4 ms·

And to simulate a degraded connection, the colorfully-named comcast tool works well: https://github.com/tylertreat/comcast https://github.com/tylertreat/comcas

• wtallis 11y ago
  That tool is a very thin wrapper over preexisting OS functionality, and it does little more than disguise how limited those capabilities are when it comes to making realistic simulations. If you really want to assess how your application will perform on low-quality connections, it behooves you to understand what makes those connections suck, and what specific capabilities your OS of choice has for simulating or generating those conditions. Statically setting latency to 500ms or packet loss to 10% is not realistic; it simultaneously exaggerates the kind of performance issues that exist in the real world and is much easier to compensate for than real network dynamics.
  • tomkinstinch 11y ago
    The wrapper makes the tool. It may not be perfect, and it would be nice to have more of a "random but stochastically representative degradation" option, but it's the tool I know and it works well. Can you suggest a better one for simulation? On OSX there is Apple's Network Link Consitioner[1], but on Linux? Characterizing a bad connection is great, but that isn't a tool. It's super hand wavy to say "what specific capabilities your OS of choice has for simulating or generating those conditions". My OS doesn't have capabilities I can access easily, and importantly, disable easily. Building on Comcast to add simulation improvements seems like a viable option.