Speed Analysis Lab offers Synthetic Monitoring and Testing. Our technology is based on test probes simulating visitors in a realistic way and collects performance data.
To offer the best results, our test probes are distributed in several locations around the world. A real web browser (Chrome) is also used, in a similar way to a real visitor, to load pages and collect results.
Chrome is the only browser supported, as it offers the most capabilities in investigating web performance and has a significant market share.
Below, you'll find details about supported test locations and major changes affecting our test probes (mainly Chrome updates).
Available locations
These are the locations that are currently available and may change from time to time. For any questions, please contact Support.
View available locations and their IP addresses
Country | IP Addresses |
France |
13.38.220.116 13.36.219.199 |
United Kingdom |
18.133.24.240 18.130.77.226 |
Germany |
3.123.175.161 3.73.171.151 |
USA East |
18.214.132.28 44.195.163.127 |
Canada |
3.98.63.182 99.79.171.196 |
USA West |
184.72.60.13 52.8.198.28 |
Brazil |
54.207.214.202 54.207.131.219 |
India |
43.204.15.48 43.205.65.14 |
Hong Kong |
18.166.114.202 43.198.34.102 |
Japan |
35.79.201.26 35.78.138.17 |
Australia |
13.238.173.238 54.66.150.130 |
Italy |
18.102.29.206 15.160.14.48 |
Sweden |
16.16.55.15 13.49.217.211 |
Singapore |
18.136.148.246 52.74.128.93 |
South Korea |
13.125.67.1 52.79.63.118 |
Bahrain |
157.241.63.195 157.241.54.230 |
South Africa |
13.246.67.128 13.246.96.62 |
All the Speed Analysis Lab probes are associated with a domain complying with this pattern: *.probe.dareboost.com
Previous Chrome updates
The web browser used by Speed Analysis lab is generally updated between once and twice a year, in order to offer the best balance between stability of your results while maintaining an up-to-date technology reflecting real-life audience.
The below change logs are not exhaustive, but highlight notable changes on Chrome that can affect your performance metrics during the upgrade.
Chrome 120 to 126
On 1st July 2024, our test probe browsers will upgrade from Chrome 120 to 126.
Like every upgrade, changes are to be expected for some websites but our benchmarks did not reveal any major trend in the way metrics are affected.
Other significant improvements have been implemented and could have some impact on performance results:
Scenario: blinking text cursor at insertion point is now hidden
On a web page, the text cursor usually blinks (or flashes) at the insertion point of a text field to indicate to the user where the text will be entered when they type.
In some contexts, this was affecting the visual metrics (Visually Complete and Speed Index) of Scenarios, significantly impacting the stability of performance results.
The blinking text cursor at the insertion will now be hidden to prevent this issue.
Chrome 108 to 120
On 31st January 2024, Speed Analysis Lab upgraded Chrome from version 108 to 120.
View change log
Like every upgrade, changes are to be expected for some websites but our benchmarks did not reveal any major trend in the way metrics are affected.
If you are impacted by a significant change in your results you can reference the following browser changes, to help identify the cause:
LCP
LCP & CLS
FCP
"DareBoost" User Agent deprecated
From 31st January, 2024 the default User Agent headers (when not overridden by users) sent by Speed Analysis Lab include the “CSpeedTP” keyword.
The former user agent, “DareBoost”, is still provided but should not be relied on, as it will be removed in a future update.
Referer HTTP header removed
Speed Analysis test probes were previously sending a Referer HTTP header (with “dareboost.com” as a value) for each access to your website pages. This Referer HTTP header is no longer sent by default.
If you relied on this mechanism in any way (for example, filtering out access from analytics tools), you will need to move to another mechanism from 31 January, 2024 (our IP addresses can be found above). It’s also possible to enforce a header in the advanced settings if needed.
Chrome 91 to 108
On 31st January 2023, Speed Analysis Lab upgraded Chrome from version 91 to 108.
View change log
LCP
- Chrome 99 Implementation optimizations: Navigation optimizations and timeOrigin changes
- Chrome 98 Metric bug fix: Text paints are more accurate
- Chrome 96 Metric bug fix: Largest Contentful Paint uses the page viewport
FCP
- Chrome 102 Implementation issue: Changes related to FCP and document opacity
- Chrome 99 Implementation optimizations: Navigation optimizations and timeOrigin changes
- Chrome 94 Metric definition improvement: Paint timing is only reported when the painted content is not under opacity:0
CLS
- Chrome 98 Metric definition improvement: Record CLS value at the first OnHidden in addition to tab close in UKM
- Chrome 93 Metric definition improvement: Bug fix involving scroll anchoring & Metric definition improvement: Ignore layout shift while dragging or resizing elements with a mouse
General