The network tools worth having on iPhone in 2026

The first question is often simply where you are: which network, which address your device has, and which router it goes through. Discover in Linkalyst answers that at a glance with the network name, this device’s address, the subnet and the gateway. “Find Services” listens for Bonjour announcements, such as printers, file shares and devices that offer a web or SSH login.

To see the devices themselves, the device scan (“Scan This Network”, Linkalyst Plus) probes the current subnet, up to 256 addresses. It combines Ping and TCP connections with Bonjour, UPnP, NetBIOS and reverse DNS to put a name, and where possible a manufacturer and model, next to each address. On iOS 27 and later it can also show MAC addresses. iOS asks once for the Local Network permission; without it, nothing is sent.

A scan is a snapshot. A device that is asleep or ignores probes will not appear, and phones and computers usually use a private Wi-Fi address, so their manufacturer cannot be looked up from the address.

Ping is the oldest network tool for a reason: it shows whether something answers and how long the reply takes. One reply proves little. What helps is a few hundred replies in a row, because a connection that is usually quick but stalls now and then feels slow.

Latency Test sends Ping requests, 240 at half-second intervals by default, and draws every reply on a live chart. It reports the typical latency (P50), slower requests (P95 and P99), jitter and timeouts, and a timeout is counted as a timeout rather than drawn as a latency. With Linkalyst Plus it measures up to six targets at once, such as your router and a public server, or uses UDP to a test peer you run yourself.

When something is slow, the next question is where. Route Trace sends probes with an increasing hop limit, up to 30 hops over IPv4 or IPv6, and charts the latency at each router on the way. Optional host name and IP information lookups show which network a hop belongs to and roughly where it is.

If one website is slow, Website Check sends five requests one second apart and splits each into phases: DNS, TCP, TLS and time to first byte, drawn as a waterfall. It also shows the HTTP version, the TLS version and the certificate chain, and follows redirects hop by hop. A long time to first byte after quick earlier phases usually points at the server, not your network. Wi-Fi connected but web pages are slow puts these tools together step by step.

Every new site starts with a DNS lookup, and a slow or wrong answer holds up everything after it. A DNS tool should show the records themselves, not only an address. DNS Lookup queries A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SOA and PTR records with their TTLs, using system DNS or a resolver you choose over UDP, TCP, DNS over HTTPS (DoH) or DNS over TLS (DoT).

With Linkalyst Plus, Compare sends the same query to system DNS and up to four resolvers at once and shows which answered fastest and where the answers differ. Queries apply only inside the app; your device’s DNS settings stay as they are. Compare DNS server results explains how to read a comparison.

A device can answer Ping while the service you need on it is closed, or ignore Ping while the service works. A port check settles it by opening a TCP connection to the port itself. Port Check does this once or up to 50 times in a row, and with Linkalyst Plus, Batch Scan checks up to 256 addresses against port presets or your own ranges. It opens TCP connections only, without sending data or identifying services. Use it only on systems you own or may test.

For a quick look at the wider internet, Popular Services times connections to a group of well-known services at once, such as video, social, games or work and cloud, and sorts them by time. One slow service among quick ones points at that service; a slow group points at your connection.

“Speed” means different things, and each of these measures one of them:

• The Internet Speed Test measures download, upload and latency to the test server nearest to you on Linkalyst’s own network, for up to 10 seconds each way over several connections. It is the one to use for your internet connection.
• The Download Test fetches a file from an address you enter, up to 64 MiB or 10 seconds, and shows the time to first byte and the speed from that one server.
• The Throughput Test sends or receives data over a single TCP connection to a test peer on your own network. It shows what one connection achieves between your iPhone and a computer, for example across your Wi-Fi, not what your provider sells you.

Two numbers that disagree are often both right: they measure different paths. See whether the Throughput Test result is your internet speed.

Some questions are about the phone itself. This Device shows battery, charging, Low Power Mode and the thermal state, storage and memory, the addresses on each interface, the system DNS servers and the path from the device to the internet, with flags such as Low Data Mode and a possible VPN. Network Info adds the Wi-Fi network name and access point, which iOS discloses only with the Location permission.

Subnet Calculator works out a network from an address and prefix, for IPv4 and IPv6: the network and last address, the mask, the number of addresses, and for IPv4 the usable range and broadcast address. It can also tell you whether another address falls inside the range.

iOS gives apps less access than a computer does. Whatever the app, these are out of reach on iPhone and iPad:

• Wi-Fi signal strength, channel, noise and link speed, and a list of nearby networks. A Wi-Fi analyzer with channel graphs needs a computer.
• Capturing packets or other apps’ traffic.
• Scans that need raw packets, such as SYN scans and operating system detection.
• Watching the network continuously in the background and alerting you to new devices.
• MAC addresses before iOS 27, and a manufacturer looked up from a private Wi-Fi address.
• Battery health and cycle count, the CPU temperature in degrees, and the carrier name.

What iOS does allow covers most everyday questions, as the sections above show.

You do not need a separate app for each of these jobs. Linkalyst puts all twelve tools in one app for iPhone and iPad, grouped as above: Discover and Popular Services; Latency Test, DNS Lookup, Port Check, Route Trace and Website Check; Internet Speed Test, Download Test and Throughput Test; This Device and Subnet Calculator. A target can be filled from one tool into another, and measurements are saved as reports that you can search, tag and filter.

Linkalyst is free to download and needs iOS or iPadOS 17.0 or later; the app and this site are in six languages. Linkalyst Plus, a one-time purchase, adds the device scan, Batch Scan, resolver comparison, multi-target and UDP latency tests, report comparison and more, and removes ads.