Run a probe
A probe measures from where it is. OpenPath only works if volunteers run them in many places and on many different networks — especially residential and mobile ones, which are the hardest to get and the most representative of what people actually experience.
What a probe does
- Runs DNS, TCP, TLS and HTTP checks against services OpenPath administrators define.
- Reports what it observed, over an outbound HTTPS connection.
- Needs no inbound connectivity, no open ports and no fixed address.
What a probe will never do
- Act as a VPN, proxy, relay or exit node.
- Scan networks, or measure anything you have not been assigned.
- Read your files, your traffic or your browsing.
- Accept a target chosen by you, or by anyone other than an OpenPath administrator.
The image contains no shell and no interpreter, and the set of checks it can perform is a closed list.
Before you register
Running a probe publishes some information about where it is. This is the whole of it:
Publicly visible
- country
- approximate city, only if you enable it
- ISP or network (ASN)
- probe type
- whether it is online
- the measurements it contributes
Never public
- your email address
- your exact IP address
- your street address or coordinates
- your machine's hostname
- your files or browsing activity
Your probe is listed under a derived identifier such as IR-7f3a, which cannot be used to reach or identify the machine. Full privacy notice.
How to start
- Create an account and add a probe.
- Copy the installation command it gives you. It contains a single-use token.
- Run it where you want to measure from — a Raspberry Pi, a spare machine, a container on a home server.
- Your probe connects and waits. An administrator reviews it, and it starts measuring once approved.
Approval is a human step and is not instant. Until then your probe reports in and receives nothing to measure, which is exactly as intended.