FAQ

FAQ

Why is my ISP's DNS scoring so low?

ISP resolvers typically answer quickly (low latency) but often fail on DNSSEC validation, may filter traffic, and sometimes return incorrect results for blocked domains. The security penalty (−10 pts) plus inconsistency often pushes them into the 50–70 range.

Why does Cloudflare score lower than my custom DNS?

If you're testing over udp only, servers with aggressive UDP rate-limiting can appear faster than they are in practice. Try --protocol all for a comprehensive comparison.

IPv6 results show IPv4 address

Make sure the AF selector in the toolbar is set to ipv6. With auto, NatBench prefers IPv4 and falls back to IPv6. In ipv6 mode, servers that have no IPv6 address are skipped automatically.

Traceroute shows "Install traceroute/mtr" message

NatBench uses tracepath (available on most Linux distros), traceroute, or mtr — whichever is found first. On Arch/CachyOS tracepath is available via the iputils package:

sudo pacman -S iputils   # already installed on most systems

On Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install iproute2 traceroute

Language not fully applied

After switching language, all tabs, menus, buttons and column headers update automatically. If some labels still show the old language, restart the GUI — the language is saved and will apply on next launch.

Settings are not saved

Settings are written to ~/.config/natbench/settings.json when the window is closed (not on every change). Make sure to close the window normally (not kill the process).

The benchmark tested more servers than I selected

This was a bug in versions before 1.1.0 where servers appearing in multiple groups (e.g. Cloudflare in both Recommended and Privacy) were each tracked by a separate BooleanVar — unchecking one didn't affect the others. Fixed in v1.1.0.

How do I add dns.wonx.eu to my system?

Linux (systemd-resolved):

sudo resolvectl dns eth0 145.239.0.143 2001:41d0:700:48f::1
sudo resolvectl dnsovertls eth0 yes

DoT: dns.wonx.eu:853 — TLS verified, DNSSEC enabled, no logging.

Can I run NatBench in a Docker container?

FROM python:3.12-slim
RUN pip install natbench
ENTRYPOINT ["natbench"]

Note: the GUI requires a display (X11 or Wayland) and will fail in headless containers.

How is the score different from DNSPerf or similar tools?

NatBench is designed for end-user perspective, not datacenter benchmarks. It tests from your machine over your actual network path, includes security checks, supports encrypted protocols (DoT/DoH), and gives a single easy-to-understand score.