Speed test using iperf

Published: October 19th 2026 (week 43 of 2026) in internet

How speedy is the connection to your server?

To answer this ever-important question you can use iperf(1). You will need to install it both on two hosts you control and have a connection between. On Arch the package is called iperf3, on Debian it has the same name, and on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed it is called iperf (and the older version is available as iperf2).

Once you have the tool installed it is easy to conduct a speediness test. First, you need to start the server side:

iperf3 -s

Then, start the client side and point it at the server's IP address:

iperf3 -c <server-ip>

Wait a moment and you will get a report. Play around with available options to adjust to your needs.