Here's a very cool command that will let you know that a website is up and tell you the throughput.  Being a network guy I always wondered how those Linux geeks, uh I meant guys and gals could spit that information out so quickly when we'd be on the phone troubleshooting.

Well the secret is out my Networking buddies. And that secret is "wget". Now I can kick that information out in split seconds too! Check this out.

[root@mylinuxbox ~]# wget www.yahoo.com
--22:50:27--  http://www.yahoo.com/
Resolving www.yahoo.com... 69.147.76.15
Connecting to www.yahoo.com|69.147.76.15|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 9562 (9.3K) [text/html]
Saving to: `index.html.3'

100%[=======================================>] 9,562       --.-K/s   in 0.03s

22:50:27 (352 KB/s) - `index.html.3' saved [9562/9562]

Now is that cool or what? And you better not call me a geek.