Traffic Generator

A simple Python-based traffic generator using Selenium. This tool can periodically visit a configurable list of URLs in a headless (or headed) Chromium browser. It supports randomized dwell times, optional scrolling, and even special handling for YouTube videos (plays until the video ends).

⚠️ Disclaimer: This project is intended for testing and educational purposes. Use it responsibly and only on websites you own or have permission to test. Do not use it to manipulate analytics, inflate ad impressions, or violate Terms of Service.

---

Features

• Configurable list of URLs (via YAML or JSON file)
• Per-target intervals and dwell times
• Random jitter to avoid strict periodicity
• Auto-scroll simulation on normal websites
• User-Agent rotation (optional)
• YouTube handler: watches videos until completion instead of using a fixed dwell time
• Headless (server-friendly) or headed (visible browser) mode
• Graceful shutdown with Ctrl+C

---

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Chromium or Chrome + matching chromedriver
• Dependencies:

  pip install selenium webdriver-manager pyyaml

  (On Debian/Ubuntu you may also install via apt install chromium chromium-driver python3-yaml)

---

Usage

1. Clone the repository and create a configuration file (urls.yaml). Example:

   defaults:
     dwell_seconds: 15
     interval_seconds: 300
     jitter_seconds: 10
     scroll: true
   
   user_agents:
     - Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.0.0 Safari/537.36
     - Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/115.0
   
   targets:
     - url: https://example.com
       interval_seconds: 120
       dwell_seconds: 10
   
     - url: https://news.ycombinator.com
       interval_seconds: 600
       dwell_seconds: 20
       scroll: false
   
     - url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
       interval_seconds: 1800
       # dwell_seconds is ignored for YouTube

2. Run the generator:

   python3 trafficgen.py --config urls.yaml --headless

   For visible browser windows (requires X11/GUI or xvfb-run):

   python3 trafficgen.py --config urls.yaml --headed

---

YouTube Handler Explained

Normal targets use a fixed dwell_seconds (stay on the page, possibly auto-scroll, then move on). YouTube, however, needs special logic:

• Detects if the target URL is a YouTube video (youtube.com/watch or youtu.be/...).
• Accepts consent dialogs when present.
• Locates the <video> element on the page.
• Starts playback automatically (muted, if needed) to bypass autoplay restrictions.
• Reads the video duration and repeatedly checks currentTime.
• Keeps the tab open until the video ends (or a safety timeout is reached).
• Logs progress every ~15 seconds.

This way, YouTube videos are always played in full, rather than cut short by an arbitrary timer.

---

Notes

• The script creates a temporary browser profile each run to avoid profile lock conflicts.
• For headless servers, always use --headless or wrap with xvfb-run if you need --headed.
• Supports Linux; should also work on macOS and Windows with minimal changes.

---

License

MIT License – feel free to modify and adapt for your own testing setups.