Most macOS network diagnostic tools fall into one of two categories. Either they are too surface to be useful for actual field work, or they are purpose-built for one narrow use. Apple's built-in Wireless Diagnostics is fine for quick troubleshooting. But if you want one app that handles live monitoring, host discovery, Wi-Fi auditing, and historical connectivity data without switching tools every five minutes, NetViews Pro likely meets your needs.

Full disclosure, this app license was a gift to WLPC attendees. This is not sponsored in any way.

NetViews (formerly PingStalker) is a macOS-native network diagnostic tool built for IT and network professionals. For a one-time purchase with no subscription, you gain lifetime app access. It comes in two tiers: Standard at $19.99 and Pro at $49.99.

This app pulls together the things you would normally need three separate tools to see: live network traffic, Wi-Fi environment data, device discovery, and connectivity history. These resources are packaged in a native macOS app with a clean interface.

First, the interface details shows you the layer 2 and layer 3 details on your interface: DHCP , DNS queries, ISP info, and wireless metics.

There’s some handy info here such as the domain name and whether a VPN is in use or not. Some VPNs like Wireguard are fairly minimal in the device UI so having an easy check whether to consider VPN tunneling in your troubleshooting is quite useful.

Imagine you visit a client site to figure out why a laptop is not getting an IP address, or why DNS is resolving to the wrong server. While you can usually get this information from a packet capture, pulling up NetViews is faster and doesn’t require reproducing the resolution when all you need is a quick confirmation.

Further in the Wireless details, you can even see the roaming algorithm support. I think the algorithms reflect what the SSID supports, not the client, based on the capture I took. The SSID did not have the Mobility Domain tag for 802.11r.

In the top right corner, you have other tools available.

Starting with the Wi-Fi button, it at first mimics the built-in Wireless Diagnostics Sniffer for MacOS, but the display is more user friendly by emphasizing that you won’t be able to use the network during captures and also allowing selection of other interfaces.

Moving on, the Audit button gives Client Checklist and Wi-Fi Checklist options. This time, I tried the Wi-Fi Checklist since I’ve seen this Wireless LAN Pros resource including in a few tools now.

Each test result give a detailed text output for the results, which I appreciate beyond a simple “yes/no” answer.

The Pro tier adds a Wi-Fi Advanced checklist audit. However, this feature is still under development.

The ScanOne button allows for quickly scanning protocols to test reachability. You may also enter specific hostnames or IPs to test. Again, you could gather this over packet capture, but this is way faster.

Every other feature in the app shows you what is happening now. History and Timeline logs data continuously in the background and lets you go back and look at it after the fact.

For intermittent connectivity complaints, this is helpful. The timeline overlays specific event types such as roams or IP changes. If you have issues with L3 roaming, I can see this being handy.

With the Timeline running, you deploy it on the affected machine, come back after the next complaint, and you have a record of exactly when the drop happened. Combine this and a wireless capture running in the background and you’ll have a fairly clear picture where to look in your timestamps.

Additionally, NetViews supplies the toolbar widget. It’s much more detailed than Option + Click on the Wi-Fi icon and previews the network logs.

When hidden it shows the RSSI and dots representing the Ping Monitor hosts (Level 3 DNS, Google DNS, en0 DNS, and en0 GW by default). Note that the toolbar support comes with Pro only.

The network logs show very detailed information on all the OS observations. These logs actually come from processes within MacOS directly. You can actually some logs directly in the MacBook Console, but they’re a pain to sort through and do not export easily. This tools solves both those issues.

Here I can actually see the airportd calls from NetViews.

Standard at $19.99 covers the live monitor, Wi-Fi scanning, host discovery, speed tests, and basic Wi-Fi tools. That’s a fair price and for handling lots of day-to-day diagnostic work.

Pro at $49.99 adds the History and Timeline, Toolbar widget, and the Wi-Fi advanced audit (In development). If you regularly deal with intermittent connectivity complaints, the Timeline alone is worth the difference. If your work is mostly deployment and configuration rather than troubleshooting ongoing issues, Standard is probably enough.

NetViews Pro is not trying to replace your full toolkit. Ekahau is still Ekahau. Wireshark is still Wireshark. What it does is fill the gap between Apple's built-in tools and specialized network monitoring apps in one clean native app.

For a one-time $49.99, it earns its place on the dock.

Later alligators,
Eva