Mac/Automater quest...
 

Mac/Automater question

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 Alex
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I need to run the 'Speedtest' app on my MacBook every thirty minutes. I'm sure I used to be able to do this with Automater. But having a look at it now, I can't work out how to do it.

I know you can do it with CRON through terminal but that means messing about with Python or something and I'm not going there. It's just a quick and dirty solution to see if a new SIM broadband install we have is actually any better than our current one.

Any advice welcome!

 
Posted : 25/08/2022 10:24 am
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The really lo-fi solution, in a Terminal:

while true; do /Applications/Speedtest.app && sleep 1800; done

But you can do it without typing in Automator. Create a new Application, then:

- Launch Application (pick Speedtest)
- Pause (for 30 minutes)
- Loop (select loop automatically, and you need to specify a timeout to avoid infinite loops, so put something like 1000 times)

Press Run, and it will start Speedtest every 30 minutes. This assumes that speedtest does a test when it starts. You might need to put a Quit Application before Launch if it only does a test when it is launched, otherwise you'll have to quit it by hand.

 
Posted : 25/08/2022 10:57 am
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are you aware of the new "networkQuality" tool in Monterey?

you could schedule it via Cron, or run via Automator as a Shell Script, with output to text file, for example

https://www.iphonetricks.org/how-to-test-mac-internet-speed-in-terminal/

 
Posted : 25/08/2022 11:43 am
 Alex
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Ah thanks, that makes sense. Got that working but realised that Speedtest needs me to hit go. So I did a 'watch me' and it works but then automator says it can't complete the action. I tried changing timeouts but no joy.

 
Posted : 25/08/2022 11:55 am
 Alex
Posts: 7250
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Thanks Zilog.. will take a look now.

 
Posted : 25/08/2022 11:57 am