Is there a way to log my download speeds when using Firefox?
I know about speedtest-cli.
I would like a log of my download speeds when I am using Firefox. Firefox shows the download speed as a file is downloaded but does not keep a log of it.
Have a look at vnstat, to see if that meets your needs:
Example from that page (reproduced):
$ vnstat -5
eth0 / 5 minute
time rx | tx | total | avg. rate
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
2018-10-21
18:15 237.54 KB | 960.80 KB | 1.17 MB | 32.72 kbit/s
18:20 248.26 KB | 1.03 MB | 1.27 MB | 35.61 kbit/s
18:25 178.42 KB | 940.01 KB | 1.09 MB | 30.54 kbit/s
18:30 201.54 KB | 0.98 MB | 1.18 MB | 32.87 kbit/s
18:35 188.62 KB | 926.50 KB | 1.09 MB | 30.45 kbit/s
18:40 191.09 KB | 946.02 KB | 1.11 MB | 31.05 kbit/s
18:45 173.85 KB | 862.77 KB | 1.01 MB | 28.31 kbit/s
18:50 182.20 KB | 930.16 KB | 1.09 MB | 30.37 kbit/s
18:55 194.74 KB | 944.66 KB | 1.11 MB | 31.11 kbit/s
19:00 192.85 KB | 901.06 KB | 1.07 MB | 29.87 kbit/s
19:05 180.64 KB | 878.76 KB | 1.03 MB | 28.93 kbit/s
19:10 206.94 KB | 1.01 MB | 1.21 MB | 33.94 kbit/s
19:15 198.73 KB | 961.37 KB | 1.13 MB | 31.68 kbit/s
19:20 195.19 KB | 909.28 KB | 1.08 MB | 30.16 kbit/s
19:25 204.65 KB | 1.18 MB | 1.38 MB | 38.56 kbit/s
19:30 207.78 KB | 1.04 MB | 1.24 MB | 34.62 kbit/s
19:35 200.50 KB | 970.48 KB | 1.14 MB | 31.98 kbit/s
19:40 214.45 KB | 1.46 MB | 1.67 MB | 46.77 kbit/s
19:45 193.93 KB | 1.11 MB | 1.30 MB | 36.26 kbit/s
19:50 190.28 KB | 908.45 KB | 1.07 MB | 30.00 kbit/s
19:55 199.20 KB | 1.12 MB | 1.31 MB | 36.74 kbit/s
20:00 8.43 MB | 1.35 MB | 9.78 MB | 273.50 kbit/s
20:05 364.31 KB | 1.12 MB | 1.48 MB | 41.34 kbit/s
20:10 153.84 KB | 870.70 KB | 1.00 MB | 27.98 kbit/s
------------------------+-------------+-------------+---------------
Other options possible. 
3 Likes
I want to be able to provide documentation to my Internet provider to show the frequent variances of download speeds.
My download speeds range from around 8 Mbps to 50 Mbps.
I would like to find out where I can find the log of download speeds in the
vnstat.db.
Thanks.
The SQLite "database" is located at
/var/lib/vnstat/vnstat.db
Unless you can manipulate that format, you will need to tweak the configuration for vnstat.
The configuration file for vnstat is at
/etc/vnstat.conf
They say to remove the ";" at the start of the line if you wish to set the parameter in question.
The ones you may wish to tweak are the following:
# enable / disable logging (0 = disabled, 1 = logfile, 2 = syslog)
;UseLogging 2
# create dirs if needed (1 = enabled, 0 = disabled)
;CreateDirs 1
# update ownership of files if needed (1 = enabled, 0 = disabled)
;UpdateFileOwner 1
# file used for logging if UseLogging is set to 1
;LogFile "/var/log/vnstat/vnstat.log"
The current value for LogFile is the recommended value, but there is no log file there by default, unless "UseLogging" is enabled by setting
UseLogging=1
To check if the vnstat service was already running, enter
ps -ef | grep vnstat
and you will get a report like this:
vnstat 1290 1 0 11:53 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/vnstatd -n
After making any changes to the configuration, if you did not have the vnstat service running, you will likely need to run the following commands:
sudo systemctl enable vnstat
Finally, you need to run:
sudo systemctl restart vnstat
which will start, or restart, the daemon service to perform the logging the way you need it, in text form.
3 Likes
Wow, Eric, this information is gold ! 
1 Like
As I am sure you concluded by now ... I try (hard) to avoid omissions or ambiguities when trying to explain. It comes from having been in a support role for IT facing IT and non-IT engineers, (myself being one)!
Although I "perfect" my responses before committing, I will often go back, re-read and edit (multiple times) to make sure I got it right.
There is no /var/log/vnstat/vnstat.log.
It looks like vnstat is running.
Sep 11 15:28:04 7 vnstatd[35696]: Info: vnStat daemon 2.9 started. (pid:35696 uid:127 gid:137 64-bit)
Sep 11 15:28:04 7 vnstatd[35696]: Info: Monitoring (1): enp1s0 (1000 Mbit)
enable / disable logging (0 = disabled, 1 = logfile, 2 = syslog)
UseLogging 1
create dirs if needed (1 = enabled, 0 = disabled)
CreateDirs 1
update ownership of files if needed (1 = enabled, 0 = disabled)
UpdateFileOwner 1
file used for logging if UseLogging is set to 1
;LogFile "/var/log/vnstat/vnstat.log"
ps -ef | grep vnstat
root 34676 1 4 15:01 ? 00:00:55 pluma /etc/vnstat.conf
vnstat 35414 1 0 15:22 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/vnstatd -n
andy 35433 25542 0 15:23 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto vnstatSep 11 07:39:22 7 systemd[1]: Started vnStat network traffic monitor.
Sep 11 07:39:23 7 vnstatd[25796]: No interfaces found in database, adding available interfaces...
Sep 11 07:39:23 7 vnstatd[25796]: Interface "enp1s0" added with 1000 Mbit bandwidth limit.
Sep 11 07:39:23 7 vnstatd[25796]: -> 1 new interface found.
Sep 11 07:39:23 7 vnstatd[25796]: Limits can be modified using the configuration file. See "man vnstat.conf".
Sep 11 07:39:23 7 vnstatd[25796]: Unwanted interfaces can be removed from monitoring with "vnstat --remove".
Sep 11 07:39:23 7 vnstatd[25796]: Info: vnStat daemon 2.9 started. (pid:25796 uid:127 gid:137 64-bit)
Sep 11 07:39:23 7 vnstatd[25796]: Info: Monitoring (1): enp1s0 (1000 Mbit)
Sep 11 07:39:26 7 rtkit-daemon[1290]: Supervising 8 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Sep 11 07:39:26 7 rtkit-daemon[1290]: Supervising 8 threads of 4 processes of 1 users.
Sep 11 07:40:37 7 dbus-daemon[1312]: [session uid=1000 pid=1312] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1' requested by ':1.436' (uid=1000 pid=26252 comm="thunar /home/andy/Downloads " label="unconfined")
Sep 11 07:40:38 7 org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1[26285]: Registered thumbnailer mate-thumbnail-font --size %s %u %o
Sep 11 07:40:38 7 org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1[26285]: Registered thumbnailer ffmpegthumbnailer -i %i -o %o -s %s -f
Sep 11 07:40:38 7 org.freedesktop.thumbnails.Thumbnailer1[26285]: Registered thumbnailer /usr/bin/gdk-pixbuf-thumbnailer -s %s %u %o
Sep 11 07:40:38 7 org.freedes
You almost got it there, Andy! Hang in there!
You forgot to remove the semi-colon in front of the LogFile parameter.