ORB, a new application of the former CEO of Oookla, offers a wider picture of your internet connection

Since starting nearly 20 years ago, Speedtest.net has been one of the most popular tools used to measure the Internet speed. However, Doug Suttle, the founder and former CEO of Oookla, the testing company behind Speedtest networks, believes that only speed measurement is not enough to tell people who want to know about their internet connections.

This is why Suttles is already launching a new tool called Ball This measures latency, packet loss, flickering and speed to give you a measure of how stable your internet connection is.

Suttle, which started Orb with Oookla Exec Jamie Steven in 2023, said Speedtest.net is the right tool for its time, but as the Internet speed has become a less problem in the world, it believes that people need new, more full ways to evaluate their internet connections.

“The speed tests are like the deponition in your car, which will tell you that you have run out of oil after your car breaks down. We wanted to build a control panel to tell you that you have low oil, so you can fix this problem,” Sutts told Techcrunch to call.

ORB checks network connections for three key variables: responsiveness, which is measured by a combination of lag, oscillation, latency and loss of packages; A reliability that measures the responsiveness in time and the loss of packages over time; and a speed that is your usual download and upload speed. All these variables can be measured at different intervals – one minute, five minutes, one hour and 24 hours.

By combining all three variables, the tool gives you a result to indicate how stable your network connection is. The result of a ball over 80 shows a good connection; 70-80 means you have a good connection; And if you get something under this, you may have noticeable problems.

If your result is below 80, the app offers steps that you can take to improve network performance. Starting says he uses LLM to show descriptions of key problems and suggestions related to solving these.

ORB has applications for different platforms, including iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows and Linux. The company also provides a guide to installing the Raspberry Pi, Onewrt, Docker, Steam DECK, Prox Max, WLAN PI, larger smartphones and other platforms for those who would like to monitor their connections more frequently.

Starting also works on a feature that will allow users to set ORB and share it with someone else to make them watch your relationship. Both users will receive notifications if the quality of the connection is gone.

Currently, Orb is free to use and the company wants to keep it this way. Suttles said he would like to licensed the technology for enterprises and Internet providers so that they could monitor and identify network problems with extended signals and analysis.

The launch has raised $ 3.8 million in funding from Sidekick Ventures as well as from individual investors, including fast senior director Edward Bender; Netflix Jana Iyengar engineer; The CEO of the network Tom Dali; Former Fastly streaming leader, Lee Chen; Head of Oculus Studios Strategy and Operations, Jason Kay; Former president of ThQ and Naughty Dog founder Jason Rubin; And the leader of the strategic initiatives of wind, Will Cooper.

Stephen, who has also worked to create a detector, said ORB also aims to create recipes for various services that help you find out if you can access a particular site such as Zoom, Netflix, X or Google Drive to check that the services work.