Is there a way to limit the speed of downloading in iTunes?

I want to have podcasts set to "automatically download new episodes" but only at half the speed of my connection, so i can still do other things on the net. (shitty 256k connection)

thanks.

I don't believe you can limit the speed of any broadband connecting Application - not individually at any rate - one would have to start fiddling with MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) in either the Network Preferences of System Preferences (if using Ethernet), or the Terminal if using AirPort.

However, I don't think this method would split transmission speeds within just one App and all others. It would change your entire speed, and many ISPs have a set MTU anyway.

Ever considered bumping up to a 1.5 Mb or 3.0 Mb ADSL connection?

There are some truly reasonable prices out there. Who are you currently with? Are you locked into a 24 month contract? And are you using ADSL, Cable, with Ethernet or Wireless?

(If one has many machines, and is using a Wireless Router, the Download speed will be split between all of them - so three machines using a 256kpbs connection = around 85 kbps twixt all of them, whilst as an Ethernet connection maintains the same speed for all).

cw

I know this is of now help to you but I was astounded by the speed at which iTunes downloads.

What makes the downloads so fast? They seem faster than other downloads from Apple ie. updates.

no i'm not locked into a contract, i'm with exetel, who's contract period is only six months.

Think i might go to adsl2, also with exetel.

At the moment i pay $35 for 16gig peak, 32gig off peak on 256, and telstras line rental of $20.

ADSL2 with exetel (including line rental) is $60 for 8gig on, 32gig off. So for 5 bucks more i can get much faster speeds. (i'm literally 4 doors down from my local exchange!)

plus i get the warm fuzzy feeling of telling telstra to go fuck themselves.

Akamai mirrors.

Apple use them and I am pretty sure thats why music and trailers download faster than updates, as I don't believe those are pushed to the mirrors.

I think.

EDIT: iBoy, 4 doors down doesn't mean much in this day and age. I know of people who are across the road and they are still 1km by cable length from the exchange. But even then they get decent speeds.

Just hope you don't have a bridge tap or something on your line.

Well - no one can really tell 'em that cause we're all using their copper anyway. Are you doing major downloading - as you say 16 Gb peak / 32 Gb off peak?

Reasonable prices with iiNet, on Broadband2+ Plans - lowest with VoIP being:

24,000 down / 1000 up / 500MB peak / 1GB off peak / $80 ADSL Connection @$29.95 per month


Mid-range:

24,000 down / 1000 up / 10GB peak / 20GB off peak / $80 ADSL Connection @ $59.95 per month


Also cometh with:

Hardware discounts on all 24 months contracts.
10 free e-mail addresses.
30MB web space.
Free virus & SPAM Protection.
VoIP ready.
No excess download charges. (Shaped)
Back up dialup account.

Do a comparison.

cheers,

cw

I love the speed that iTunes downloads stuff. I'm only on 56k (until next week, hopefully), and they come through super fast. Much quicker compared to downloading MP3s via Safari.

Back to the original question, I doubt there is a way. As iTunes is cross platform, it is likely the same code is used. You could try looking through the iTunes plist in your preferences folder to see if there is anything there that sounds like it could do the job, but I suspect there isn't.

You could try a program like Carrafix. I tried using it to limit aMule downloads once, but without much success. Also doesn't look like there is much happening with it development wise either

cw, thanks for iinet link, but i've got to say i love exetel. 32gb off peak (which is midnight to midday) is pretty bloody good. and the $60 includes line rental. (p.s. i dont work for them, and i wouldn't recommened them to anyone who needed customer service) i guess if i got really great speeds on adsl2 i could set up transmission to start at midnight, end at 11am, and have itunes search for podcasts at 11:01.

you could do this with ipfw only problem is you will be delving into the command line to configure it. Carrafix was apparently buggy even when people were working on it. What the OP is really after tho is something like netlimiter but for OS X not Windows.

There are several ways:

IPFW rules (OS X's Firewall is a front-end for IPFW) can be written to throttle connection speeds by port/service.

http://intrarts.com/throttled.html <-There's throttled.

And also by using a router with bandwidth management.

However, the problem with regulating iTunes d/l's is that they're on port 80, http. If one has several computers and a router with bandwidth managment though, they could throttle http d/l's to just the one machine running iTunes or do it the other ways I mentioned, with throttled and / or IPFW.

Dave