Browser Synthetics Disambiguation

There are several similar-sounding terms within ThousandEyes, only some of which are directly related to browser synthetics.

Web layer: Browser synthetics is part of the larger family of web-layer tests. The other web-layer tests are HTTP server tests, FTP tests, and API tests. The HTTP server and FTP test types are described under Internet and WAN Monitoring.

Browser Synthetics vs. BrowserBot: Within this documentation, browser synthetics refers to two test types - page load and transaction - and to the views and data produced by those test types on the ThousandEyes platform. These tests rely on a set of software components that are collectively referred to as BrowserBot, and are installed from the te-browserbot Linux package. These components run on the ThousandEyes Cloud and Enterprise Agents. For information on BrowserBot and the te-browserbot package, see What Is BrowserBot?.

Endpoint agent browser extension: The ThousandEyes Endpoint Agent measures real-time user experience, rather than running scheduled synthetic browser interaction tests. Endpoint agents support a few scheduled network tests, but not the browser synthetics tests discussed in this section of the documentation.