Two Nics Two Internet Modems

[jmair]

This is my fantasy question for the day.

 

We have two unique DSL connections (each with their own modem). They sit less than 10ft apart from each other. The PC has two nics. Is there software that would 'fool' the pc into thinking there is one Nic while both are actually plugged into each DSL modem? Perhaps double the speed?

 

I've never heard of such a thing, but I know they used to do something similar with dial-up in the 90s.

 

Again, fantasy question and maybe somebody may know of an answer.

 

Thanks!

[tmcd35]

Perfectly doable. Don't know how easy it is to do under Windows but Linux should manage this out of the box (with a little tweeking).

 

The idea is to set up the computer as a router, supply routing rules to each dsl network on the corresponding NIC and then load balance the connections.

[Nick_Parker]

I'm using a FreeBSD distro called pfSense - does exactly that.

One thing to keep in mind tho, you'll only get double the speed if you have a program (Firefox's DownThemAll) that is capable of creating multiple connections to the server.

Otherwise all it gives you is load balancing capabilities.

[jmair]

Thanks guys!

[tom_newton]

Various routers/firewalls will support this "dual gateway" load balanced connections. The folk above are correct in their assessment that *generally* you won't get 4Mbit out of 2 2Mbit lines on any single file transfer, and indeed, if you load balance without keying on source or dest IP you may run into issues.

 

There are a handful of ways to truly bond a pair of DSL lines, including a number that require your ISPs to be complicit (BGP, MLPPP) and some which don't (like the xrio boxes).

 

HTH,

 

Tom

[IanT]

I know some Watchguard Models support Dual WAN and load balancing of two dsl lines - enabled it at a client site the other day, very nice indeed.