In the beginning
Internet is everywhere
Since the dawn of the internet, humankind has wrestled with the age old question - what's up with my connection?
Free the internet!
A long time ago, at a computer not far away, our hero Sam Crawford was hard at work
Beavering away at home, Sam launches his very first project, the Broadband Availability Checker, a free and open site for anyone to check which broadband services were available nearby. This became super popular, and is still available today. “Power to the people!” Shouted the people. It had gone down well.
Sam has a dream
An engineer, bemused by the results from web-based speed tests, Sam hoped one day to design and build an internet platform to measure internet performance more accurately than anything the universe had ever seen. The dream seemed suspiciously easy, but time would tell…
Eureka!
Everything starts with an idea. A moment of inspiration, a lightening bolt to the brain. A revelation would turn Sam into a man on a mission!
Sam has a brilliant idea…
Sam realises that the only way to accurately measure broadband performance is to do it from the edge of his home network – right at the router. He works out that it’s just at this point you can spot sneaky traffic that might be interfering with measurements as well as remove weak Wi-Fi from the equation. This brainwave turns out to be a very cunning idea indeed!
Sam builds his magic box
Flash forward to an A-Team style garage montage. Armed with a soldering iron, a roll of duct tape, a bunch of electronic bits and bobs he bought on eBay and some homegrown stubbornness to succeed, Sam gets started on building his own prototype router embedded with his clever tests.
With a little help from his friends (and a nod to the Beatles) Sam gets the first prototype plugged in and starts to see the first bits of data roll in! He immediately sees how this could help make the internet better and decides to share the results with the world. What a nice guy!
Going global
Almost immediately Sam was inundated with requests from governments, ISPs and consumers for better internet performance data. He soon realised he would have to get serious if he wanted to bring his dream to life.
So he partnered up with a couple of like minded problem solvers, to help him spread the word. SamKnows now works in five continents and in millions of homes, very accurately measuring internet performance.
SamKnows One is born
Internet performance everywhere could now be tested, measured and compared. Good news for everyone with mysterious gremlins in their networks. Very bad news for the gremlins.
To be continued!
Sam's Epic Quest has only just begun
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