You can also pv /dev/zero | ssh your_server "cat > /dev/null" Both yours and this one check upload speed. To check download speed: ssh your_server 'cat

You can also pv /dev/zero | ssh your_server "cat > /dev/null" Both yours and this one check upload speed. To check download speed: ssh your_server 'cat /dev/zero' | pv > /dev/null or based on your suggestion: ssh your_server yes | pv > /dev/null And if you don't have a server to login to, you can find a big file on the web and use that to check download speed: curl -s http://some-place.com/big-file | pv > /dev/null Though curl also reports speed, so I guess you may as well just: curl http://some-place.com/big-file > /dev/null