Use TripMode to conserve bandwidth while traveling
The use case for TripMode, a bandwidth conservation utility, is a counterintuitive one, for most computer users. But for constant travelers like my family and me, it’s a core part of the toolkit.
If you’re just here for the action items, and already understand how/why you might ever need to conserve bandwidth: purchase and install an app called TripMode (on either Mac OS or Windows), and use it to nimbly and granularly control (by whitelist) which apps can access the internet at any given time.
If there’s a resource that the average consumer literally *never* contemplates conserving, it’s the internet bandwidth that you’re normally gulping while sitting in front of your laptop. Well, why would you? Over-consumption (in this context) doesn’t cost you, does it? In the vast majority of cases, gulping by the GB doesn’t perceivably cost you more than sipping a few MB here and there. And while this may conceivably change somewhat in the future (given the controversy around net neutrality in the States and worldwide), it’s difficult to imagine bandwidth conservation efforts (with respect to desktop computing) ever really piercing the mainstream consciousness.
However, for constant travelers (including, but not limited to, digital nomads)-particularly in less connected areas, like outside urban areas in Asia or Africa-you start to think about this more.
You’re at a remote hotel or coffee shop, you have to get some work done, the free wifi is unusable, and all you can do is tether to your mobile hotspot, on a prepaid SIM card whose data cap is within sight, and whose internet connection is stumbling along at under a megabit. Or your mobile data service contract (anywhere in the world) has some fine print that allows them to start throttling your data speed after you pass a certain soft cap each month.
Admittedly, this type of challenge is nothing that writing a (slightly) bigger check won’t solve, particularly for the privileged. Just buy a bigger data package, or pick up another SIM card, or take a taxi back to the coworking hub with a big, fat (unlimited) pipe.
But, there ARE legitimate use cases where you don’t want to just write a bigger check.
If you’re an average computer user, it’s likely that you have no earthly idea how much data your laptop actually sucks down on any given day. Desktop software manufacturers (unlike mobile app developers) have no real incentive to consider bandwidth conservation as they design and architect their products, and so virtually none of them do. This makes most desktop software invariably internet-chatty, some of them unreasonably so.
How many programs are pinging some sort of mothership, even now, as you’re reading these words? How many are checking in for updates? How many are actually downloading these updates before even consulting you? Is your OS reporting usage data? Is your anti-virus downloading new malware signatures? Did a colleague or client just push their Napster-era MP3 collection into your shared Dropbox? Is Microsoft pushing a brand new package of crapware clipart through your pipe?
Who knows?
Aside from the privacy issues inherent in all this back-and-forth chattiness, there’s a data load that may, in some scenarios, be imposing cost on you. Namely: a) you’re nearing the cap on your prepaid SIM card, or the fine print on your “unlimited data” plan, and you need to tether your laptop for wifi, or b) when you’re just trying to get a couple emails out but your connection is DEATHLY slow because, unbeknownst to you, it’s currently downloading 12 terabytes of OS updates on a 1-megabit 3G SIM card connection.
If you’re not a constant (or frequent) traveler, these use cases may not be compelling enough to take action, spend a few dollars, and/or try to learn something new. But, personally (as a constant traveler), I’ve found a modest investment here has easily paid off.
With TripMode, you can nimbly block all or some applications on your computer from accessing the internet. Just fork over all of $8 USD (as of this writing), install it (on Mac OS or Windows), turn it on, whitelist the one or a handful of apps that you *do* want to have access to the internet, and then STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS.
To me, that’s the value proposition in a nutshell: ad-hoc use cases where you don’t have time for (or don’t want to waste time) fighting with your computer to decide who and what should have access to the limited pipe. With literally a few clicks across approximately ten seconds, I can constrain my bandwidth footprint to Google Chrome, Evernote, and my VPN app, and I don’t have to worry about running out of mobile data on my latest int’l SIM card right in the middle of a critical work deadline. Then, with another click, you can turn TripMode back off when your hotel wifi comes back online.
To be clear: there are definitely other ways to monitor (and manage) the bandwidth footprint of your laptop. For example: apparently, Windows 10 permits you to do something like this with their Windows Defender Firewall settings-it’s as simple as this 9-step process for each and every program you want to block!
If that’s your thing-if you prefer to geek out at the OS and firmware layers-have at it (you probably haven’t read this far, anyway).
Me? I’ll spend the $8 and conserve my limited brain cells.
But the whole value proposition of TripMode is that when you actually *need* lean-bandwidth mode, a) you probably don’t have time to first remember how, and then go about blocking all these apps one by one, and b) which apps would you block? TripMode blocks them *all* by default, and then you whitelist only those you actually need to get your work done. It even tells you which apps are asking for internet access (in real-time), and also records your total network throughput for that work session (or that day, or the whole week, or the month-if you’re so inclined).
It’s puzzling to me that the landscape for this kind of utility is so barren. I’ve searched for other products (briefly, admittedly) and have found very few comparable alternatives.
Have you encountered a similar product? Let me know in the comments!
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
