# Probes

A Probe object contains attributes and status information of a RIPE Atlas probe.

  • A Probe can be public or non-public
  • A Probe can have one or multiple tags. See here for a full description of RIPE Atlas tags
  • Important attributes are the IP address(es), the ASN and the geo-location of the probe
  • Important status information includes the first time connected, etc

As already mentioned the geo-location is obfuscated for all RIPE Atlas users, whether they are authenticated or not.

Another restriction was also mentioned earlier: the IP addresses of probes are only shown if the probe is public. If the probe is non-public then the IP address is only available to the host of the probe. If the IP prefixes are known to RIPE Atlas they will be shown to any user.

The status_name and the corresponding status fields hold the current connection status information for the probe. This status can be:

  1. Never Connected. The probe was verified to be working by the RIPE Atlas team and handed out to someone, but it never connected to the RIPE Atlas network, either because of networking problems, or because it wasn't plugged in.
  2. Connected. The probe is currently connected to a working internet connection, is reporting to the RIPE Atlas network and can be used to perform measurements.
  3. Disconnected. At some stage the probe was connected, but it is not currently connected.
  4. Abandoned. The probe was at some point connected to the RIPE Atlas network, but it hasn't been for at least several months.
Last Updated: Thursday, 4 August 2022