Short answer
The standard ping command does not report your Internet connection’s “highest speed.” ping only measures latency (how long a small packet takes to make a round-trip), not bandwidth (how much data you can move per second). To learn your true upload/download speed you need a throughput-testing tool such as iperf, speedtest-cli, or your ISP’s web speed test.
Why ping can’t show bandwidth
| Metric |
What ping really tells you |
What it does not tell you |
time= (RTT) |
Round-trip latency in ms |
Transfer rate (Mbps / MBps) |
ttl= |
Remaining hop limit |
Quality of service |
| Packet loss |
Reliability of the path |
Maximum sustainable throughput |
Bandwidth (speed) is the volume of data you can push through a link per unit time, whereas latency is the delay before the first bit arrives. A link can have:
- Low latency but low bandwidth (e.g., fiber to old Wi-Fi 802.11b router)
- High latency but high bandwidth (e.g., satellite)
Because ping sends tiny ICMP packets (typically 56 bytes), even a 1 Gbps fiber and a 10 Mbps DSL can answer in the same 5–10 ms. You simply cannot infer the link’s “highest speed” from that number.
Interpreting the ping output you do see
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=117 time=23.4 ms
64 bytes – total ICMP payload size returnedicmp_seq – sequence number so you can spot missing repliesttl – Time-To-Live left when the packet arrived (helps diagnose routing loops)time – round-trip latency in milliseconds
After you stop ping ([Ctrl](aime://?jumpType=pos_fenshi&pos=1743)-C), you’ll see a summary such as:
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
5 packets transmitted, 5 received, 0% packet loss
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 22.8/23.1/23.7/0.3 ms
Those last four numbers are the minimum, average, maximum, and standard deviation (mdev) of your latency samples—not speeds.
If you still want a rough “speed” from ping… (why it’s misleading)
People sometimes multiply the packet size by 8 (bits) and divide by the reported time to get a theoretical throughput. Example:
• 56 bytes × 8 = 448 bits
• time=20 ms ⇒ 0.020 s
• 448 bits / 0.020 s ≈ 22.4 kbps
That looks absurdly slow because the packet is so small. The network finishes it in microseconds; the rest of the 20 ms is propagation + processing delay. Hence the “speed” figure is meaningless.
How to properly check bandwidth
| Tool (CLI) |
What it measures |
Quick use example |
speedtest-cli |
Download & upload Mbps |
speedtest |
iperf3 |
Raw TCP/UDP throughput |
iperf3 -s (server) / iperf3 -c <server> |
nperf, fast.com |
Browsers, video throughput |
Visit in a web browser |
These utilities send large continuous streams of data, saturating the link long enough to reveal its realistic maximum speed.
Takeaway
- Use
ping to gauge latency and packet loss.
- Use
iperf, speedtest-cli, or a browser-based test to determine highest Internet speed.
- Don’t confuse the two metrics—both matter, but they answer different questions about network quality.
Happy testing!
6/5/2025 10:50am
