I spent weeks using ORB: It’s different from the internet speed test I’ve ever used
Internet speed tests aren’t just for people who are obsessed with internet connections. If you have an inevitable slowdown in your home internet, my first recommendation is always to start with a speed test. In fact, I have tested and used dozens of them Internet Speed Test – The market is pretty saturated with them. Ideally, the best internet speed test is to diagnose bandwidth blues as easily as possible. There are no ads. Slow Wi-Fi.
Speed tests are not new in home internet spaces, but again, I have never used speed tests Orb in front.
Meet the orb
Ookla, the creator of the industry’s most popular speed test, launched ORB at the end of April. (Disclaimer: Ookla is owned by the same parent company as CNET, Ziff Davis.) I was skeptical of what value Orb could bring to the Internet Speed Testing market, but after downloading the app to my iPhone and Personal Computer a few weeks ago, I felt different.
ORB is a free and sophisticated speed testing application. It’s not just about testing Download and upload speed; Measure the overall health of your home network using multiple metrics and continuous speed tests.
Doug Suttles, co-founder and CEO of Orb, says Orb is not actually a speed test.
“We’re not a speed test. It’s the best way to put it,” Suttles tells me. “There’s a speed test feature, but it’s a much more focus on what’s called responsiveness.”
What does Orb track?
ORB measures responsiveness using several different metrics. You can see what your best (and worst) delay times look like.
Responsiveness – including lag-like measurements; delayJitter and Packet Loss – the main use of metric orbs to assess internet connection. Reliability, or long-term network responsiveness, and speed, are secondary measurements that ORB takes into account.
“What we’re focusing on is another aspect of broadband,” says Sutres. “What we built in our past companies was perfect for the time when broadband was in the early stages and we needed to measure throughput first and foremost.”
and Data is rising rapidly and Internet speeds are skyrocketingOur lives are more connected than ever, and speed alone is not the only factor in judging a good internet plan.
I see this often Home Internet Plan ReviewsMost internet shoppers focus primarily on speed and cost, but many other factors, Maximum advertised speeddetermine if the connection is reliable or consistent.
Jamie Steven, president and co-founder of ORB, says not only fast but reliable internet connection is essential to his essential home.
“The connections will always be slower,” Steven said, “speed wasn’t always or very often. The problem was reliability and responsiveness.”
Suttles and Steven are similar to measuring a typical internet speed test, a car’s top speed. Rather than focusing solely on speed, ORB focuses on whether the internet stalls or how quickly it can accelerate.
Furthermore, Stephen points out that the top speed of most cars is unrealistic for everyday use.
“That’s not what you do every day,” says Stephen. “For us, it was about continuing measurement of your internet experience.”
How do orbs work?
ORB measures the current speed of the Internet and its peak speed.
Part of the ingenuity of ORB is its ability to perform these continuous speed tests rather than just performing speed tests when delays or interruptions occur. My first thought was that such an approach would hit the bandwidth. However, Suttles assured that the ORB uses a much smaller payload (about 10MB) compared to the typical speed test alternative. For rural internet users like Stephen, that light payload makes all the difference in stabilizing your internet connection.
If you want to provide stress testing to the internet, the ORB comes with a “peak speed” feature to test the capacity of your network, but that’s not a continuous test.
All devices that connect to the internet act as “orbs” or “sensors” that test your internet connection. You can also set up dedicated devices for continuous network monitoring 24/7.
ORB has one drawback, as it compares to other speed tests. You cannot run tests in a browser. You will need to download the application to your device (from a spare smartphone) Raspberry Pi). Once you have created an account, you can download the ORB to essentially anything with a hard drive and easily diagnose internet issues in various rooms at the same time.
Practical with ORB
ORB is completely free and easy to use. A few weeks ago I installed it on my phone and personal computer and tested it using it Fiber Internet Connection. Using a scale of 0-100, ORB gives the Internet an easy-to-understand rating. Red (0-49) means poor performance, while green (90-100) means that the internet is performing well. My internet connection most often gets a solid 90 – not bad Cheapest speed layer for AT&T.
“We want consumers to use this because these are issues that all of us on the founding team had at home,” says Stephen. “We want this to be free forever.”
“Building a brand is worth more than trying to monetize consumers that we are frankly so passionate about.
I used the ORB to test the internet connection in my office and the speed I was getting in the living room where the TV is. Both tests showed results that were usually consistent with what we would see as using Ookla.
You can add as many devices as you want to your ORB network. They all play a role in measuring your internet connection.
Orb is still in its first stage – it’s an effective tool for understanding how an internet connection works, but there are several features in the app that makes it even more user-friendly, such as the ability to access historical data (similar to Ookla).
“ORB records all data locally first,” Steven points out. “We didn’t present it in the UI, but it was something we were very passionate about. We didn’t want to request a cloud connection so we could see the past.”
Perhaps most importantly, ORB will eventually begin releasing recipes to measure the connectivity of a particular application or service, such as a Microsoft team, Slack, and ultimately a specific Internet service.
“A variety of web services use different types of protocols,” says Steven. “Zoom may use this special RTSP protocol. Can my connection open that port to that service? Is it accessible? What is its responsiveness?”
As they head down the path, Suttles and Steven hope that the ORBs used by the community will create a variety of “recipes” and ways to measure reachability.
“At that core, ORB is really a recipe engine,” Suttles says. “Our vision is to release and share new recipes and start creating them in the community.”
Final thoughts
The internet isn’t cheapand while it may be appealing to buy more speed, it is easier to diagnose and increase the connection first. ORB (and the Internet) continues to evolve, but I recommend having an overall sense of network connectivity beyond speed.