Network tests

Novabench includes three network tests that measure different aspects of your internet connection. You can run them individually or together depending on what you need to diagnose.

When to run tests together vs. individually

Run all three together when troubleshooting a general connectivity problem. The speed test tells you whether bandwidth and latency are adequate, the traceroute reveals where in the network path problems occur, and the DNS benchmark identifies whether slow name resolution is a contributing factor.

Run individually when you have a specific question:

• Internet feels slow? Start with the speed test to check throughput and loaded latency.
• A specific server or site is laggy? Use traceroute to find which hop introduces the delay.
• Websites take a long time to start loading, but once started they load quickly? Run the DNS benchmark to check whether your DNS resolver is slow.

Shared features

All three network tests share several capabilities.

IP lookup (Plus)

Novabench can perform detailed lookups for IP addresses discovered during network tests. Each lookup returns geographic location, ISP name, ASN, and reverse DNS hostname. IP lookup data enriches traceroute route maps and DNS geographic charts.

Enable IP lookup in the network test configuration before running. IP lookup requires Plus or above.

WiFi sensor monitoring

When connected via WiFi, Novabench captures wireless signal data during any network test:

• RSSI: signal strength (dBm)
• Signal quality: normalized quality percentage
• Frequency: WiFi band (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz)
• Link speed: connection rate between your device and the access point

Signal data is charted over the duration of the test (Plus), so you can correlate WiFi signal changes with throughput fluctuations or latency spikes.

Scheduling

Network tests can be scheduled as recurring tasks. Each scheduled entry runs one sub-test type (speed, traceroute, or DNS) on a defined schedule. Scheduled results are stored in your results history for trend analysis.

For details on setting up recurring tests, see scheduled tests.

Result tagging and history

After any network test, you can tag results with:

• A custom name
• Serial number, hostname, and username identifiers
• Custom key-value tags

All past network test results are stored in a sortable, filterable grid. Each row shows the test type, key metrics (download/upload for speed tests, hop count for traceroute, fastest resolver for DNS), and tags. Advanced filtering requires Plus or above.

Cloud submission

Submitting network test results to your Novabench account (Plus) lets you access results from the web, share them with others, and compare across multiple test runs or devices.

Feature availability summary

Related pages

• Speed test: download, upload, latency, jitter, and packet loss
• Traceroute: hop-by-hop route analysis with geographic visualization
• DNS benchmark: resolver ranking and protocol comparison
• Stress test: validate CPU and GPU stability under sustained load
• Battery test: profile battery drain across workload scenarios