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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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Hi, how do I get the data communication speed over time of a Mac running Ventura?

Under Activity Monitor, Network. I see Data received/sec and Data sent/sec. I want to see one value in X GB/sec or X MB/sec over time.
 

Bigwaff

macrumors 6502
Sep 20, 2013
256
128
I'm finding your question somewhat ambiguous. Activity Monitor will show network usage (at the moment) and a small graph of usage "over time". This will accommodate scale if you were to spike usage by saturating your network connection, say, by downloading a large file. Are you looking for network usage in aggregate over time, i.e. in the last 24 hours there has been this much received data?
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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Several parameters are shown under Activity Monitor. I don't know how to use them. Is there a way to calculate the data transfer speed in MB/sec at any point in time?
 

Bigwaff

macrumors 6502
Sep 20, 2013
256
128
Well... Activity Monitor will dynamically update the display for Data received/sec and Data sent/sec to bytes, KB, MB, and I assume GB based on the throughput at the moment. Why would you want to see current throughput of 500KB/sec in GB/sec? The data throughput is grossly measured in factors of 1000 so... 500KB would be .5MB or .0005GB... etc.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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Well... Activity Monitor will dynamically update the display for Data received/sec and Data sent/sec to bytes, KB, MB, and I assume GB based on the throughput at the moment. Why would you want to see current throughput of 500KB/sec in GB/sec? The data throughput is grossly measured in factors of 1000 so... 500KB would be .5MB or .0005GB... etc.

KB/sec is just an example. Basically, I got an USB to ethernet adapter and I want to see how well it works and at what speed. I think I read that they never reach the advertised speed.
 

Bigwaff

macrumors 6502
Sep 20, 2013
256
128
Your ethernet adapter is only going to be as fast as your router and your ISP connection. For example, if you have a 500Mbps ISP connection, your 1Gbps ethernet adapter connected to your router is only going to get 500Mbps throughput. For example, if you router only supports 100Mbps ethernet connection, your 1Gbps ethernet adapter is only going to get 100Mbps throughput. Either way, @anshuvorty suggestion is the way to go.
 
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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,356
1,074
Your ethernet adapter is only going to be as fast as your router and your ISP connection. For example, if you have a 500Mbps ISP connection, your 1Gbps ethernet adapter connected to your router is only going to get 500Mbps throughput. For example, if you router only supports 100Mbps ethernet connection, your 1Gbps ethernet adapter is only going to get 100Mbps throughput. Either way, @anshuvorty suggestion is the way to go.
I am a bit confused. What do the speed of the router and ISP connection has to do with the ethernet adapter?
 
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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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Thanks. Does LAN Speed Test gather information about my computer and network and send those information back to the company?
 

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,173
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Baltimore, Maryland
KB/sec is just an example. Basically, I got an USB to ethernet adapter and I want to see how well it works and at what speed. I think I read that they never reach the advertised speed.
How well it works with what? Itself? What is the advertised speed? What are you connecting to with the adapter? Does the thing you're connecting to reach the advertised speed of the adapter? What is the advertised speed of the thing you're connecting to? Have you ever calibrated the speed of the device to which you are connecting…independent of the other devices on your network?

Just a few things to consider.
 

bogdanw

macrumors 68040
Mar 10, 2009
3,565
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Thanks. Does LAN Speed Test gather information about my computer and network and send those information back to the company?
You don't have to be connected to the Internet to run a LAN speed test.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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How well it works with what? Itself? What is the advertised speed? What are you connecting to with the adapter? Does the thing you're connecting to reach the advertised speed of the adapter? What is the advertised speed of the thing you're connecting to? Have you ever calibrated the speed of the device to which you are connecting…independent of the other devices on your network?

Just a few things to consider.

For example, Mac Mini comes with an advertised 1GbE port. I want to test how fast in practice it is when it is connected directly to another computer or device that has a 1GbE Port also.
 

hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
7,356
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ah.. you want iperf.. here's a geeky tutorial
Thanks.

In the tutorial, what is mean by "plug it in to the network closest to the switch/router"?

The router given by the ISP is in another location. Usually I don’t plug anything to it.I also don’t have a switch.

Right now I have two computers in the same room. Both are connected to the internet through Wifi. I just joined them together physically via an ethernet cable. I want to test the data transfer speed between the two in practice. Before installing and running iperf, what else do I need to do?
 

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,173
2,042
Baltimore, Maryland
You can start here but also do a web search for "connect two macs via Ethernet" to find more info.



In that second link there's an Ethernet section down the page. Take heed of the Ethernet cable info.
 
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hajime

macrumors 604
Original poster
Jul 23, 2007
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HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007
4,897
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To summarize some of the points above:

1. You want to test your local network speed, not your internet speed - the speed of your internet modem.

2. There are a number of ways to test the local speed. The Network speed tester app or equivalent (installed on both endpoints) or iperf. Iperf as a command line tool is a bit harder to install and run but might give more accurate results.

3. Don't expect more than ~ 900 Kbps due to network overhead.
 
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