Simulate / emulate a broadband connection

Hi all,

I have a simple question, I'm not potentially expecting a simple
answer, apart from 'NO':

Is it possible to emulate / simulate a broadband connection that would
exist between 2 internally housed machines (PC's)?

Or is this a no hoper?

Kindest regards & thanks in advance

Jon

Jon P wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I have a simple question, I'm not potentially expecting a simple
> answer, apart from 'NO':
>
> Is it possible to emulate / simulate a broadband connection that would
> exist between 2 internally housed machines (PC's)?
>
> Or is this a no hoper?
>

It is possible. You simply traffic shape/throttle etc.

Probably not easily though.

T.

Do you mean having an ADSL connection to the Internet and connecting both
PC's to the Internet ? This is possible by using an ADSL router that has
multiple Ethernet ports and connecting each PC to the router via Ethernet
cables and Ethernet PCI cards ( or even going wireless).

If you mean connecting 2 PC's without an Internet connection this is
possible by using Ethernet cable, Ethernet PCI cards and setting them up as
a Home Network within Windows XP.

>
> I have a simple question, I'm not potentially expecting a simple
> answer, apart from 'NO':
>
> Is it possible to emulate / simulate a broadband connection that would
> exist between 2 internally housed machines (PC's)?
>
> Or is this a no hoper?
>
> Kindest regards & thanks in advance
>
> Jon

Not entirely shore what you mean
Would a dial-up internet connection fulfil your criteria for BB emulation /
simulation?

After all the only real difference is speed, and if what you are doing is
some sort of feasibility study in internet sharing, before ordering BB, then
that might do.

Its no more difficult setting up 2 machines with internet connection
sharing to use dial-up than it is to use BB.

You've got me thinking now, are there any Routers integrated with a dial up
modem or more likely an RS232 "WAN" port? I guess such a thing must exist.

Anyway is this any use, or have I completely misunderstood what you are
trying to do?

Graham.


%Profound_observation%

Graham wrote:
>> I have a simple question, I'm not potentially expecting a simple
>> answer, apart from 'NO':
>>
>> Is it possible to emulate / simulate a broadband connection that
>> would exist between 2 internally housed machines (PC's)?
<snip>
>
> You've got me thinking now, are there any Routers integrated with a
> dial up modem or more likely an RS232 "WAN" port? I guess such a
> thing must exist.

With an RS232 port, yes.

Dominic

"Graham" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:<(E-Mail Removed)>...
> Anyway is this any use, or have I completely misunderstood what you are
> trying to do?
>
> Graham.

Graham, you've not misunderstood what I am trying to do, I'm trying to
setup a 'test-lab / model office' of sorts to assist in a 'proof of
concept' idea that myself and a close friend are working on which
involves remote network support / management & administration. Amongst
other things it involves the use of VPN clients and its this
particular element that I am concentrating on. I can use a dial-up
internet connection to test the VPN client coming in to our broadband
connection hitting our firewall router.

But, having another BB connection, involving an additional line etc
starts to become costly - especially if you get tied into a year long
contract! Admitedly, I'm doing this for ongoing testing purposes and
some of our additional scenarios would beneift from this. But we still
need to keep this internally within our testing environment.

Regards

Jon
So, I'm trying to simulate a broadband connection internally using +2
computers

Jon P <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Graham, you've not misunderstood what I am trying to do, I'm trying to
> setup a 'test-lab / model office' of sorts to assist in a 'proof of
> concept' idea that myself and a close friend are working on which
> involves remote network support / management & administration. Amongst
> other things it involves the use of VPN clients and its this
> particular element that I am concentrating on. I can use a dial-up
> internet connection to test the VPN client coming in to our broadband
> connection hitting our firewall router.

> So, I'm trying to simulate a broadband connection internally using +2
> computers

Which particular qualities of a BB connection are you wanting to simulate?

Latency? Bandwidth? (possibly variable due to congestion/contention)
ATM cell loss on the DSL network?

Which layer do you need access to? (just IP, or PPP, or what?)

Do the hosts need to only talk to eachother, or a 3rd party as well? - for
example, using 512k ADSL each line is asymmetrical so you'll only get
256kbit/sec between hosts on different lines but those hosts will be able
to see up to 512kbit sec inbound from other outside hosts.

If it's a simple "i want nnn kbit/sec between hosts", and you don't care
about anything else (you can vary nnn for testing), then something like
PPP running between a couple of back-to-back cisco routers (old 2501's
might be ok - check that the clockrates you want are supported for the
serial ports). Similarly, you might be able to use a couple of computers
back-to-back.

In a "real-world" scenario, you may have users at a site trying to access
Internet sites whilst you're trying to access their site.. in which case
you'll see poor performance... you might want to think about how you'll
handle - or simulate - that.

One solution may be traffic shaping / rate-limiting on a single router or
computer. Perhaps putting appropriate assymetric rate limits on two ports
to connect your test machines, and connecting a 3rd port for "Internet
access".

Introducing (controlled) latency is more difficult. DSL services often
exhibit latency of 15-30mS themselves before you consider the latency
between the networks providing the DSL service... you might approach 100mS
in some cases.

You could probably craft something to introduce latency by modifying some
kind of tunnelling software (construct a 'long' FIFO buffer).

d.

On 4 Jul 2004 14:06:34 -0700, (E-Mail Removed) (Jon P) wrote:

>So, I'm trying to simulate a broadband connection internally using +2
>computers

So in which case, grab a couple of routers which have the ability to
throttle bandwidth and two or more (as needed) hub/switches and you're
set to test whatever conditions you need