The internet speed test-reinvented

These days, our tech experiences are all about speed-and our expectations
for instant action are actually kinda insane.

Think about it: Not so long ago, phones, computers, and especially the
internet were all painfully slow (at least, by todayS sonic-speed
standards). Things have come a long way in a short time.And for most of
us now,if something doesn’t load within a fraction of second,we grow
impatient and maybe give up entirely-like when a webpage has the audacity
to take a handful of seconds to show up and we click away in an indignant
huff.

Hey, we’ve all been there. What’s especially wild,though,is that
while the standards for speed have skyrocketed forward,the way we
measure this stuff has remained mostly the same.

At least, until now.

This week, I’ve got an incredibly cool and tantalizingly new tool to share
with ya. It’s an overdue update to the way we think about speed and
assessing the allegedly lightning-fast connections we all pay for.

Get ready for a whole new way to think about the tech in front of you.

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The internet speed test-reinvented

Traditionally, when we talk about tools for testing your tech connection
speed, we think about things like Ookla’s Speedtest, the native Google
speed testing system, or the newer Cloudflare Internet Speed Test service.

We’ve

covered those types of tools before. They’re all useful, in different ways-but they’re also all variations on
the same tried-and-true type of speed assessment that’s been around for
ages now.

Today’s tool is different. But it comes from a familiar source-someone who
knows this area inside and out.

It’s the brand-new brainchild of the guy who created Ookla’s Speedtest,
arguably the first internet speed test that became broadly known and
embraced by the masses.

➜ It’s called
Orb. And it’s decidedly
different from your typical tech speed tester.

👁️ Orb works by looking not only at the basic power of your connection but
also its responsiveness and reliability. The idea is that all of that adds
up to create a more complete and ultimately meaningful view of your
connection quality.

💡 And that number isn’t only about bragging rights, either: It’s
meant to help you make sure you’re actually getting the speed you’re paying
for-and then able to pinpoint precisely where and when any problems pop up.

⌚ You’ll need about two minutes to set Orb up and take it
out for a spin.

• First,
  install the appropriate Orb app
  for whatever type of device you’re using.

• Open up the app and follow the quick steps to get it set up and ready.

  • Orb will prompt you to sign in or create an account, but you can skip
    over that if you’d rather. The account just makes it possible to sync
    your testing data and view it from other devices.

Once that swift onetime setup’s out of the way, you’ll see Orb’s
dashboard-with a tremendous amount of detail that lets you peek under the
hood and learn exactly how much your current connection leaves to be
desired.

Specifically:

• Responsiveness tells you how quickly your connection acts
  and how much lag you’ve got going.
• Reliability looks at the consistency of your
  connection and its responsiveness over time.

• And speed is the more standard measure of how quickly
  bits and bytes move across your connection (as measured by
  Cloudflare-the
  
  same basic speed testing tool we’ve recommended before!).

It all adds up to give you a never-before-visible complete picture
of your internet speed quality-on your current device and also any
other devices on which you’ve installed the app and signed in.

Knowledge is power, as they say.And with Orb’s in-depth intelligence
firmly in your mitts, you’ll be armed to the gills and ready to confirm
that everything’s working the way it oughta-and ready to point your
finger at the precise problem, if and when one appears.

• Orb is
  available on all major platformsvia
  a variety of native apps.

• It’s entirely free for personal use. (The company also sells
  large-scale enterprise software setups, which seems to be where it
  intends to make money.)

• The tool comes from known, reputable internet researchers and is
  explicit about the fact that
  it doesn’t do anything disconcerting with the limited amount of data it
  collects.

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