Mimic Low Bandwidth for UI Testing?

Question

How do you mimic low bandwidth for testing HTML rendering on slow computers? I'm using Safari 4 on a Mac.

"lower the mimic low bandwidth"... you might check the text there — akauppi, Aug 18 '10 at 02:33

score 10 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 18 '10 at 02:35

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Found the SpeedLimit preference tool mentioned in another SO answer. Works for me and is very unobtrusive to use (no application, no command line, no Java).

answered Aug 18 '10 at 02:35

akauppi

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This is a great little (app) it's actually a preference pane add in. Works great! – dgavey Oct 19 '10 at 16:24

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 16 '10 at 07:54

6

You're probably looking for traffic shaping, in MacOS X it's included in the kernel. Take a look at http://www.macgeekery.com/hacks/software/traffic_shaping_in_mac_os_x

answered Feb 16 '10 at 07:54

kb.

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There's an better solution using Apple's Network Link Conditioner. Have a look at my answer. – Aug 21 '13 at 10:54
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@ErikAigner Great suggestion! At the time of writing the answer OSX Lion with it's Network Link Conditioner was not released, but you're absolutely correct that this would be the most convenient choice today. – kb. Aug 27 '13 at 15:55

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

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If you have an Apple Developer account, look for the "Hardware IO Tools for Xcode" download. There is a Network Link Conditioner pref-pane included just for that with some good presets for

3G (Average/Good/Lossy)
Edge (Average/Good/Lossy)
WiFi (Average/Good/Lossy)
Cable
DSL

Also have a look at this answer

edited May 23 '17 at 12:16

Community

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answered May 05 '13 at 19:55

sum1stolemyname · Answer 4 · 2010-02-16T08:55:55.973

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You could set up a local webserver (ie Apache) and use the traffic shaping capabilities thereof.

An article on Apache throttling

I guess most popular webservers support this.

edit:Typos

edited Feb 16 '10 at 08:55

answered Feb 16 '10 at 08:05

sum1stolemyname

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 16 '10 at 08:22

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I'm a big fan of using the Charles Web Debugging Proxy. It allows you to throttle your own bandwidth to simulate different connection speeds (and a whole mess of other stuff, too). Highly recommended.

answered Feb 16 '10 at 08:22

brettkelly

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 16 '10 at 08:15

There is a program by Intrarts called "throttled", and the command-line version seems to be free (price):

throttled is a bandwidth shaping application for Mac OS X and FreeBSD which allows you to cap your upstream bandwidth, prioritize ACK packets, and keep your download speeds high even when your server is sending out at full speed.

...which seems to be a little tangential to your needs, but might be able to be configured to do what you want.

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Feb 18 '10 at 06:47

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I wrote a post on using waterroof to limit bandwidth a while ago.

It uses ipfw under the covers, but has a nice UI for this kind of thing.

answered Feb 18 '10 at 06:47

Ted Naleid

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 02 '11 at 05:52

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One option is Trickle for Mac.

Alternatively, if you don't have to use Safari, you could use Firefox with the Firefox Throttle plugin.

answered Feb 02 '11 at 05:52

David d C e Freitas

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Mimic Low Bandwidth for UI Testing?

8 Answers8