Instead of Apple's Network Utility: Devontechnologies provides a replacement
Apple discontinued its well-known network utility with macOS 11. A development study is bringing the app back.
Neo Network Utility: Looks quite familiar.
(Image: DEVONtechnologies)
Apple gives it, Apple takes it away: sometimes it happens that familiar apps and features are suddenly missing from one macOS version to the next because the company is apparently no longer interested in maintaining them. This is what happened in 2020 with macOS 11 aka Big Sur: Apple not only adapted the user interface, but also removed system components such as the popular network utility. It is not known why this happened.
Gui for tools
However, Apple has now also removed other tools from the segment – Wireless Diagnostics and Network Diagnostics. This means that the usual network checks can no longer be carried out using the on-board GUI tool, and you have to switch to the terminal, where beginners in particular do not feel particularly comfortable.
At least there is now a free remedy for the network utility: the German-American software company Devontechnologies has now revived Apple's tool with the program Neo Network Utility. The freeware offers all the functions that were previously available. In the info area, you can check which hardware network connections you have, how fast they are, how much data you are using and what IP address you have.
Speed test
You can call up the Netstat command line tool, ping hosts, search for IP addresses (lookup), initiate traceroute processes and perform simple port scans. Also included in the Neo Network Utility are Finger (which is rarely used anymore) and Whois (which unfortunately provides hardly any information for data protection reasons). Additionally included is a speed test function that checks the current throughput rates and latency times - even with and without iCloud Private Relay. This was not yet available in the original network utility.
All in all, the Neo Network Utility offers a useful selection of tools for network diagnostics. However, you should not expect miracles from the Gui. There are more comprehensive tools in the App Store, such as the iNet network scanner, which can also display information graphically. The tool is also available for the iPhone.
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