Ever wondered if it’s possible to limit your bandwidth in Mac OS X without installing additional software ?

Yes it is

Basically you just need some terminal and IPFW knowledge

Let’s assume we want to simulate a 8 KByte/sec limit for port 80

Step 1 – Define bandwidth rule

sudo ipfw pipe 1 config bw 8KByte/s

Step 2 – Bind rule to port

sudo ipfw add 1 pipe 1 src-port 80

Now we have added the rule 1 and the limit should be active.

Remove bandwith limit

If you want to disable this limitation again fire up terminal again and delete rule 1

sudo ipfw delete 1

Links

If you are new to ipfw and dislike terminal hacking or prefer a gui in general consider taking a look on the following ipfw ui’s

• NoobProof
• WaterRoof

In addition some general ipfw-related informations

• FreeBSD ipfw handbook

via

Tags: firewall, ipfw, limit bandwidth