These days, everyone has a super fast internet connection and the days of slow dial up internet are long gone (thankfully!). But how do you know if you are getting the download and upload speed that you are paying for? Sure, there are websites you can go to, but you may have noticed that you are not getting the results you should be. And when you try a different web browser, you get different results which makes things even more confusing.
Speedtest.net is a popular website used to check internet speeds for your connection. It will use local servers close to your location and you can even choose different ones to test with. But since you are using it via a web browser, you may not get accurate results. Things such web browser security settings or extensions can interfere with the results. In this article, we will be showing you how to use the Speedtest desktop app & command line internet speed testing tools.
The Speedtest Desktop App
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Ookla, the makers of Speedtest, have a desktop application that you can download via the Microsoft store for Windows users. After installing the app, you will have a standalone tool you can use to check your internet speed without needing to use a web browser. To install the Speedtest desktop app, simply open the Microsoft Store app and search for Speedtest. Within the results, be sure to choose the correct one and make sure the publisher is Ookla. Then click on the Get\Install button to have it installed on your computer.
The image below shows the Speedtest results using the Speedtest.net website on the Google Chrome web browser. This internet connection should be between 300-400 Mbps, but as you can see, we are only getting 15 Mbps download speed.
Now we will run the speed test again using the same GigabitNow server using the Speedtest desktop app.
As you can see in the image below, we now get over 400 Mbps for our speed now which is what we should be getting.
At the bottom of the app, you can click the right arrow to select another server to see how your results will vary when doing so.
The Speedtest Command Line Interface (CLI)
If you prefer to do things via the command line, then you can download the Speedtest CLI tool to do so. Once you extract the zip file, you will have a file called speedtest.exe. You can double click this file to run the CLI tool but it will close once the test has completed.
A better method to use is to open a command prompt and navigate to the directory where you have extracted the zip file. Then you can simply type in speedtest at the prompt to start the tool. The first time you run it, you will need to type in yes to accept the license agreement.
Then the tool will perform a download and upload speed test just like the desktop app and website tools do.
At the end of the results, you will be given a link that you can click on to take you to the Speedtest website to view your results in a more user friendly format.
The Speedtest command line tool also has some switches you can use to tweak how the tool performs its tests. You can do things such as change the testing server, list the nearest server and change the output format. You can type speedtest -help at the prompt to see the available options.
| -h, –help | Print usage information |
| -V, –version | Print version number |
| -L, –servers | List nearest servers |
| -s, –server-id=# | Specify a server from the server list using its id |
| -I, –interface=ARG | Attempt to bind to the specified interface when connecting to servers |
| -i, –ip=ARG | Attempt to bind to the specified IP address when connecting to servers |
| -o, –host=ARG | Specify a server, from the server list, using its host’s fully qualified domain name |
| -p, –progress=yes|no | Enable or disable progress bar (Note: only available for ‘human-readable’ or ‘json’ and defaults to yes when interactive) |
| -P, –precision=# | Number of decimals to use (0-8, default=2) |
| -f, –format=ARG | Output format (see below for valid formats) |
| –progress-update-interval=# Progress update interval (100-1000 milliseconds) | |
| -u, –unit[=ARG] | Output unit for displaying speeds (Note: this is only applicable |
| for ΓÇÿhuman-readableΓÇÖ output format and the default unit is Mbps) | |
| -a | Shortcut for [-u auto-decimal-bits] |
| -A | Shortcut for [-u auto-decimal-bytes] |
| -b | Shortcut for [-u auto-binary-bits] |
| -B | Shortcut for [-u auto-binary-bytes] |
| –selection-details | Show server selection details |
| -v | Logging verbosity. Specify multiple times for higher verbosity |
| –output-header | Show output header for CSV and TSV formats |
As you can see, there are better options to use to check your internet speed than simple website speed testing pages. Both the Speedtest desktop app & command line internet speed testing tool will give you more accurate results for your internet connection.
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