft Windows system, you need only download the zip file for Windows, unzip the contents of the file, and then move the two files within the zip file, which are cygwin1.dll and iperf3.exe, if you downloaded a version 3 release of the software, to whatever directory you wish to keep the program in. Note: you can't test between a host running version 3 and one running version 2; both systems need to be running a version with the same major version unumber, e.g., a 2.x or 3.x version.
The download site offers 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the software. If you have a 32-bit version of Windows, you should use a 32-bit version and if you have a 64-bit version of Windows you should use the 64-bit version. If you don't know whether your version of Microsoft Windows is 32-bit or 64-bit, see Determining if your version of Windows is a 32-bit or 64-bit version.
To test with a public iperf3 server, bouygues.testdebit.info, located in France, I could issue the command iperf3 -c bouygues.testdebit.info using the iperf3 software installed on a Microsoft Windows system. Note: if you see the error message below, you may need to open a command prompt window in administrator mode to be able to test with iperf on the Windows system.
To open a command prompt window where you can run the command with administrator permissions, see the instructions at Obtaining a Command Prompt on a Windows 8 System; the steps for other versions of Windows are similar.
If you run the software in client mode, you will see output similar to the following, which is from a test with the public test server bouygues.testdebit.info.
For this particular test, the client system could achieve a bandwidth of about 7 - 8 Mbs, which was fairly good considering the client system was constrained by a 10 Mbs local area network (LAN) connection.
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Download: http://www.chriswolf.com/download/netperf.zip
Bottleneck Battle
When you suspect a performance problem is related to a network bottleneck, use this simple tool to verify your suspicions.
- By Chris Wolf
- 09/13/2005
--JimJim: At first I was hesitant to answer your question. Finger pointing has been a long standing tradition in IT, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to do anything to upset that delicate balance. Many of my friends like to 'blame the other guy' when they find themselves in a jam. This gives them a few hours (or sometimes even days!) to solve a problem while the customer verifies that it isn’t with another vendor.
Now before all of you jump down my throat, I am not condoning this behavior! While blaming the other guy could be used as a diversion tactic, most administrators are often very confident in their abilities and, as a result, find in hard to believe that a performance problem exists on their network. When you find yourself in this situation and are looking to narrow down the cause of a problem, I have had a lot of success using the open source tool Netperf, which was developed by HP engineer Rick Jones. Netperf is a light-weight vendor neutral tool that will give you instantaneous network throughput between two points.
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The latest version of Netperf can be downloaded from the official Netperf site. Note that the download site will provide access to the Netperf source code. You will need to compile it in order to run it. Netperf can be successfully compiled to run on Windows, Unix or Linux. If you’re not in a compiling kind of mood, you can download a compiled copy of the netperf tools from my Web site.
Run netserver.exe on one system and netclient.exe on the other system to arrive at a throughput value between the two systems.
By default, when you run Netserver, it uses port 12865. With the –p switch, you can specify a different port for the command to use. Once executed, Netserver will continue to run until a client connects to it.
While there are numerous options that accompany the Netclient command, for performing throughput tests, you only need to be concerned with –H and possibly –p if testing throughput between two remote sites through a firewall. If you’re interested in the numerous other switches available with Netperf, go here.
Once you have the netserver.exe file on one system and the netclient.exe file on the second system, you would perform these steps to test throughput:
1. On the first system, access the command prompt and run netserver.exe (you must run the command from the folder where it resides).
2. From the second system, run netclient.exe –H from the command prompt.
Wait a few seconds and you will see the throughput information displayed on the system that ran Netclient. You will also see the netserver command execution automatically terminate on the first system.
Here is a sample of the command and resultant output from running Netclient:
G:Netperf>netclient -H fs1.mcpmag.com
TCP STREAM TEST to fs1.mcpmag.com
Recv Send Send
Socket Socket Message Elapsed
Size Size Size Time Throughput
bytes bytes bytes secs. 10^6bits/sec
8192 64512 64512 10.00 97.30
In my example, I first went to the server named fs1.mcpmag.com and ran the command netserver.exe. I then went to another system and ran 'netclient –H fs1.mcpmag.com.' The resultant throughput between the two systems was 97.3 Mbps. This demonstrated that the 100Mbps LAN connecting the two systems was running fine. A low throughput value would identify a network bottleneck. At that point, you would need to go through the usual suspects (NIC drivers, duplex mode, speed, switch settings, etc.) to determine the root cause of the problem.
Install Netperf On Windows 10
If you are having to install network software on another organization’s network, Netperf can quickly give you a throughput measurement that will allow you to either identify or rule out the network as being problem. I like Netperf because I can run in on nearly any OS. I’m sure that many of you have a favorite network performance testing tool. If so, please share the love and post information about the tool as a comment to this column.
About the Author
Netperf Servers
Chris Wolf is a Microsoft MVP for Windows --Virtual Machine and is a MCSE, MCT, and CCNA. He's a Senior Analyst for Burton Group who specializes in the areas of virtualization solutions, high availability, storage and enterprise management. Chris is the author of Virtualization: From the Desktop to the Enterprise (Apress), Troubleshooting Microsoft Technologies (Addison Wesley), and a contributor to theWindows Server 2003 Deployment Kit (Microsoft Press).learningstore-20/'>Troubleshooting Microsoft Technologies (Addison Wesley) and a contributor to the Windows Server 2003 Deployment Kit (Microsoft Press).