UpFromWhere
Website uptime checks from real home networks, not datacente
Every uptime tool I used checks from a datacenter and tells you a server is "up." But that never answered the thing I cared about: can a real person, on real home internet, in another country, actually load my site? A server being online and someone actually reaching it are two different truths — and the second one was invisible to me.
So I built UpFromWhere. You type a domain, and a handful of tiny nodes running on ordinary home internet in different countries each make a single request and report back — live, on a map. You see exactly where your site is fast, slow, or unreachable, through real ISPs and real last mile.
The honest hard part right now is coverage: I only have a few nodes in a few countries, so big regions come back empty. It's a chicken-and-egg problem — the tool gets useful with more nodes, and nodes come from people who find the tool useful. A node is just a ~$5 board you flash yourself.
Two things I'd love feedback on:
Is "reachability from real home networks" actually a problem you've hit, or a solution looking for a problem?
If you'd never run a node yourself — what would make the free checker alone worth coming back to?
Link in my profile. Brutally honest takes welcome.
1 Comment
I like the distinction you're making between uptime and reachability. One thing I'd keep validating is whether customers are buying more monitoring or greater confidence that real users can actually access their product when it matters.