Uplink: Network Monitor

Uplink is a small, focused app that answers one question: is my network healthy right now? Open it and you get a straight answer in plain language, backed by a live measurement — not a speed-test snapshot from thirty seconds ago. At a glance, you see: • A plain-language verdict — "Everything's working normally" or "Latency is high right now" — before any numbers • Live ping latency to a host of your choosing (default: 8.8.8.8) • Rolling packet loss over the last two minutes • An interactive sparkline — touch and drag anywhere on the chart for a sample's exact reading and how long ago it happened • Min, average, and max latency for the window • Your connection type and interface (Wi-Fi, cellular, VPN) • Your ISP and public-facing WAN IP address The status never hides behind a single word. Uplink says "Poor Latency" or "Elevated Packet Loss" so you know which knob is turning. When both go sideways, it falls back to one verdict using the worse of the two, and a sentence underneath explains what that means for you. WHY UPLINK Most network monitors are either toys (a ping counter and nothing else) or suites (twelve things you don't need bundled with the one you do). Uplink is the one thing, and it's the thing you reach for when the Wi-Fi feels wrong and you want to know whether it's the network, the router, or the far end. The measurement is real. Uplink sends ICMP Echo Requests from inside the app using an unprivileged socket — no VPN profile, no proxy, nothing to install. Latency is classified on the median of successful pings in a rolling two-minute window, so a single 500 ms spike won't flip the indicator unless it's part of a pattern. Failed pings appear as red marks on the chart at the moment they happened, so loss is a shape you can read rather than a number you have to trust. Because your phone moves, so does the picture. Walk out of Wi-Fi range and Uplink shows the handoff to cellular, the new interface, and the new WAN address — useful for catching a VPN that quietly dropped or a hotspot that's really on a different carrier. HONEST ABOUT WHEN IT MEASURES Uplink measures while it's on screen. iOS suspends apps in the background, and rather than pretend otherwise, Uplink starts a clean two-minute window every time you open it. What you're looking at is always current — never a stale reading from an hour ago dressed up as live. FEATURES • A single screen: verdict, chart, metrics, and network identity, in that order • Pull down to re-check your WAN IP and ISP; tap the address to copy it • Configurable ping target and check interval • Configurable WAN IP watch interval • Three sensitivity presets — Relaxed, Default, and Strict — so you never need an opinion about milliseconds • Built for iPhone and iPad, with full Dynamic Type support, light and dark • Ten fully translated languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese WHO IT'S FOR Remote workers testing hotel, café, or conference Wi-Fi before a call rather than during it. Travelers deciding whether to trust the network or switch to a hotspot. Developers whose "is it my app or the network?" moment happens several times a day. And anyone whose laptop just lost its connection — the phone in your pocket is the thing you still have. PRIVACY Uplink does not collect, transmit, or store any personal information. There is no account, no analytics, no telemetry, no crash reporting, no ads. Uplink makes exactly two kinds of outbound request: ICMP echo packets to the host you configure, and a periodic HTTPS lookup to api.ipinfo.io to determine your public IP address and ISP. Your settings and last-known IP live only on your device. REQUIREMENTS iOS 17 or newer. iPhone and iPad.