Simulate low speed connection on local network

Question

Hi,

Sometimes I want to manually test my web applications (either desktop applications calling web services or websites or RIA) to see how they behave with low speed internet connection (56 kbps for example). Is it possible to do it through network by simulating lower speed that the real one? If yes, is it also possible to simulate low quality connection (something as packet loss, connection drop, e.t.c.)?

Answer 1

I did that with this tool http://bandwidthcontroller.com/purchaseStandard.html

They have a free trial version and a cheap full version.

Just make sure to deinstall it after your tests. Because it chokes your network even when deactivated.

So it is a really crappy tool, except for when you want a slow network.

Answer 2

Found the answer to my own question about speed: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/833106/how-can-i-simulate-download-speed-with-system-threading

What about packet loss & connection drop simulation?

Answer 3

If you have a phone line available, consider using a real modem instead of simulating it. You can just route the address you want to test through the modem and use your regular connection for all the other traffic

Answer 4

Fiddler, an HTTP debugging tool, has the option to throttle HTTP requests to emulate 56k speeds. The speed can be adjusted with a little tinkering.