Itheon Networks has announced a major upgrade to its Network Emulator (INE) for Windows.

Itheon claims the software allows applications running on Windows systems to experience realistic wide area, wireless, GPRS, 3G, and satellite conditions without leaving the LAN.

Itheon said the upgrade adds support for Microsoft Vista and advanced scripting of network conditions, altering them dynamically to more closely match real world network conditions.

INE for Windows emulates a variety of wide area network conditions, reckoned Itheon. The company aims the product at network specialists, professional developers, testers, and IT specialists - anyone needing to test how applications perform between workstations and servers before production deployment.

INE for Windows installs onto Windows XP, Vista or Server, and according to Itheon, allows users to recreate all the major conditions that can affect applications in the network such as latency (delay), jitter, available bandwidth, packet loss/error/reordering etc, and can be controlled asymmetrically or symmetrically.

"Giving full support for INE for Windows on Vista is very important as there is no doubt that this will become the standard operating system for both corporate and home users, and organizations are now developing and testing their software for Vista. They'll certainly want to ensure their new Vista software is going to perform properly in WAN, wireless, satellite and other non-LAN networks," said product director Frank Puranik.

INE for Windows was initially developed on Windows XP with static network scenarios, according to Puranik. "The move to dynamic scenarios was next on our agenda as it increases the realism of the network conditions by varying them as they would naturally vary in real real-world networks," he said.