1. A computer-implemented method of simulating network packet communications between layers of software applications, said software applications communicating via a driver component within a distributed software product executing on a processing device, comprising: intercepting function calls communicated to or from said driver component, said function calls requesting data I/O operations between said software applications layers; accessing, at said driver component, one or more user-specified parameters for simulating latency and bandwidth effects of network communications, said one or more parameters specifying one or more of: a latency modification value and bandwidth modification value and a respective latency and bandwidth modification type to perform on the network communications; and, one or more of: calling, responsive to a latency modification type at said processing device, a sleep function for simulating a communications latency effect of I/O communications between said applications according to a latency modification value; and, passing, responsive to a bandwidth modification type at said processing device, said I/O data communicated between said software applications, through a buffer for modifying a data transfer rate of said I/O data communicated according to a bandwidth modification value, wherein users dynamically control simulated network effects of a distributed software product.