Network Utility

Network Utilityis an application included with macOS up to MacOS Catalina that provided a variety tools that could be used related to computer network information gathering and analysis. Starting with macOS Big Sur the application is no longer included.

Network Utility shows information about each of your network connections, including the Mac Address of the interface, the IP address assigned to it, its speed and status, a count of data packets sent and received, and a count of transmission errors and collisions.

Services The available services or tools found in the Network Utility:

• Network interfaces
• Netstat
• ping
• Lookup
• Traceroute
• Whois
• Finger
• Port scan
• Actionable Items

Examples of what the Network Utility can help with:

• Check your network connection
• View network routing tables and statistics
• Test whether you can contact another computer
• Test your DNS server
• Trace the paths of your network traffic
• Check for open TCP ports
• Port scan information

Network Utility uses the tools supplied in the unix directories for most of its functions, however for the port scan it uses a unix executable in its resources folder, stroke, found at Network Utility.app/Contents/Resources/stroke.

How To Open It

• In OS X Mavericks and macOS, Network Utility is in /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications.
• In OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, and Snow Leopard, Network Utility is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.

You can find Network Utility using Spotlight.