Network Test
Network Test measures this iPhone’s own Wi-Fi connection on any network, any vendor — no access-point login needed. Open Toolbox → Network Test (under Any Wi-Fi). It times the router, simulates a voice call, checks the internet edge and what the network lets through, and runs short speed bursts. Use it to check call quality and speed at one spot without walking a whole survey.
What does it need?
Section titled “What does it need?”| Requirement | Why |
|---|---|
| The free trial or the unlock | Every Toolbox tool is new work. See Free trial and unlock. |
| Experience tests on (Settings → Experience, the default) | Off hides Network Test. |
| Wi-Fi | ”Tests run over Wi-Fi only — cellular results never count.” |
| Local Network permission | To time round trips to your router. Without it, the internet edge and speed tests still run. |
| Location (While Using) permission | iOS only reveals the Wi-Fi network name and access-point address (BSSID) to apps with location access. ARRF uses it to note which access point served each measurement; your location itself is never recorded. |
| Internet tests on (optional) | The internet edge, Internet call, network policy, and cloud speed bursts use NeuralConfig’s test server. See Internet tests and privacy. |
The first time you open it, a Test this phone’s Wi-Fi screen explains the two permissions before iOS asks. If you haven’t answered it yet, the Internet tests screen follows, where you can use the default test server, enter your own, or Skip internet tests.
What does each section show?
Section titled “What does each section show?”| Section | What it measures |
|---|---|
| This phone’s connection | Path (Wi-Fi / Not Wi-Fi / Offline), the gateway and probe type, OS link quality, the network and access point, and Other traffic — Wi-Fi data this test didn’t send, which skews results when heavy. |
| RF details · via Shortcuts | This phone’s own signal, noise, channel and link rate, through the Shortcuts app. |
| Wi-Fi hop (gateway) · last 10 s | Round trips from the phone to the router: median, p95, jitter, and loss, charted live. |
| Voice over Wi-Fi | A simulated call scored as a MOS, quiet and under load, plus the voice-priority verdict and an Internet call. |
| Internet edge | Edge RTT, DNS lookup, and connection setup. |
| Network policy | Eight checks of what the network lets through. |
| Burst capacity | Download and upload speed. |
| Latency under load | Router latency while the link is busy, and Responsiveness in RPM. |
How is the Wi-Fi hop measured?
Section titled “How is the Wi-Fi hop measured?”ARRF times round trips from this phone to the router — 20 a second over ICMP, or 5 a second when it falls back to TCP. The chart covers the last 10 seconds; red dots are lost probes. Below it: Median, p95, Jitter and Loss. This is the hop you can fix with Wi-Fi changes.
How does the Voice over Wi-Fi test work?
Section titled “How does the Voice over Wi-Fi test work?”It runs a simulated call to the router: 50 call-sized packets a second on the Wi-Fi voice priority queue, scored as a MOS (1–4.5, ITU-T E-model for G.711; 4.0+ is good). Tap Run 30 s call test. The call listens quietly, then while downloading, then while uploading — if the network honours voice priority, the call barely notices the load.
| Result | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Quiet / While downloading / While uploading | MOS for each phase, with median RTT, jitter and loss. |
| MOS label | Excellent (4.3+), Good (4.0–4.3), Fair (3.6–4.0), Poor (3.1–3.6), Bad (below 3.1). |
| Voice priority ↓ / ↑ | Whether the network honoured voice priority in each direction: Honoured, Partly honoured, Not honoured, or Not tested. |
| Internet call | The same 50 pps call frames sent end to end to the nearest Cloudflare edge (needs Internet tests). They ride a TCP WebSocket; a frame more than 60 ms later than the fastest ones misses its playout slot and counts as lost. The voice priority marking (DSCP) is usually not kept past your ISP. |
With internet tests off and no local iperf3 server there’s nothing to load the link with, so only the quiet call runs (Run 10 s call test). The call test needs the router to answer ICMP.
What does the Internet edge section show?
Section titled “What does the Internet edge section show?”| Row | What it is |
|---|---|
| Edge | The nearest Cloudflare data centre. |
| Edge RTT | WebSocket round trips to that edge. |
| DNS lookup | Asks the network’s resolver directly (skipping this phone’s cache) — the wait every new site starts with. |
| Connection setup | A fresh TCP + TLS handshake to the test server. |
If the test server is unreachable, gateway tests carry on. With Internet tests off, the status reads Internet tests off.
What do the network policy checks test?
Section titled “What do the network policy checks test?”One pass at the start checks what this network lets through. It needs Internet tests on; Check again reruns it.
| Check | What it contacts | Flags |
|---|---|---|
| QUIC (HTTP/3) | A QUIC handshake to the test server (UDP 443) | QUIC blocked — apps fall back to TCP. |
| UDP to the internet | The STUN and NTP traffic below | No UDP gets out — calls and games relay over TCP or fail. |
| NAT type | STUN binding requests to Cloudflare and Google from one UDP port | Strict (symmetric) NAT — peer-to-peer calls and games relay through a server. |
| Outside DNS | whoami.cloudflare via 1.1.1.1 | DNS redirected by the network, or outside DNS (port 53) blocked. |
| Encrypted DNS | DNS over TLS (port 853) and DNS over HTTPS | Encrypted DNS blocked — private DNS settings won’t work. |
| HTTPS inspection | The test server’s certificate chain | A root installed on the phone (SSL inspection), or an untrusted certificate. |
| Plain-web integrity | Apple’s plain-HTTP captive page | A page altered in transit, or a captive portal or proxy in the way. |
| Time sync (NTP) | time.cloudflare.com (UDP 123) | NTP blocked — devices that set their own clock may drift. |
How are speed bursts measured?
Section titled “How are speed bursts measured?”Tap Download or Upload for a 1.5 s burst on 4 parallel connections; the rate is the steady last second. Retransmitted and duplicate/out-of-order data are what Wi-Fi loss looks like once the radio’s own retries run out — above about 1 % points to a weak or busy link.
Bursts go to the test server, or to your own network when Settings → Experience → Local iperf3 server is set (the header then reads Burst capacity · iperf3 …). With Internet tests off and no iperf3 server, the buttons are disabled. Cloud bursts count toward a fair-use allowance — see Limits and quotas.
What is Responsiveness (RPM)?
Section titled “What is Responsiveness (RPM)?”Round trips to the router per minute while the link is loaded — higher is better. Tap Run under load to keep a download or upload running back to back (switching every run) while timing the router. Latency under load is the loaded round trip; Responsiveness is 60 000 ÷ that latency in ms. A link that bloats its buffers drops into the low hundreds. Tap Stop load to end it.
What does RF details add?
Section titled “What does RF details add?”This phone’s own signal, noise, channel and link rate, which iOS shares only with the Shortcuts app. Tap Read RF details: the ARRF RF shortcut reads them and hands them back, and ARRF briefly switches to Shortcuts and returns. Set up the shortcut walks you through adding it.