Quick and Dirty Network Speed Test:

http://www.openfree.org/pet/index.php/Use_netcat_to_test_network_speed

netcat

Machine A (Receiver): using port 2222

nc -v -v -l -n -p 2222 > /dev/null

Machine B (Sender):

time yes | nc -v -v -n 192.168.0.8 2222 > /dev/null

Recipe:

1) Time for 10 seconds.
2) CTRL-C (Kill) Receiving Machine A, which will terminate machine B
	A will dump received packets
		 sent 0, rcvd 1248406672
	B will show time
		13.705u 1.187s 0:14.96 99.4%    0+0k 0+0io 0pf+0w

3) Take received bites from A (multiply by 8), divide by time on B
	1248406672 * 8 / 14.96s = 667597151 (667Mbps)

That's your bps.