Combining 2 or more broadband connections?

[Cyph3r8x]

Guys

Is it possible to merge two broadband connections 2 ips into a single powerful connection? i heard it can be done.

I want combined download speed on torrents, please shed some light on it.

EDIT: a saw article that says merging multiple internet connection is possible. is it worth it?

 

[Fardringle]

Can it be done? Sometimes.
Is it worth it? Unless you are running a business where that bandwidth is critical and you can't get what you need in a single connection, no.

 

[JackMDS]

Load Balancing is Not Merging.

"Merging" can be done if you specifically get it from an ISP that supports it.

Otherwise, a Yettie might be able to provide you with help to do it.

 

[gsaldivar]

Grab a spare PC, make sure it has 3 NICs and install PFSense onto it. Connect your LAN to one port and the other two ports are for your two WAN connections. Enable Multi-WAN and set up the Load Balancing rules. There are plenty of websites and tutorials that will show you how its done. It will not be a perfect merge of the two connections, but there will be an overall speed increase, especially in the case (such as yours) where many data sockets are in use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uiiy8YuWHcY

 

[azazel1024]

Load balancing is NOT bonding Gsaldivar.

The answer is, yes it can be done. The ISP(s) will need to support it and it is VERY expensive (as in, think in the many thousands of dollars range).

There are SOME VPN solutions that can do this, but you need the gear on both ends of the VPN tunnel, it isn't something you can simply set a machine or appliance up for and it'll just do it for you to access the internet at high speed.

 

[JackMDS]

There are SOME VPN solutions that can do this, but you need the gear on both ends of the VPN tunnel, it isn't something you can simply set a machine or appliance up for and it'll just do it for you to access the internet at high speed.

That is very true.

However, if it is Not done locally but over the Internet, the rate of transfer would be the Max rate allowed by your ISP's Internet contract.

 

[gsaldivar]

Load balancing is NOT bonding Gsaldivar. The answer is, yes it can be done. The ISP(s) will need to support it and it is VERY expensive (as in, think in the many thousands of dollars range).

I never said that it was.

Load balancing will work and will give an overall speed increase under certain conditions (such as the OPs). It's easy to set up, requires no special equipment (an old PC and spare NICs will work fine), and requires nothing additional from the ISP.

Bonding is a specialized solution, but it is not the only solution...

 

[azazel1024]

I never said that it was.

Load balancing will work and will give an overall speed increase under certain conditions (such as the OPs). It's easy to set up, requires no special equipment (an old PC and spare NICs will work fine), and requires nothing additional from the ISP.

Bonding is a specialized solution, but it is not the only solution...

Depends would be the answer on if load balancing would really help with their torrenting. With PFSense maybe you can set it up to handle that (I haven't looked under the hood of PFSense in a long time). Some multiWAN routers could to. Most will not be able to though as you are going to do it based on L3/L7 rules, not based on request. So you won't be able to divide multiple torrenting streams across each internet connection.

Also in terms of at least long term cost, getting a cheap multi WAN router is probably the better way to go, unless you've got some fat pipes to fill.

There are several dual WAN routers that cost less than $100 and can easily push >200Mbps (or repurpose a newish, lower end router and load up DD WRT or OpenWRT so that it can run dual WAN). Operating cost is going to be MASSIVELY less than operating an old computer 24/7/365 (probably at least a difference of $20-30 a year, if not 2-3x that depending on just how old and/or spec'd it is).

 

[gsaldivar]

Depends would be the answer on if load balancing would really help with their torrenting...So you won't be able to divide multiple torrenting streams across each internet connection.

It will work fine. No single stream will be able to exceed the bandwidth on its given pipe, but the streams can be opened in a round-robin fashion across any number of WAN pipes. Total bandwidth from all streams added together will approach the additive limit of all pipes. Obviously, bonding is the right way to do this, but load balancing will work fine as long as there are multiple data streams that can be opened across multiple WAN connections.

Using OpenWRT/DDWRT on an old router is a good idea if the ports can be repurposed for multi WAN. :thumbsup: