Offer HN: I'll test your web app from Tanzania (opens in new tab)

(docs.google.com)

162 pointsthebenedict11y ago53 comments

53 comments

41 comments · 12 top-level

jakobegger11y ago· 13 in thread

If you work on anything web related and you have a Mac or an iOS device, I strongly encourage you to try the "Network Link Conditioner". It's a preference pane (on OS X) or a setting (on iOS) that allows you to simulate different types of networks. You can artificially limit bandwidth and transmission delay, simulate package loss and DNS delay.

For me, it's become an essential tool for testing website & app performance.

krebby11y ago

There's also Comcast[0]. No clue if it's any good but the name is amazing.

[0] https://github.com/tylertreat/Comcast

stingraycharles11y ago

Seems like a copy of the joke the people of The Onion came up with a few months earlier, ComcastifyJS: https://theonion.github.io/comcastifyjs/

LukeB_UK11y ago

Chrome has a network throttling emulation in the dev tools too: https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/device-mode

taude11y ago

One thing I wish I was able to do in the Chrome tools is to set my bandwith and latency preferences manually...

2 more replies

Kiro11y ago

It doesn't affect things like Web Sockets though.

click17011y ago

If you're on a Linux system, the 'tc' (traffic control) command has many similar abilities, though the UI is CLI only and is a bit cryptic. There are many posts and articles on usage though, including the Linux Advanced Routing and Traffic Control manual.

skrebbel11y ago

Nice! Does anyone know whether something like this exists on Windows?

scott_karana11y ago

I like "clumsy", which has a perfect animated GIF showing the app:

http://jagt.github.io/clumsy/index.html

1 more reply

junto11y ago

Since nearly every Windows web dev has Fiddler2, it can simulate network latency: http://helephant.com/2012/07/11/simulating-network-latency-w...

WickyNilliams11y ago

I believe Fiddler handles this? Not very friendly to change, but it's documented here http://docs.telerik.com/fiddler/KnowledgeBase/FiddlerScript/...

lstamour11y ago

Fiddler or Network Emulator for Windows Toolkit perhaps. I'm sure there are other options though.

wasyl11y ago

There is crapify [1]. I remember seeing other tools as well, but can't find them at the moment.

[1] https://www.npmjs.com/package/crapify

goldins11y ago

Google Chrome Canary has network throttling functionality.

1 more reply

pyvpx11y ago· 7 in thread

you mind doing some traceroutes to 4.2.2.2 and 8.8.8.8 just out of curiosity? :)

thebenedictOP11y ago

Sure. I'm on Smile Tanzania atm, a 4G carrier (though slower than 4G in the US or Europe). This isn't the carrier I'll use for web app tests.

http://dpaste.com/129AKD2 http://dpaste.com/37YE2VY

mhogomchungu11y ago

Tanzanian here writing this from dar es salaam,Tanzania.

I have never hear of this "smile" company so i looked them up and their prices[1] seem ridiculous.

I use vodacom and i pay 20,000 shillings a month for unlimited internet.This company charges 17,500 a month for 1GB.

vodacom,like other companies also have more options[2].

Why do you use this company?

ps: 1USD is equivalent to about 1500 shillings so 20000 shillings is about 13USD

[1] http://smile.co.tz/products-services/

[2] https://www.vodacom.co.tz/internetservices/prepaid_packages/...

3 more replies

nitinics11y ago

Looks like your provider is traversing through TATA Communications (AS6453) on both of those.

Wonder what your latency would be with a SEACOM(AS37100) traversal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Tanzania

Here are your downstream carrier options : http://www.cidr-report.org/cgi-bin/as-report?as=AS37100&v=4&...

1 more reply

evanb11y ago

HI MIKE!

I think you're the only other person I know who reads HN.

Neat idea.

caissy11y ago

I always thought that 8.8.8.8 was routed by anycast, thus pointing to the closest server.

pbhjpbhj11y ago

8.8.8.8 is public DNS from Google.

4.2.2.2 is private DNS from Level3; see eg http://www.tummy.com/articles/famous-dns-server/ for a history.

alimoeeny11y ago

I think you meant 8.8.4.4

kumarski11y ago· 5 in thread

Je, mtu yeyote hapa kusema swahili?.......

mhogomchungu11y ago

kiswahili lugha yangu ya kwanza kama mtanzania niliyezaliwa na kukulia dar es salaam,tanzania.

kuna watanzania wengi tu hapa HN na walijitokeza kwenye thread moja miezi michache iliyopita. Siwezi kupost link ya hiyo thread sababu siikumbuki link yenyewe na nahisi uvivu kuitafuta.

thebenedictOP11y ago

A few folks showed up here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7837397

thebenedictOP11y ago

Hapana, tu programmers mzungu hapa ;)

mchiteri11y ago

Ndio, tuko wengi hapa kaka! :)

henrygrew11y ago

Mkundu wewe!

leesalminen11y ago· 2 in thread

Very cool! I work with the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika. We host out of the U.S., and they are always complaining of page load time issues.

Do you know of/recommend any local hosts?

thebenedictOP11y ago

Hi! I've heard good things about Habari Node[1], and Angania[2] is a startup working on Nairobi-based hosting. That said, I and most developers I know in the region host internationally. As others have mentioned latency is usually a bigger problem than bandwidth. Happy to take a look at your site if helpful (just add it to the form).

[1] (http://www.habari.co.tz/) [2] (https://angani.co/)

asmosoinio11y ago

Depends on where your clients are in Africa -- if in the South then for example http://www.rsaweb.co.za/ could be a good choice. Have had some VMs with them, no issues.

Also Hetzner has servers in South Africa: http://www.hetzner.co.za/webhosting/buyersguide/hosting-loca...

jrlocke11y ago· 1 in thread

AaaS - Africa as a service

buyx11y ago

It's a cool idea, but it is really just TaaS (Tanzania as a Service), or maybe South-east Africa as a service (decent submarine cable connections). From what I've heard bandwidth remains prohibitively expensive in places like Namibia and Botswana, while it is increasingly cheap in South Africa, where I was able to smoothly stream ''House of Cards'' from Netflix (via proxy) using an uncapped connection.

TlDR: Africa is not a country

332711y ago· 1 in thread

So how is it living there? Curios... I live in NYC, my brother is flying out to test out his micro solar chargers...Any insights?

thebenedictOP11y ago

The tech community is smallish but it's an easy place to live. Feel free to ping me with specific q's, or if your brother wants to grab a coffee if he passes through Dar. My email is my HN handle at gmail.

throwaway8850911y ago

You don't have to go to Africa for network latency testing. Here's McDonald's Sunnyvale today:

64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32201 ttl=47 time=3894.012 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32202 ttl=47 time=4160.846 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32203 ttl=47 time=4438.250 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32205 ttl=47 time=4511.332 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32206 ttl=47 time=4877.157 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32207 ttl=47 time=4230.125 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32208 ttl=47 time=4140.820 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32209 ttl=47 time=3657.129 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32210 ttl=47 time=3668.067 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32211 ttl=47 time=3978.231 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32212 ttl=47 time=3639.352 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32213 ttl=47 time=3559.121 ms 64 bytes from 72.9.103.50: icmp_seq=32214 ttl=47 time=3362.324 ms

Erwin11y ago

For every other location BUT Africa you can get a speed test from this site: http://www.webpagetest.org/ -- this also lets you different browsers and run an initial + repeated (with something cached) test.

ghuntley11y ago

From personal experience whilst traveling through Tanzania & Kenya using a 4G modem from Safaricom the issue was/is latency. Bandwidth is plentiful but the latency is horrible which resulted in AJAX applications timing out before requests could be completed. Example of this was Gmail, the application would not even function in AJAX mode but switching to plain HTML mode, whilst it took forever, worked like a charm every time.

justindocanto11y ago

You may want to update what facebook has stored for your form's OG data as it has some old info/screenshots.

What I see: http://imgur.com/2OPznGX

Update here: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/

albemuth11y ago

There's also the excellent Charles Proxy that serves as a mitm proxy and lets you throttle the connection among other things.

disordinary11y ago

Nice service, thanks for offering it.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

53 comments

41 comments · 12 top-level

jakobegger11y ago· 13 in thread

For me, it's become an essential tool for testing website & app performance.

krebby11y ago

There's also Comcast[0]. No clue if it's any good but the name is amazing.

[0] https://github.com/tylertreat/Comcast

stingraycharles11y ago

Seems like a copy of the joke the people of The Onion came up with a few months earlier, ComcastifyJS: https://theonion.github.io/comcastifyjs/

LukeB_UK11y ago

Chrome has a network throttling emulation in the dev tools too: https://developer.chrome.com/devtools/docs/device-mode

taude11y ago

One thing I wish I was able to do in the Chrome tools is to set my bandwith and latency preferences manually...

2 more replies

Kiro11y ago

It doesn't affect things like Web Sockets though.

click17011y ago

skrebbel11y ago

Nice! Does anyone know whether something like this exists on Windows?

scott_karana11y ago

I like "clumsy", which has a perfect animated GIF showing the app:

http://jagt.github.io/clumsy/index.html

1 more reply

junto11y ago

Since nearly every Windows web dev has Fiddler2, it can simulate network latency: http://helephant.com/2012/07/11/simulating-network-latency-w...

WickyNilliams11y ago

I believe Fiddler handles this? Not very friendly to change, but it's documented here http://docs.telerik.com/fiddler/KnowledgeBase/FiddlerScript/...

lstamour11y ago

Fiddler or Network Emulator for Windows Toolkit perhaps. I'm sure there are other options though.

wasyl11y ago

There is crapify [1]. I remember seeing other tools as well, but can't find them at the moment.

[1] https://www.npmjs.com/package/crapify

goldins11y ago

Google Chrome Canary has network throttling functionality.

1 more reply

pyvpx11y ago· 7 in thread

you mind doing some traceroutes to 4.2.2.2 and 8.8.8.8 just out of curiosity? :)

thebenedictOP11y ago

Sure. I'm on Smile Tanzania atm, a 4G carrier (though slower than 4G in the US or Europe). This isn't the carrier I'll use for web app tests.

http://dpaste.com/129AKD2 http://dpaste.com/37YE2VY

mhogomchungu11y ago

Tanzanian here writing this from dar es salaam,Tanzania.

I have never hear of this "smile" company so i looked them up and their prices[1] seem ridiculous.

I use vodacom and i pay 20,000 shillings a month for unlimited internet.This company charges 17,500 a month for 1GB.

vodacom,like other companies also have more options[2].

Why do you use this company?

ps: 1USD is equivalent to about 1500 shillings so 20000 shillings is about 13USD

[1] http://smile.co.tz/products-services/

[2] https://www.vodacom.co.tz/internetservices/prepaid_packages/...

3 more replies

nitinics11y ago

Looks like your provider is traversing through TATA Communications (AS6453) on both of those.

Wonder what your latency would be with a SEACOM(AS37100) traversal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_in_Tanzania

Here are your downstream carrier options : http://www.cidr-report.org/cgi-bin/as-report?as=AS37100&v=4&...

1 more reply

evanb11y ago

HI MIKE!

I think you're the only other person I know who reads HN.

Neat idea.

caissy11y ago

I always thought that 8.8.8.8 was routed by anycast, thus pointing to the closest server.

pbhjpbhj11y ago

8.8.8.8 is public DNS from Google.

4.2.2.2 is private DNS from Level3; see eg http://www.tummy.com/articles/famous-dns-server/ for a history.

alimoeeny11y ago

I think you meant 8.8.4.4

kumarski11y ago· 5 in thread

Je, mtu yeyote hapa kusema swahili?.......

mhogomchungu11y ago

kiswahili lugha yangu ya kwanza kama mtanzania niliyezaliwa na kukulia dar es salaam,tanzania.

kuna watanzania wengi tu hapa HN na walijitokeza kwenye thread moja miezi michache iliyopita. Siwezi kupost link ya hiyo thread sababu siikumbuki link yenyewe na nahisi uvivu kuitafuta.

thebenedictOP11y ago

A few folks showed up here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7837397

thebenedictOP11y ago

Hapana, tu programmers mzungu hapa ;)

mchiteri11y ago

Ndio, tuko wengi hapa kaka! :)

henrygrew11y ago

Mkundu wewe!

leesalminen11y ago· 2 in thread

Very cool! I work with the Anglican Diocese of Central Tanganyika. We host out of the U.S., and they are always complaining of page load time issues.

Do you know of/recommend any local hosts?

thebenedictOP11y ago

[1] (http://www.habari.co.tz/) [2] (https://angani.co/)

asmosoinio11y ago

Depends on where your clients are in Africa -- if in the South then for example http://www.rsaweb.co.za/ could be a good choice. Have had some VMs with them, no issues.

Also Hetzner has servers in South Africa: http://www.hetzner.co.za/webhosting/buyersguide/hosting-loca...

jrlocke11y ago· 1 in thread

AaaS - Africa as a service

buyx11y ago

TlDR: Africa is not a country

332711y ago· 1 in thread

So how is it living there? Curios... I live in NYC, my brother is flying out to test out his micro solar chargers...Any insights?

thebenedictOP11y ago

throwaway8850911y ago

You don't have to go to Africa for network latency testing. Here's McDonald's Sunnyvale today:

Erwin11y ago

ghuntley11y ago

justindocanto11y ago

You may want to update what facebook has stored for your form's OG data as it has some old info/screenshots.

What I see: http://imgur.com/2OPznGX

Update here: https://developers.facebook.com/tools/debug/

albemuth11y ago

There's also the excellent Charles Proxy that serves as a mitm proxy and lets you throttle the connection among other things.

disordinary11y ago

Nice service, thanks for offering it.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse