Bad Internet Box

Your Applications Easily by Simulating Bad Internet Connectivity With a Custom Hotspot

The Bad Internet Box is a Raspberry Pi powered device with custom firmware that simulates a hotspot with poor internet connection. When set up, it provides you with a Wi-Fi hotspot. It can be used to test the applications under various preset internet connectivity simulations or “Bad Internet Levels”.

When connected to the Wi-Fi hotspot, it can access the internet badness settings via the browser by navigating the present IP address and can adjust the settings according to preference.

Difference between BIB and Simple Proxy Simulation

The important differences between the Bad Internet Box and Simple Proxy Simulation software are as follows:

PACKET DROP

When real internet connections degrade, they primarily degrade via packet drop. This may or may not intermittently disconnect the links between the phone or the computer and the server. This is not usually simulated by proxy software or by browser simulation settings.

COMBINED ISSUES

Proxy or browser simulations usually implement bandwidth, but this is not sufficient for testing how your applications will fare in a real-world situation. Browser and Proxy simulations are not comparable to a physical hotspot.

DIRECT FROM-DEVICE VERIFICATION

As this is a physical hotspot you can provide on site with poor internet connectivity, a user can connect a real device, like a cellphone, to the hotspot with a real app and see how it performs in a real-world situation.

WHY USE BAD INTERNET BOX

To ensure your app can reach the largest share of users in developing countries, it needs to be accessible under various bandwidth conditions. Your Quality Assurance department is responsible for checking how the application works under different conditions, and the Bad Internet Box can help you achieve the best results. When your application needs to work in such areas, normal internet connection simulations don't perform as they should. You cannot simulate the spotty internet of third world rural areas without connectivity loss, so you don't know what the client will experience. Therefore, the Bad Internet Box allows your team to see exactly what a user in such areas experience, and the bugs and faults they experience can be repaired fully before rolling out to a live environment.

WHY SIMULATE

The Internet in rural parts of developing nations is limited by a lower penetration rate when compared to the rest of the world. Measurable parameters such as the number of ISP subscriptions, overall number of hosts, IXP-trafﬁc, and overall available bandwidth are indicators that Africa is far behind the "digital divide" Your applications need to be accessible to these users as well. Without testing on the Bad Internet Box, your applications will run the risk of not functioning as expected in areas with low internet connectivity once used in real world situations. This is because browser-simulated low connectivity will not perfectly simulate the real-world effects of packet loss on applications.

AVAILABLE SETTINGS

Losing power will reset the device to the default settings.

The BIB has 5 easy-to-change configurations for Internet Quality.