NetGuard
NetGuard / WiFi speed test on iPhone
Feature
WiFi Speed Test on iPhone, Plus Ping and DNS Lookup
Three numbers and two tools, all in the free version. This page explains what each measurement is, how NetGuard takes it, and how to tell a WiFi problem from a line problem.
The measurement
What the speed test actually does
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01
Download
NetGuard pulls a 25 MB payload from Cloudflare's public speed endpoint and divides the bytes received by the time it took. That is your download figure in megabits per second.
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02
Upload
It then posts a 5 MB payload back to the same service and measures the same way. Upload is usually the smaller number, and on many home connections it is much smaller by design.
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03
Ping
Three round trips are timed and the middle value is reported. Taking the median rather than the average keeps one unlucky packet from ruining the result.
The result describes the whole path: your iPhone, your WiFi, your router, your line and the route to the test server. A single number cannot tell you which of those is the slow part, which is what the rest of this page is about.
Diagnosis
Is it the WiFi or is it the line?
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Test next to the router
Stand within a couple of meters of the router and run the test. This is close to the best your connection can do, so treat it as the reference number.
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Test where the problem is
Go back to the room where things buffer and run it again. A large drop between the two points to WiFi coverage rather than the line into the building.
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Check what else is on the network
Run a scan. A console downloading an update, a laptop backing up and a TV streaming in the next room all share the same line. The device list often explains an evening slowdown by itself.
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Watch ping, not just throughput
Video calls and games suffer from latency long before they suffer from bandwidth. If download looks healthy but ping is high, the throughput number is not your problem.
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Compare against what you pay for
Look up the speed in your contract and compare. Falling well short of it consistently, tested near the router, is the case worth raising with the provider.
The other tools
Ping, DNS lookup and what your network reports
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Ping any host
Point it at a device on your own network to see whether it answers and how quickly, or at a name on the internet to check whether the problem is local or further out. If a local device answers instantly and an internet host does not answer at all, the WiFi is fine and the connection beyond your router is not.
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DNS lookup
Enter a hostname and NetGuard resolves it, returning both A records for IPv4 and AAAA records for IPv6. A page that will not load while everything else works is often a name resolution problem, and this is how you confirm it.
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Your current network
The network view shows the WiFi you are joined to, signal strength, whether the gateway and the internet are reachable, and your public IP address as the outside world sees it.
Why a WiFi app asks for location permission. On iOS the name of the WiFi network you are joined to counts as location information, so the system requires location permission before an app may read it. NetGuard asks for that reason alone, and the app collects no data either way. Decline it and the scan still works, but the network name cannot be shown.
Download
Speed test, ping and DNS are in the free version
Along with the WiFi scan, the device list and your current network details. NetGuard is free and ad supported, for iPhone with iOS 17.0 or later.
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