Offer HN: I'll test your web app from Tanzania

[jakobegger]

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.

[krebby]

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

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

[LukeB_UK]

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

[click170]

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.

[skrebbel]

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

[throwaway88509]

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

[Erwin]

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.

[leesalminen]

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?

[thebenedict]

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/)

[asmosoinio]

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...

[ghuntley]

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.

[justindocanto]

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/

[jrlocke]

AaaS - Africa as a service

[buyx]

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

[pyvpx]

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

[thebenedict]

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

[caissy]

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

[pbhjpbhj]

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.

[alimoeeny]

I think you meant 8.8.4.4

[albemuth]

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

[3327]

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?

[thebenedict]

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.

[disordinary]

Nice service, thanks for offering it.

[kumarski]

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

[mhogomchungu]

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.

[thebenedict]

Hapana, tu programmers mzungu hapa ;)

[mchiteri]

Ndio, tuko wengi hapa kaka! :)

[henrygrew]

Mkundu wewe!