You never know what you might find when surfing a crowdfunding site like Indiegogo. Take the NetValve, for example. Developed by Ilker Dagli, a system and network administrator at Near East University at Cyprus, this steampuunk-esque contraption is literally a valve that controls Internet bandwidth.
Turn it left and it opens up the floodgates, turn it right and it throttles your Internet connection.
“Do not bother yourself with the command line. Just turn the valve. Plug and play,” Dagli says.
Therein lies the allure—ease of use. The NetValve is sits between your modem and PC, connecting to both with Ethernet cables. Once plugged in, you can turn the valve to limited both upload and download speeds.
“We thought that limiting the bandwidth shouldn’t be that much hard and made a valve that simply controls your bandwidth. Simply because it works like a valve, it’s a valve,” Dagli explains.
For those who think it’s a fake, Dagli insists it’s not. If you want to purchase one to find out for yourself, the asking price on Indiegogo is $79.