Dial Up Modem Simulation
By: The Masked Webmaster
"...a slow or down connection can mean not merely an unhappy client, but one who has just bought from a competitor. “The ultimate currency is the user’s time,”
- Somix.com
Now you have
that blazing 300 or 700 Kbps connection, how do I ensure
my visitors on modem won't find my site too slow?
You need to simulate the dial-up connection, and if you still want to
use those
350 K flash intros, then you will probably want to make a High
Bandwidth and
Low Bandwidth version of your site.
How do I *slow* down my
connection?
There are currently several options, ranging from the fairly complex to the
fairly easy.
1. Frontpage 2000 - Your
status bar will tell you exactly how long your page
will take over a 28.8Kbps dial-up connection.
To see different speeds then you will need to Right Click the little hour
glass
icon, and you should see a pop-up window like this one:
The problem with Frontpage, is it will make a guestimate, however it is
always better to visually test out these different scenarios, but if you are a
beginner, and use Frontpage, then this is your best option.
2. Outside connection - If you
have a dial-up account still, or have a friend
who is still on a dial-up account, have them test out your pages, and let you
know how fast/slow it is for them. This is the easiest of all the methods.
3. Proxy - There are a couple
of rare proxies out there, which will do this
task; they slow down your connection on purpose, for testing.
One such proxy is called SLOPPY, and it is written in JAVA,
however
this particular proxy is only recommended for advanced users.
To get sloppy go to the Sloppy
Homepage.
There is also a PERL script, which will basically do the same thing,
and
you can download it from webnovice. If
you do not know how to install
scripts, then you will probably want to pass on this option.
Another more technical script can be found here at Stone
Henge.
4. System Degradation - You
can make some tweaks yourself to purposely
make your connection slow. *warning* make a full registry backup before
trying this method. This is my personal choice for testing, because
it is a fairly
easy way to do visual testing. This method is recommended for power users.
1st rule of thumb (and common sense) - write down any
settings before making
changes, so you can later UnDo them, and get back to surfing at full
speed.
Backup Your Registry:
a) - From Start Menu Icon Click "RUN"
b) - Type in "Scanregw" and Click OK.
c) - The "Registry Checker" will perform a check on Registry Files and
will prompt you that the Registry is OK, also it will ask you if you want to
back it up again. Click Yes!
Editors Note: Keep looking in the FREE DOWNLOADS
section, we have
plans to release a program to simulate different speeds for you automatically.
We are going to be looking specifically at RWIN, MTU and DefaultRecv
areas
of the TCP/IP stack settings in the windows registry. To keep it simple we
are going to assume you have Windows 98 for these instructions.
Run Regedit (If you are unsure how to use this program, we suggest you
search Yahoo! or the Microsoft technical documentation beforehand.)
STEP 1
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP]
"DefaultRcvWindow"="32767"
This key needs to be decreased. To find this key easily - search for DefaultRcv.
Try really low numbers.
STEP 2
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\NetTrans\000n] (Where "000n" is your TCP/IP protocol. It contains "TCP/IP" assigned to the "DriverDesc" value. "n"
can be any number from 0 to 9)
MaxMTU="68" (string var) N
68 is the lowest setting here.
STEP 3
Well there is no step three, except start testing out those pages!
NOTE: Once you have made your speed tweaks, test your settings to
make sure you are really running modem speed.
One good test site is here:
http://www.cable-modem.net
5. Overload - You can
purposely load down your connection, this is a cheap
hack way of doing this, and not recommended (it wastes
bandwidth).
But you could download enough stuff at once to successfully slow your
connection.
6. Custom Software - One
program suited for this purpose is Hyperceive.
You can read more about it from this
information page on this product.
NOTE: This is primary for Audio files. If you find similar software
please
email us the URLs so we can add them. We were unable to test this at the
moment.
WebPerformance
Trainer (For those running their own webserver)
e-Valid software and service
In Conclusion:
Once you have tested your pages and optimize them for both slow and fast
connections your users will thank you.
More resources:
Load Testing and other
items that could be used to simulate different circumstances
Load
Test Homepage (script section)
CNET
Speed Test