How can I work around a bandwidth restriction on my network?

[Tanamoril]

Each device on a 300 or so person network, in a multi-home community, is limited to 20 mbps (Down) /20 mbps (Up) by the ISP. For example, if I plug a switch into the wall I can get 6+ devices to pull 20/20 each.

Is there a way to boost my individual computer's available bandwidth to maybe 80/80? I have been looking at 4-port NICs and the TP-LINK TL-R470T router as potential solutions but I have no idea if they will work outside of buying and testing. I would greatly appreciate ideas/information on this matter.

Currently using:
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170 Gaming 7
Switch: Linksys SE3008

 

[Fardringle]

If you need more data than the community allows, and they don't have an option for you to get more, then you need to get your own internet connection that doesn't have the restrictions imposed by the community.

 

[Tanamoril]

The ISP has equipment at the community and neither apparently manages it so my requests to pay for an increase aren't possible. I can not obtain more bandwidth through either the community or the local (single) ISP. The community allows me to have 400+/400+ mbps worth of bandwidth across as many devices as I wish so I'm not restricted on overall bandwidth, just bandwidth per device. I don't see any kind of moral fault and this isnt about that anyways.

 

[Fardringle]

I'm not talking about "moral fault". Simply the fact that if their network hardware restricts your monthly bandwidth, then your only option is to get a different ISP. Nothing you can do on your end is going to change or bypass the limits set on the ISP equipment.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The multiport NIC would probably work, since each NIC would have a separate MAC, but link aggregation gains are (usually) parallel, not cumulative. (I'm probably not using the right terms. A single download would be stuck at 20, but you could run four of them at that speed.)

But you'd have to configure the switch to support link aggregation too, which I'm guessing is a no-go.

There's also IP multiplexing, if you want to go down THAT rabbit hole.

 

[yinan]

Just throwing an idea out there, but couldn't he use a virtual machine with multiple vNICs and create a virtual load balancer and use this VM as his router?

 

[Mushkins]

Just throwing an idea out there, but couldn't he use a virtual machine with multiple vNICs and create a virtual load balancer and use this VM as his router?

Nope. The router would bottleneck the whole thing to *sharing* 20/20 between every device behind it due to NAT.

The only way he's getting 20/20 per device is plugging them all into a switch thats attached to another switch on the other end (presumably managed by the community), which IMO seems like a design oversight on their part. Odds are they expected people to be plugging a router in on the home end and provisioning 20/20 to each tenant.

But to answer the OPs question, you're not going to add a bunch of separate WAN links together and pool bandwidth in the way you describe. Even if you put enterprise equipment in there and did things like NIC teaming and load balancing, any individual connection is still going to be limited to the individual 20/20 WAN link it's connecting over.

It's more money and trouble than its worth for very minimal potential gains in a residential environment.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I just downgraded my internet from 75/75 to 25/25. It's more than enough for one person, IMHO. Yeah, some ISO downloads take a little longer, but most servers I connected to, would give me less than 1MB/sec anyways.