Since it launched nearly 20 years ago, Speedtest.net has been one of the most popular tools used to measure internet speeds. However, Doug Suttles, the founder and former CEO of Ookla, the network testing company behind Speedtest, felt that just measuring speed was not enough to tell people all they wanted to know about their internet connections.
That’s why Suttles is now launching a new tool called Orb that measures latency, packet loss, jitter, and speed to give you a measure of how stable your internet connection is.
Suttles, who started Orb with Ookla exec Jamie Steven in 2023, said Speedtest.net was the right tool for its time, but as internet speeds became less of an issue around the world, he felt people needed new, more holistic ways to assess their internet connections.
“Speed tests are like the dipstick in your car, which will tell you that you ran out of oil once your car breaks down. We wanted to build a dashboard to tell you that you are low on oil, so you can fix that problem,” Suttles told TechCrunch over a call.
Orb checks network connections for three key variables: Responsiveness, which is measured by a combination of lag, jitter, latency, and packet loss; reliability, which measures responsiveness over time and packet loss over time; and speed, which is your usual download and upload speeds. All these variables can be measured over different time intervals — one minute, five minutes, one hour, and 24 hours.
Combining all three variables, the tool gives you a score to indicate how stable your network connection is. An Orb score above 80 indicates a good connection; 70-80 means you have an okay connection, and if you get anything below that, you may have noticeable problems.
If your score is under 80, the app suggests steps you can take to improve the performance of the network. The startup says it uses LLMs to show descriptions of key issues and the suggestions related to solving those.
Orb has apps for various platforms, including iOS, Android, macOS, Windows and Linux. The company also provides a guide for installing the tool on Raspberry Pi, Onewrt, Docker, Steam Deck, Prox Max, WLAN Pi, older smartphones, and other platforms for those who would want to monitor their connections more frequently.
The startup is also working on a feature that would let users set up an Orb and share it with someone else to have them monitor your connection. Both users will receive notifications if the connection quality wavers.
Orb is currently free to use, and the company wants to keep it that way. Suttles said he’d like to license the technology to enterprises and ISPs so they can monitor and identify network issues with advanced alerts and analytics.
The startup has so far raised $3.8 million in funding from Sidekick Ventures as well as individual investors who include Fastly senior director Edward Bender; Netflix engineer Jana Iyengar; Big Network CEO Tom Daly; Fastly’s former head of streaming Lee Chen; the head of strategy and operations of Oculus Studios Jason Kay; former president of THQ and founder of Naughty Dog Jason Rubin; and Vetro’s head of strategic initiatives Will Cooper.
Steven, who also worked on creating Down Detector, said Orb also aims to create recipes for different services that help you detect if you can access a particular site, like Zoom, Netflix, X, or Google Drive, to check if the services are working.
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