Internet Dashboard

The Internet Dashboard is specifically crafted to offer you a quick and comprehensive overview of your internet connection’s latency and quality. Once activated, monitors are established to track each step of your internet connection, evaluating latency and jitter at crucial points including your router, ISP, and three distinct websites on the internet.

In addition, the dashboard will exhibit both the upload and download speeds of your Mac along with those of your router (if set up). Additionally, if enabled, periodic speed checks for your internet connection will be performed by the dashboard to provide you with insights into the maximum upload and download speeds attained.

You can configure all of these settings in Internet Dashboard settings.

Choosing a view

The Internet Dashboard offers two views. Use the toggle at the top of the dashboard to switch between them:

• Simple — a compact, three-panel summary of your connection’s health.
• Detailed — the full path to the internet, broken into per-hop segments with latency and throughput.

Both are described below.

Simple View

The Simple View distils your connection’s health into three panels you can read at a glance:

Panel	What it shows
Link	Your active network connection — its type (e.g. Wi-Fi 6E), name, and current link speed.
Throughput	Real-time upload (↑) and download (↓) speeds, with a ring showing usage relative to your connection’s capacity.
Health	Overall connection quality — current latency, a recent latency graph, and a letter Rating (A+ down to F) summarising stability. The rating is produced by the AI Advisor.

Note

The Link speed is the speed of your Mac’s connection to the local network (for example, the Wi-Fi or Ethernet link rate) — not the speed of your internet connection. Your internet speed is shown under Throughput and, when speed tests are enabled, in the ISP segment of the Detailed View.

Detailed View

Expanding the Internet Dashboard reveals the full path your traffic takes to reach the internet, broken into four segments — This Mac, Router, ISP, and Internet — with an overall connection quality rating on the right.

Each segment shows the same set of elements: a status indicator, a latency graph, the latency to the next hop, and (where applicable) a device selector and throughput dials. The sections below cover each segment in turn.

Reading the latency timeline

Every segment shares the same latency timeline. Once you can read it in one segment, you can read it in all of them:

Element	Description
Status	A coloured dot and label (OK, Light congestion, Heavy congestion or Error) summarising the latency status of this hop.
Timeline	A bar graph of recent latency readings, newest on the right. Each bar is colour-coded from green (Good) to red (Error) so you can spot recent trends and spikes at a glance.
Latency	The current latency to the next hop (e.g. 17.5 ms).
Packet Loss Warning	A drop icon that appears beside the latency figure when packet loss exceeds 1% on this hop. Mouse over the hop to see more detail.
Jitter Warning	A waveform icon that appears when latency is varying significantly — high jitter, which can disrupt video calls and gaming. Mouse over the hop to see more detail.
Particle effects	An animated flow beneath the timeline that visualises live traffic across the hop — color indicates congestion, follow the same scheme as the graph.

This Mac

The This Mac segment represents your Mac’s connection to the local network. It’s the first segment in the path to the internet.

The segment shows, from top to bottom:

Element	Description
Status	The green dot and bar graph indicate the latency status of this hop (OK, Light congestion, or Heavy congestion).
Latency	The figure beside the graph (e.g. 4.7 ms) is the latency from your Mac to the next hop.
Connection selector	The dropdown (e.g. Whole Home WiFi) lets you choose which interface this segment tracks when your Mac has more than one.
Throughput	The two dials show real-time download (↓) and upload (↑) speeds for your Mac.

The dots beneath the dials indicate that the panel has more than one page. Swipe left or right on the trackpad, or click the dots, to cycle through additional dials — Signal Strength and Link Speed.

Click the segment to open a popover with full details about your Mac’s connection to the local network:

The header shows your Mac’s name, the active connection, and its type (for example, Wi-Fi 6E). Below that:

Field	Description
Tx Rate	The current transmit link rate between your Mac and the network — not your internet speed.
Signal	Wi-Fi signal strength in dBm. Values closer to 0 are stronger (e.g. −32 dBm is excellent; −70 dBm or lower is weak).
Channel	The Wi-Fi channel, band, and channel width in use (e.g. 85, 6 GHz, 160 MHz).
Security	The Wi-Fi security protocol (e.g. WPA3 Personal).
IP Address	The local IP address assigned to your Mac.
Interface	The macOS network interface name (e.g. en0).
MAC Address	The hardware address of your Mac’s network interface.
BSSID	The hardware address of the access point your Mac is connected to.

Note

The fields shown depend on your connection type. Wi-Fi connections show signal, channel, security, and BSSID; a wired Ethernet connection shows the relevant subset.

Router

The Router segment represents your internet router or gateway — the device that connects your local network to your ISP.

Because the router sits in the middle of the path, it shows a latency graph on each side — one for the hop from This Mac to the router, and one for the hop from the router to your ISP.

PeakHour displays the detected Internet Gateway in this slot, recognising many router brands and showing the manufacturer’s badge (for example, the UniFi logo) on the device icon. For more on configuring a gateway, see First Time Setup and Settings → Bandwidth Monitor.

Element	Description
Status	The status dot and bar graphs indicate the latency status of the hops on either side of the router.
Latency	The figures beside each graph are the latency to the router (left) and from the router to your ISP (right).
Gateway label	The name (e.g. UniFi Dream Machine) of the Bandwidth Monitor representing your Internet Gateway. It’s normally detected automatically, but you can designate it manually in Settings. If no Bandwidth Monitor is detected or designated, the pill shows the default gateway’s IP address instead, and the throughput dials stay empty. Click it to open the router information popover.
Throughput	The two dials show real-time download (↓) and upload (↑) throughput reported by the router. Each dial fills relative to the gateway’s configured Bandwidth settings.

Click the segment to open a popover with full details about your router:

Field	Description
Your Router	The detected brand and model of your router (e.g. UniFi Dream Machine, UDM-Pro).
Map	The approximate physical location of your connection, derived from your WAN IP address.
LAN Address	Your router’s address on your local network (e.g. 192.168.1.1) — typically the gateway your devices connect through.
WAN IP	The public IP address your ISP has assigned to your router.

ISP

The ISP segment represents the connection from your router out to your internet service provider.

Like the Router, the ISP segment sits mid-path and shows a latency graph on each side — the hop from your router to the ISP, and the hop from the ISP out to the internet. PeakHour identifies your ISP and shows its badge on the building icon.

Element	Description
Status	The status dot and bar graphs indicate the latency status of the hops on either side of the ISP.
Latency	The figures beside each graph are the latency from your router to the ISP (left) and from the ISP to the internet (right).
ISP selector	The dropdown (e.g. Optimum Fiber) shows the detected ISP.
Max Throughput	The two dials show the maximum download (↓) and upload (↑) speeds measured by the most recent Network Quality test — not real-time throughput.
Quality Report	Opens the Network Quality Report — a detailed measurement of your connection’s responsiveness and latency.

Note

The Max Throughput dials are only populated when Network Quality measurement is enabled. Enable it under Internet Dashboard settings → Network Quality.

Click the segment to open a popover with full details about your ISP:

Field	Description
Your ISP	The detected name of your internet service provider (e.g. Comcast Cable Communications), with a link to its website.
Map	The approximate location of your connection, derived from your public IP address.
ISP IP	The public IP address your ISP has assigned you.
ASN	The Autonomous System Number identifying your ISP’s network (e.g. AS7922).
Connection Type	The detected connection technology (e.g. Cable, Fiber, DSL).
Last Updated	When PeakHour last refreshed this information.

Network Quality Report

Clicking Quality Report shows the results of your most recent speed test. It measures not just raw speed but how responsive your connection stays under load — a better indicator of real-world experience for video calls, gaming, and browsing.

Note

The Quality Report is only available when periodic Network Quality measurement is enabled. Clicking it displays the latest test results rather than running a new test — to re-run the test on demand, click the Refresh button at the top of the report.

Section	What it measures
Max Throughput	The maximum download and upload speeds measured during the test.
Responsiveness	Round-trips Per Minute (RPM) — how well your network stays responsive under heavy load. Higher is better.
Latency – Idle	Time spent establishing a connection while the network is unloaded (Base RTT, TCP, TLS, H2 handshakes). Lower is better — this is the baseline for how quickly new connections start.
Latency – Under Load	Latency measured while the connection is saturated. Spikes here indicate bufferbloat — congestion that delays interactive traffic like video calls and games.

The Latency – Under Load graphs (one for download, one for upload) each report three round-trip latency figures measured while the connection was saturated:

Value	Meaning
Min	The lowest round-trip time observed during the test — your best-case latency under load, usually close to your idle latency.
Avg	The average round-trip time across the test — the most representative measure of how responsive the connection feels under load.
Max	The highest round-trip time observed — the worst-case latency, typically at peak congestion. A large gap between Min and Max is a sign of bufferbloat.

Toggle Show Advanced in the top-right of the report for the per-handshake latency breakdown and the under-load latency graphs.

Internet

The Internet segment represents the final hop — from your ISP out to the wider internet. It’s the end of the path, so it shows a single latency graph (the hop from your ISP to the internet) alongside a globe icon.

Element	Description
Status	The status dot and bar graph indicate the latency status of the hop from your ISP to the internet.
Latency	The figure beside the graph is the latency from your ISP out to the internet.
Rating	The overall connection quality grade, described in AI Advisor Rating below.

Click the segment to open a popover listing the Internet Hosts — the endpoints PeakHour uses for connectivity checks:

PeakHour measures the final hop by reaching out to several well-known endpoints (for example, Google, Zoom, and Cloudflare) and combining the results. Each host shows a status dot indicating whether it’s currently reachable, along with the hostname used for the check. You can change which hosts are monitored in Settings → Dashboard.

AI Advisor Rating

The large badge at the end of the dashboard is your overall AI Advisor Rating — a single letter grade (A+ down to F) summarising the health of your whole connection, based on latency, jitter, packet loss, and responsiveness.

Click the rating to open the AI Advisor for a plain-language explanation of what the grade means for you.

AI Advisor

The AI Advisor translates PeakHour’s raw measurements into plain-language insight about your connection. Click the AI Advisor Rating badge to open it.

Note

The AI Advisor uses Apple Intelligence with on-device models. Your network data is analysed entirely on your Mac — nothing leaves your device.

The Network Insights popover shows:

Element	Description
Summary	A plain-language assessment of how your connection is performing and what it’s well suited for.
Activity suitability	Icons for common activities — Video Calls, Gaming, Streaming — each marked with a check when your connection comfortably supports it.
Internet Health	The key metrics behind the rating: Total Latency, Avg Jitter, Avg Packet Loss, and Load RPM (responsiveness under load).

Detailed Network Analysis

Click Explain in the top-right of the Network Insights popover for a deeper, AI-powered diagnostic breakdown:

The Detailed Network Analysis expands on each dimension of your connection in turn — Summary, Latency, Packet Loss, Stability (jitter), Throughput, and Connection — explaining what each measurement means and how it affects real-world use, followed by specific Diagnostic Findings.

Note

Click the Export button at the top of the analysis to generate a detailed Markdown file of the full report — handy for saving a record or sharing with your ISP or IT support.

Tips

• By default, PeakHour uses differential latency to measure the round-trip time between two hops. For example, the latency shown for Router → ISP is the time a packet takes to travel between your router and your ISP, not between your Mac and your ISP.
• You can customise any of the monitors that power the Internet Dashboard under Settings → Monitors. If you delete one of these monitors and want it back, you’ll need to recreate them all — see Recreating Internet Dashboard monitors.
• If a high-CPU-usage indicator appears on the dashboard, your Mac is under heavy load, which can affect the accuracy of latency measurements.