NetStartr Chrome extension
NetPulse — live ping in your toolbar
A tiny coloured dot in your browser toolbar that goes green / yellow / red as your connection rises or falls. One click runs a full NetStartr speed test in a new tab. Free, open-source, no signup, no tracking.
Live ping pulse
A coloured dot in your toolbar refreshes every few seconds. Green under 50 ms, yellow 50-150 ms, red above. Hover to see exact ping.
1-click full test
Click the icon, hit Run Full Test — we open netstartr.com with the test auto-starting.
Offline alerts
Optional desktop notifications when your connection drops or recovers — handy on flaky Wi-Fi.
Install in 30 seconds (developer mode)
- Download the .zip and unpack it somewhere permanent (e.g.
~/netpulse). - Open
chrome://extensions/in Chrome / Edge / Brave / Arc. - Toggle Developer mode on (top right).
- Click Load unpacked and select the unpacked folder.
- Pin the NetPulse icon to your toolbar — that\'s it.
Want it from the Chrome Web Store instead? We're finishing the listing — get notified by emailing hello@netstartr.com.
Privacy
NetPulse pings speed.cloudflare.com with a 1-byte HEAD request every few seconds to estimate latency. It does not read page content, does not contact any NetStartr server, does not see your browsing history, and stores nothing beyond your icon-colour preferences.
Permissions explained
- storage — remembers your colour-threshold preferences.
- alarms — schedules the periodic ping.
- notifications — only used if you opt in to offline alerts.