Home network problems have a way of becoming technical very quickly. A slow or unreliable connection may be blamed on Wi-Fi when the underlying issue is DNS, double NAT, the router, or the Internet connection itself. The information needed to narrow that down is often scattered across settings screens and command-line tools.
I originally built homenet, an open-source command-line tool that runs a series of common network checks and brings the results together in one report. It is useful for people who are comfortable working in a terminal, but feedback from friends made one problem clear: the command line was still a barrier for many of the people the tool was intended to help.
That feedback led to HomeNetCheck, a graphical desktop version for Windows, macOS, and Linux. You download it, open it, and click Check my network. The application runs the diagnostic checks and presents the results in a plain-language report.
What HomeNetCheck Looks For
HomeNetCheck examines several common sources of home-network trouble, including:
- Whether your router or network gateway can be reached
- Whether DNS responses are unusually slow
- Whether the connection appears to be behind double NAT
- Network latency and available Internet speed
- Wi-Fi information when it is available from the operating system
The report is intended to provide a useful starting point. It identifies what appears to be working, what could not be confirmed, and what may deserve a closer look. It does not make changes to the network or promise to repair every problem automatically.
Two Ways to Use the Same Project
The graphical and command-line versions serve different users:
- HomeNetCheck is the graphical application recommended for most people.
- homenet remains available for scripting, automation, remote support, and anyone who prefers a terminal.
Both are free and open source under the MIT License, with no subscription. They are community resources rather than supported commercial products.
An Invitation to Try It
The graphical version is still an early release, and real-world feedback is especially useful now. I would like to know whether the instructions make sense, whether the explanations are clear, and where someone who is not a networking specialist becomes uncertain or gets stuck.
If you try HomeNetCheck, please feel free to send me your observations. Reports from different computers, operating systems, and home-network arrangements will help improve both the application and its documentation.