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GUI Guide

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natural edited this page Sep 2, 2026 · 2 revisions

GUI Guide

Launch with natbench-gui or the pre-built binary.

NatBench GUI

Layout

┌─ Toolbar ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ NatBench  DNS Benchmark    Queries [5] Font [9] Proto [udp]    │
│                            AF [auto] Lang [English (en)]        │
├─ Left panel ────────┬─ Right: tabs ──────────────────────────┤
│ All Servers         │ Results │ System DNS │ Profiles │ Export  │
│ [All] [None]        │         │            │          │ About   │
│ ⭐ Best 🔒 Secure   │         │            │          │ Tracert │
│ ⚡ Fast  🌍 Region  │                                          │
│                     │                                           │
│ ▼ [✓] Recommended   │                                           │
│   [✓] Google 8.8.8  │                                           │
│   [✓] Cloudflare …  │                                           │
│ ▶ [✓] ISP           │                                           │
│                     │                                           │
│ ─────────────────   │                                           │
│ Custom Server [Add] │                                           │
└─────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────┘

Server Panel (left)

Quick-select buttons

Button Action
All Check all servers
None Uncheck all servers
⭐ Best Select fast + anycast servers
🔒 Secure Select malware-blocking servers
⚡ Fast Select servers tagged fast
🌍 Region Select servers from your locale country

Collapsible groups

Click the ▼/▶ arrow to collapse/expand a category.
The checkbox in the header selects/deselects all servers in that group.

Built-in groups: Recommended · Security · Privacy · Regional · Community · ISP (collapsed by default)

Custom server

Enter an IP (optionally ip:port) and click Add.

Top Toolbar

Control Purpose
Queries spinbox DNS lookups per server (1–50)
Font spinbox UI font size 7–14pt; updates row height immediately
Protocol udp tcp dot doh udp+tcp all
AF auto ipv4 ipv6 — which address to test
Lang Switch UI language (27 supported)

Themes

Settings → Theme:

  • Dark (default) — blue-tinted dark
  • Light — white background
  • Colorblind — Okabe-Ito palette on neutral gray
  • High Contrast — maximum contrast

Theme is saved and restored automatically.

Results Table

Columns: Rank · Server · IP/Protocol · Median · P95 · Min · Max · Reliability · Score · DNSSEC · Malware · Ads

  • Score shows ↑ (faster) or ↓ (slower) arrows compared to the previous run
  • Alternating row backgrounds for readability
  • Click any column header to sort
  • Right-click a row → Set as DNS · Copy IP · Traceroute

Traceroute Tab

  1. Enter a hostname or IP (or right-click a result → Traceroute)
  2. Choose AF (auto/ipv4/ipv6)
  3. Click Run

Uses tracepath / traceroute / mtr with full hostname resolution (PTR lookups enabled).

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Ctrl+R Start benchmark
Ctrl+T Stop benchmark
Ctrl+Shift+R Reset / clear results
Ctrl+E Open Export tab
F1 About

Settings Persistence

On close, NatBench saves to ~/.config/natbench/settings.json:

  • Window geometry and sash position
  • Theme and language
  • Font size
  • Column widths

These are restored automatically on next launch.

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