Conclusion (TL;DR)
To discover your real “highest Internet speed,” switch from ping (latency-only) to a throughput test such as speedtest-cli, iperf3, or a large-file curl download. All three run happily inside Termux on Android.
1 . Why ping stops where “speed” begins
ping sends 56-byte ICMP probes. Even on a 1 Gbps link that payload finishes in < 1 µs; the remaining 10–50 ms you see is just propagation and queueing delay. Throughput never gets a chance to reveal itself, so ping can’t tell you the line’s capacity.
2 . Tools that do measure bandwidth
| Tool |
What you learn |
Pros |
Typical Termux commands |
| speedtest-cli (Ookla) |
Download & upload Mbps vs. a nearby Speedtest.net server |
One-command, worldwide servers |
pkg install python -y → pip install speedtest-cli → speedtest |
| iperf3 |
Raw TCP/UDP throughput, jitter, loss; you control both ends |
Works on LANs or WANs; repeatable |
pkg install iperf3 -y → iperf3 -s on one device, iperf3 -c <server_ip> on Termux |
| curl / wget big file |
Real-world HTTP speed; good for quick checks |
Nothing to install beyond curl |
curl -o /dev/null -w '%{speed_download} bit/s\n' https://speed.hetzner.de/100MB.bin |
| fast-cli |
Netflix’s Fast.com test from CLI |
Lightweight, open source |
npm i -g fast-cli → fast |
Termux tip: after pkg update && pkg upgrade, all of the above commands install without root.
3 . Reading the numbers (example: speedtest-cli)
Speedtest by Ookla
Download: 92.76 Mbps
Upload: 37.51 Mbps
Latency: 8.13 ms (jitter 0.55 ms)
Meaning:
• At best you can pull ~93 Mbps down and push ~38 Mbps up right now.
• Latency and jitter are also shown so you still know interactive quality.
4 . Extra diagnostics for power users
- MTU discovery –
ping -c 4 -M do -s 1472 8.8.8.8 nudges you toward the largest packet that fits, helping spot fragmentation issues (still not bandwidth).
- Bufferbloat – Run
ping while you stream an iperf3 test; soaring RTTs indicate queue congestion.
- Route capacity – Combine
mtr with iperf3 to see which hop saturates first.
5 . Putting it all together in Termux (quick script)
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
pkg update -y && pkg install python curl -y
pip install --upgrade speedtest-cli
echo "== Speedtest.net =="
speedtest --simple
echo "== HTTP test (100 MB) =="
curl -o /dev/null -w '\nAverage speed: %{speed_download} bit/s\n' \
https://speed.hetzner.de/100MB.bin
Run it, grab a coffee, and you’ll come back to solid, comparable figures you can track over time or share with your ISP.
Takeaway
• ping = latency.
• Bandwidth = speedtest-cli, iperf3, or a big download.
Once you start using the right tool, you’ll really know how fast your Internet can fly—no guesswork required. Happy measuring!
6/5/2025 10:51am
