Running 2 different Internet connection on a single computer

[TheMafioso]

Hello Guyz

I have 2 different internet connections from 2 different ISP's on my computer. They both have seprate authentication softwares. I want to know, is there any way i can combine the 2 connections to get increased bandwidth. I'm running Windows XP Pro SP2 on my machine.


Regards
TM

 

[casper114]

I don't think so...... I believe in order to do that you would have to beable to combine the physical media that your internet is running through.

 

[wkinney]

you cant get more than the maximum of either connection, but you can do load balancing. NLB is usually done with a high end router like a cisco (hardware based), or with a linux server (software based)

 

[blemoine]

if its dail up connections you can use multilink protocol. but if its broad band you would need to get a dual wan router and all that will do is load balance your connections. its like this if you download one file at 150k/s adding the second connection would not allow you to download at 300k/s it would allow you to download 2 different files at 150k/s each.

 

[TheMafioso]

Actually both are conx are broadband. The first one is DSL connection with a router, connected to my PC through USB port, and appears as a LAN connection in "Network Connections".Second one is ethernet connection with a custom authentication client.

Regards
TM

 

[JackMDS]

May be this can Help: Combining two Internet Connections - Combining Bandwidth, or and Load Balancing of two Internet connections.

:sun:

 

[jlbenedict]

the second connection is ethernet.. but by what medium? cable, T-1, dial up, etc???

either way.... for two seperate connections you'll need to do what is called "Multiplexing"..

 

[Devistater]

Lets say for purposes of discussion you have two separate 3mbit broadband connections that are capable of downloading files at 300kbyte/sec.

Essentially, as mentioned by an above post, you will not be able to combine bandwidth from the two connections, you will not be able to download a single file at 600kbyte/sec.

You can do load balancing that will at best give you the ability to download two files at once at 300k/sec each.

However load balancing can be kinda expensive to buy hardware that can handle this. You will be looking for equipment that can handle dual WAN connections. This stuff can be hundreds or thousands of dollars for most of it. The cheapest is probably to get one of those dual WAN hawking routers that are mentioned in the link from JackMDS. They start at around $60ish according to froogle. If you are into linux, you might be able to setup a linux computer with 3 network cards and do it that way.

BTW, I'm not a Guyz. I'm just a dude.

 

[TheMafioso]

Originally posted by: jlbenedict
the second connection is ethernet.. but by what medium? cable, T-1, dial up, etc???

either way.... for two seperate connections you'll need to do what is called "Multiplexing"..

I don't know the medium, its provided to me by ethernet cable coming to my place and it requires authentication, which is done by authentication client developed by ISP itself.
Can you elaborate more or give any links on " Multiplexing "?

I don't want to download a file at more speed.Actually, its for my office, in which both internet connections are on my computer, these connections are then shared by other computers through Internet Connection Sharing.I wanted to combine both connections, so that slowdown due to many people using the internet simultaenously is reduced.

So guyz(okay dudes ), i think loadbalancing would serve the purpose, provided its done by software, as i don't think i can use a dual WAN router with the second connection, 'cause it uses a custom authentication client.

Regards
TM

 

[jlbenedict]

"Multiplexing" is combining of multiple signals into one..

for example.. when I used to work on IDNX 90's, back in my military days, our mini, mobile systems I deployed with would support 4 voice channels (for each card that was installed), along with data, which was also dependent on how many cards you had installed for that system. An IDNX 90 is a small multiplexer, which we usually used on T1 circuits or lower... This IDNX 90 allows up to deploy voice lines, along with multiple LAN segments. Each data card is configured to allow a certain amount of bandwidth..
The IDNX's function is to combine those multiple, seperate segments into one chunck of upstream data, and transmit it to the WAN...

 

[Devistater]

Originally posted by: TheMafioso
So guyz(okay dudes ), i think loadbalancing would serve the purpose, provided its done by software, as i don't think i can use a dual WAN router with the second connection, 'cause it uses a custom authentication client.

Can you run a version of this "custom authentication client" on linux? A separate linux comptuer that does load balancing would probably be best in your case.

I have no idea how windows would do this, and I dont know of anything for a normal windows XP machine that could do it. But perhaps others know more about it. Windows 2003 or similar server OS might have software solutions but again, I'm not sure. A quick google search shows that the server windows OS's have load balancing for server loads like across multiple WWW servers, but I can't tell if it includes load balancing WAN connections as well (i.e. your 2 internet connections).

Do you need the custom authentication client for certain? Because I know that SBC sent me software along with the modem that I was supposed to install and use everytime to connect. I used it for a while then read the part of the booklet that was supposed to be for macintosh computers. It mentioned since they had no software for the mac you could manually set the settings and forgo using the software. So from that I learned I didn't need that stuff they sent me For instance I use PPPoE which is very common for DSL connections.

 

[TheMafioso]

I have found a software called Intergate which does make 2 connection work simultaneously and aggregates the bandwidth of the 2 connections. Its called as connection Teaming, heres the link for downloading the demo http://www.vicomsoft.com/ftp_site/trial_intergate.php

Regards
TM

 

[tthompson]

You might check with the ISP that's briniging you the ethernet connection to get the specifics on their authentication client (you said it was a work connection?). They may simply have built a special front end for something like LDAP or AD. If that's the case, you might be able to authenticate using a router with two seperate wan connections as mentioned in a previous post. Most broadband routers will have a range of authentication clients built into them (i.e. PPPoE, etc).
You could easily change the DSL connection to work with a router provided you know the authentication scheme there (I believe most US providers use PPPoE, Sprint does). You can change the config of your DSL modem to bridge the connection from the router and have the router feed the authentication variables to the DSL modem instead of your PC doing it. Setting all this up will allow you to then build a LAN behind the router.