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BWPing

Tool to measure bandwidth and response times between two hosts

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated May 16, 2026

BWPing is a tool to measure bandwidth and response times between two hosts using Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) echo request/echo reply mechanism. It does not require any special software on the remote host. The only requirement is the ability to respond on ICMP echo request messages. BWPing supports both IPv4 and IPv6 networks.

01Command syntax

bwping [ -4 | -6 ] [ -B bind_addr ] [ -I ident ] [ -T tos(v4) | traf_class(v6) ] [ -r reporting_period ] [ -u buf_size ] -b kbps -s pkt_size -v volume target bwping6 [ -4 | -6 ] [ -B bind_addr ] [ -I ident ] [ -T tos(v4) | traf_class(v6) ] [ -r reporting_period ] [ -u buf_size ] -b kbps -s pkt_size -v volume target

Available options are:

  • -4 - Forces IPv4 mode. Default mode of operation is IPv4 for bwping and IPv6 for bwping6 otherwise.
  • -6 - Forces IPv6 mode. Default mode of operation is IPv4 for bwping and IPv6 for bwping6 otherwise.
  • -B - Sets the source address of outgoing ip packets. By default the address of the outgoing interface will be used.
  • -I - Sets the Identifier value of outgoing ICMP Echo Request packets. If zero, the value of the lower 16 bits of the process ID will be used (default).
  • -T - Sets the TOS value of outgoing IPv4 packets or IPv6 Traffic Class value of outgoing IPv6 packets. Default value is zero.
  • -r - Sets the interval time in seconds between periodic bandwidth, RTT, and loss reports. If zero, there will be no periodic reports (default).
  • -u - Sets the size of the socket send/receive buffer in bytes. If zero (default), the system default will be used. Tune this parameter if the speed measurement results are unexpectedly low or packet loss occurs.
  • -b - Sets the transfer speed in kilobits per second.
  • -s - Sets the size of ICMP packet (excluding IPv4/IPv6 header) in bytes.
  • -v - Sets the volume to transfer in bytes.

02License

This utility is available under BSD License.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “BWPing”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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