Testing network interrupts in software

Question

I have a network C++ program in Windows that I'd like to test for network disconnects at various times. What are my options?

Currently I am:

1. Actually disconnecting the network wire from the back of my computer
2. using ipconfig /release
3. Using the cports program to close out the socket completely

None of these methods though are ideal for me, and I'd like to emulate network problems more easily.

I would like for sometimes connects to fail, sometimes socket reads to fail, and sometimes socket writes to fail. It would be great if there was some utility I could use to emulate these types of problems.

It would also be nice to be able to build some automated unit tests while this emulated bad network is up.

Answer 1

You might want to abstract the network layer, and then you can have unit tests that inject interesting failure events at appropriate points.

Answer 2

The closest I can think of is doing something similar with VEDekstop from Shunra..

Simulating High Latency and Low Bandwidth in Testing of Database Applications

Shunra VE Desktop Standard is a Windows-based client software solution that simulates a wide area network link so that you can test applications under a variety of current and potential network conditions – directly from your desktop.