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Bandwidth Limit/Monitor tool

Submitted by joelmay on 27 June, 2006 - 7:07am.

I was working on a website that needs to adapt to bandwidth. To really test it, I had to run it over the Internet -- the 'simulate download' feature didn't cut it in this case. And, I don't have a dial-up modem anymore. Furthermore, the adaptive features needs to work over a variety of bandwidths.

I found a cheap, very useful tool: Netlimiter 2. The pro version is only $30. There is also a lite version. With this tool, you can limit and/or monitor the bandwith and bytes downloaded for each application and each ip address.

It has a 30 trial. This is one that I will actually continue to use (and pay for) when the trial is over.

Anonymous (not verified) Says:

Been using NetLimiter for

27 June, 2006 - 7:47am

Been using NetLimiter for almost 2 years now. Definitely worth the money... I'd say it was an invaluable tool for web developers who care about the user experience of bandwidth heavy sites.

The Flash bandwidth profiler is just crap.

One thing to be aware of is that the limiting is achieved through pulsing the connection rather than a smooth reduction. It can matter in certain situations (it caused me issues with a dynamic buffering routine that I wrote).

The onboard firewall can be very handy for stopping progs from calling home.

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joelmay Says:

Thanks for the pulsing info.

2 July, 2006 - 12:53pm

Thanks for the pulsing info. I can see how that would cause a lot of head-scratching and wasted time when using the tool for something deeper. As long as we have an accurate mental model of how the tool works, we can still use it effectively in those situations.

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doctorus (not verified) Says:

netlimiter is wonderfull a

4 April, 2008 - 3:12pm

netlimiter is wonderfull a pro. thax for your comment guy

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Jason Van Cleave (not verified) Says:

If you want to set up a

27 June, 2006 - 8:07am

If you want to set up a server a combo of xampp and bw_mod works great on Windows.

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Jason Van Cleave (not verified) Says:

MovieClipLoader

27 June, 2006 - 8:14am

Does MovieClipLoader.onLoadProgress fire when using NetLimiter? I remember this and some NetStream events not actually firing unless they are over http

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joelmay Says:

MovieClipLoader.onLoadProgress works fine

2 July, 2006 - 1:59pm

I ran a test. MovieClipLoader.onLoadProgress works just fine while squeezing the connection with NetLimiter.

As stated in another comment here, NetLimiter is using http. It's not a proxy.

Side note: I don't use MovieClipLoader.onLoadProgress (although I do use MovieClipLoader) because it reports the progress too infrequently and the progress bar therefore does not smoothly report progress. I use old-fashioned polling via an onEnterFrame. I suppose onLoadProgress is more efficient cpu-wise, but it makes my flash app look glitchy.

The documentation for onLoadProgress states that it is "Invoked every time the loading content is written to the hard disk during the loading process". That is not often enough for me.

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Anonymous (not verified) Says:

Jale

9 October, 2006 - 8:08am

The only downside is you need to know the bytes/sec for the various bandwidth settings..

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Anonymous (not verified) Says:

Also try:

27 June, 2006 - 9:42am

Also try: http://www.dallaway.com/sloppy/ it's free.

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Charity cds (not verified) Says:

also try

20 January, 2008 - 5:16am

This address didn't work for me - is it still available as a free download? Maybe I'm just doing something wrong.

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Anonymous (not verified) Says:

Try going to the

9 February, 2008 - 12:14pm

Try going to the dallaway.com homepage and searching sloppy in the search bar at the top right - that will work.

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Campbell (not verified) Says:

charles is a tool for flash

27 June, 2006 - 2:09pm

Charles limits bandwidth well....and da deed ded daaaa deserilizes amf calls so you can see whats going on.

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Anonymous (not verified) Says:

The difference between

28 June, 2006 - 3:11am

The difference between Netlimiter and these other programs is that it is not a limiting proxy server. It actually limits all TCP/IP connections, down to process/individual connection level.

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Brian Busche Says:

I like CCPROXY

8 August, 2006 - 9:26am

This one is free for up to 3 users.
http://www.youngzsoft.net/ccproxy/

The only downside is you need to know the bytes/sec for the various bandwidth settings.

7168 = 56k
16,384 = 128k
65,536 = 512k

... and so on

- Brian Busche

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joelmay Says:

I'll have to check it out.

8 August, 2006 - 11:28am

I'll have to check it out. I just bought a dual-core laptop and netlimit doesn't work anymore. I even tried using a tool that forces it to run on a single cpu.

ccproxy also looks useful for preventing the kids from visiting bad sites.

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mnem (not verified) Says:

A little more techy, but

3 September, 2007 - 6:45am

A little more techy, but Fiddler can be used to simulate modems speeds, through the rules->perfomance option. It's also dead handy at spotting why certain web functions are exploding. Oh, and it's free. Windows only though.

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Anonymous (not verified) Says:

can i limit other users'

18 November, 2007 - 7:20am

can i limit other users' bandwidth even though i am not the sever usin net limiter pro?

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joelmay Says:

Unfortunately, no. This

27 November, 2007 - 10:52am

Unfortunately, no. This tool is only useful for testing/debugging on your local machine. To limit bandwidth to specific ip addresses, you probably need some add-on to your server software.

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psdtemplates (not verified) Says:

Using it 0.5 years

1 January, 2008 - 11:18am

NetLimiter is really a nice tool. I'm using it now for about a half a year( Pro Version ) !

Have you now Pro version or Trial ?

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joelmay Says:

I have the pro version

9 January, 2008 - 11:08am

Actually, there is another tool that looks interesting -- Charles. I have not tried it yet, but apparently it also limits bandwidth AND let's you view the http traffic. I learned about it on Jesse Warden's site. It sounds like a combination of netlimiter and Firebug.

I might check it out next time I debug http traffic.

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joltblaster (not verified) Says:

Charles

30 January, 2008 - 2:12pm

I use Charles often. I recommend paying the $30 for the licensed version but I used the free one for months before purchasing it.

I recommend charles. We have tested many new features with Charles and it has helped us find problems that needed to be corrected.

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