Litmus

Run Litmus as a server on one computer and as a client on the other. Download the binary on both machines, start the server with "litmus-x64 -s", then run "litmus-x64 -c <server-IP>" from the client. Litmus measures throughput, latency, jitter, and packet loss across the actual path between the two machines — LAN or WAN.

Yes — Litmus measures the real network path between two endpoints, so you need a machine at each end of the link you want to test. That is what makes the results meaningful for LAN, WAN, and link certification work: you test your network, not the path to a third-party server.

Under 1 millisecond is typical for a healthy wired gigabit LAN; consistently higher than a few milliseconds usually points to congestion, duplex mismatches, or faulty hardware. Litmus measures idle, loaded, and recovery latency separately, and its default quality thresholds flag latency above 100 ms and jitter above 10 ms.

Yes. Litmus is completely free to download and use — no account, no licence key, and no usage limits. Both the Windows desktop app and the Linux CLI are self-contained executables with no runtime dependencies.

Litmus measures everything iperf3 does (throughput, jitter, packet loss) and adds latency measurement, data integrity verification (CRC32), automatic quality grading (A–F), real-time charting, and PDF report generation. Unlike iperf3, Litmus includes a full GUI on Windows and an interactive TUI on Linux.

Litmus is not a wrapper around iperf — it is an independent tool built from scratch. However, it fills the same role as iperf with a graphical interface on Windows (WPF desktop app with real-time charts, tabbed interface, and settings dialog) and an interactive terminal UI on Linux.

Online speed tests only measure the path between your device and the test provider's nearest server — they cannot test internal LAN or WAN links. Litmus tests the actual network path between any two machines you control, giving you accurate results for internal bandwidth testing, link certification, and troubleshooting.

Litmus measures five core metrics: throughput (average, min, and max bandwidth), latency (idle, loaded, and recovery), jitter (RFC 3550 interarrival calculation), packet loss (per-packet with timestamps), and data integrity (CRC32 verification). These are combined into a composite A–F quality score.

Yes. Use the --report flag on any test to generate a professional PDF report, or use --certify which includes a report automatically. Reports include all metrics, charts, quality grades, and test parameters — ready to attach to handover documents, SLA reviews, or change tickets.

Yes. The --certify flag runs a comprehensive test sequence covering both TCP and UDP with multiple packet sizes and directions. The resulting report serves as objective evidence of link performance for handovers, acceptance testing, and SLA validation.

Litmus is available as a desktop application for Windows 10/11 (64-bit) and as a terminal application for Linux x86_64. Both are single-file executables — no installation, no dependencies, no runtime required.

Yes. The Linux CLI supports headless mode and JSON output, making it straightforward to script automated tests, integrate with monitoring systems, or run scheduled bandwidth checks via cron.

Monitoring tools passively observe traffic flowing through your network. Litmus is an active test tool — it generates controlled traffic between two endpoints to measure the actual capacity and quality of a link. Use monitoring for ongoing visibility and Litmus for targeted testing, troubleshooting, and certification.