MikroTik Bandwidth Test, Torch & Speed Test: Measure and Diagnose Network Speed

A customer says their internet is slow. Is it their connection, your backbone, or the upstream ISP? Before you can fix it, you need to measure it. MikroTik includes multiple built-in diagnostic tools that let you test throughput, monitor per-client usage, and identify bottlenecks – without installing any third-party software.

MikroTik Diagnostic Tools Overview

1. Bandwidth Test (Router-to-Router)

Test the throughput between two MikroTik devices. One acts as a server, the other as a client.

Enable the Server

# On the remote router:
/tool bandwidth-server set enabled=yes authenticate=yes

Security: Always set authenticate=yes in production. Disable the server on WAN-facing routers – see our security guide.

Run the Test (Client Side)

/tool bandwidth-test address=10.0.0.2 user=admin password=Password protocol=udp duration=30s direction=both

WinBox: Tools → Bandwidth Test → enter remote IP, credentials, protocol, direction → Start.

• protocol=udp – UDP tests give more accurate throughput (no TCP overhead). Use TCP to test realistic application performance.
• direction=both – Test upload and download simultaneously. Use send or receive for one direction.
• duration=30s – How long to run the test.

Interpreting Results

  status: running
  duration: 15s
  tx-current: 892 Mbps
  rx-current: 887 Mbps
  tx-total-average: 889 Mbps
  rx-total-average: 885 Mbps

This shows ~890 Mbps throughput – typical for a Gigabit link with overhead.

2. Torch (Real-Time Traffic Monitor)

Torch shows live traffic on an interface, broken down by source/destination IP, port, protocol, and VLAN.

/tool torch interface=ether1 src-address=0.0.0.0/0 dst-address=0.0.0.0/0

WinBox: Tools → Torch → select interface → Start.

Filter by IP

# Show only traffic from/to a specific client
/tool torch interface=bridge-lan src-address=192.168.88.50/32

Filter by Protocol

# Show only DNS traffic
/tool torch interface=bridge-lan protocol=udp port=53

Common Use Cases

• Who is using bandwidth? – Torch on the WAN interface, sort by bytes.
• What protocol? – Torch with protocol grouping to see HTTP vs. streaming vs. torrents.
• Is a specific client connected? – Torch filtered by client IP.
• VLAN traffic? – Torch can filter by VLAN ID.

For historical traffic analysis (not just real-time), see our Traffic Flow guide.

3. Speed Test (RouterOS v7.13+)

Built-in internet speed test using Ookla's Speedtest infrastructure:

/tool speed-test address=speedtest-server.example.com

WinBox (v7.13+): Tools → Speed Test. Select a server and run.

This tests the router's internet speed directly – bypassing any client-side bottlenecks. Useful for verifying ISP-delivered bandwidth.

4. Interface Traffic Monitor

Every interface has a real-time traffic graph:

# CLI monitoring
/interface monitor-traffic ether1

# Or specific stats
/interface print stats where name=ether1

WinBox: Double-click any interface → Traffic tab shows a live graph of rx/tx bandwidth.

5. Profile (CPU Analysis)

When your router's CPU is high, Profile shows exactly what's consuming it:

/tool profile

WinBox: Tools → Profile.

Common CPU consumers:

• firewall – Too many firewall rules or Layer 7 matching.
• simple-queues / queuing – Heavy QoS processing.
• ppp – Many PPPoE sessions connecting/disconnecting.
• encrypting/decrypting – VPN encryption overhead.
• management – WinBox/API connections.

6. Ping and Traceroute

# Ping with specific source
/ping 8.8.8.8 count=10 size=1400 src-address=192.168.88.1

# Traceroute
/tool traceroute 8.8.8.8

# Ping flood (test under load)
/ping 10.0.0.2 count=1000 interval=10ms size=1400

7. Graphing (Built-in Historical Graphs)

/tool graphing interface add interface=ether1
/tool graphing interface add interface=bridge-lan
/tool graphing resource add

Access graphs at http://router-ip/graphs/. Shows daily/weekly/monthly bandwidth and CPU/RAM usage.

Practical Troubleshooting Workflow

1. Customer says "internet is slow"
2. Check the WAN interface traffic graph – is the link saturated?
3. Run Torch on the WAN – who is using the bandwidth?
4. Check CPU with Profile – is the router the bottleneck?
5. Run Bandwidth Test between routers – is the backbone slow?
6. Run Speed Test – is the ISP delivering the promised speed?
7. Ping the gateway, ISP DNS, and external host – where does latency spike?

Troubleshooting

• Bandwidth test shows low throughput: Check for duplex mismatches (/interface ethernet monitor ether1). Test with UDP, not TCP. Verify no queues are limiting the test traffic.
• Can't connect to bandwidth server: Ensure the server is enabled (/tool bandwidth-server set enabled=yes). Check firewall allows port 2000 TCP. Verify authentication credentials.
• Torch shows no traffic: Make sure you selected the correct interface. For bridged interfaces, torch the bridge, not individual ports.
• Speed test not available: Requires RouterOS v7.13 or newer. Update RouterOS.

Conclusion

MikroTik gives you everything you need to measure and diagnose network performance without any external tools. Bandwidth Test for router-to-router throughput, Torch for real-time per-client monitoring, Speed Test for ISP verification, and Profile for CPU analysis. Use them in a systematic workflow to quickly identify whether the problem is the client, the router, the backbone, or the ISP.

For ongoing monitoring, set up SNMP with Grafana for historical graphs and Traffic Flow for per-user bandwidth analysis.