Add a probe. Strengthen the network. Earn your slots back.
Deploy a probe anywhere you’ve got spare infrastructure, contribute it to the shared network, and earn Donated ping slots in return. The network everyone tests from gets stronger — and so does your test capacity.
A network of vantage points is only as good as its coverage.
Every probe added to the shared network is a new path, a new vantage point, a new provider relationship. More coverage means every test — yours and everyone else’s — gets closer to the truth. Path diversity beats raw probe count, and the community is how the network reaches places no single company would bother to deploy.
We reward that. Contribute a community probe and you earn Donated ping slots — extra simultaneous-test capacity on top of what your tier includes. You give the network a new set of eyes; the network gives you more reach. PingForce was built for teams without an enterprise budget — no money, no problem: donate resources you already own and earn test capacity you’d otherwise pay for.
Three steps from spare box to earned slots.
Deploy a probe
Spin up the PingForce probe on any cloud, datacenter, on-prem box, or branch office. Lightweight — it just needs outbound network access.
Contribute it to the network
Mark the probe as a community probe. It joins the shared pool that every PingForce user can test from, adding a new vantage point to the map.
Earn Donated slots
Your contribution earns Donated ping slots — extra simultaneous-test capacity on your account, on top of your tier’s Flex slots.
Donated slots, by tier.
Donated slots stack on top of your tier’s included Flex slots, expanding how many probes you can fire in a single test run. Here’s what each tier includes.
Spare capacity in an interesting place? That’s a probe.
A spare cloud instance
Got a small VPS sitting idle on a provider or in a region the network is thin on? That’s exactly the vantage point we want.
On-prem or colo
A box in your own datacenter or colo adds a path that no public cloud probe replicates — genuinely different upstream transit.
A branch or remote office
Real last-mile connectivity from a real location. The kind of vantage point that’s hard to buy and valuable to test from.
Somewhere the map is sparse
Coverage in regions with fewer probes is the highest-value contribution — it fills a genuine gap for every user on the network.
Sharing vs. keeping it to yourself.
Contributed to the shared network. Every PingForce user can test from it. You earn Donated slots as a reward. Best when you’ve got a vantage point worth sharing.
Visible only to your account. For watching internal networks, specific egress points, or infrastructure the public network can’t reach. No reward — it’s reserved capacity for you.
Explore Private ServerQuestions about contributing a probe.
What exactly are Donated slots?
Donated slots are extra simultaneous-test capacity you earn by contributing a community probe. They stack on top of the Flex slots included with your tier — so contributing a probe directly increases how many probes you can fire in a single test run.
How many Donated slots does each tier get?
Specialist earns 3, Lieutenant 6, Captain 10, and Major 20. Colonel earns 0 Donated slots — but that's because it already includes all 50 Flex slots, the maximum number of probes you can test from at once. Donated slots are there to raise your simultaneous-test capacity, and Colonel is already at the ceiling, so there's nothing for them to add. It never needs to donate to reach full capacity.
Where can I deploy a community probe?
Anywhere with outbound network access — any cloud, your own datacenter or colo, an on-prem box, or a branch office. The most valuable contributions are in regions or on providers where the network is currently thin, because they add genuine path diversity.
Can other people see my community probe?
Yes — that's the point. A community probe joins the shared network and every PingForce user can run tests from it. If you'd rather keep a probe to yourself, that's a private probe instead — visible only to your account, with no reward.
What's the difference between a community probe and a private probe?
A community probe is shared with the whole network and earns you Donated slots. A private probe is visible only to you, for watching internal or hard-to-reach infrastructure, and uses your Private slots instead. Same probe software — different visibility and purpose.
What access does the probe need to set up?
Two things, and only at install time: SSH (port 22) and an admin username + password — we use these once to install Docker and the probe, and again only if you ever uninstall. After setup, the probe communicates over port 80 only for API calls back to PingForce; SSH and the admin credentials are no longer used for day-to-day operation. You'll also want to allow our trusted addresses through your firewall — the current list lives at app.pingforce.net/inventory/trusted-ip.
Does contributing cost me anything?
No money, no problem. PingForce was built for small teams and tight budgets — so contributing is free, and the free Specialist tier earns Donated slots too. Start with 3 free Flex slots, donate resources you already have (a spare VPS, an idle box), and earn up to 3 Donated slots on top — 6 simultaneous test probes, $0/month. The only cost is the infrastructure the probe runs on, which you already own.
Strengthen the network.
Earn your reach.
Contribute a probe, earn Donated slots, and make every test on the network truer. Free tier earns too.