Sharing a dial-up connection

[blakeatwork]

Friend of mine brought this quandry to me:

Customer has dial-up connection (in the ultra-boonies, just got cell service 2 years ago)

shares dial-up between 8 or 9 machines

SBS Server 2003 is running a proxy server (not sure which), but when one machine goes into a heavy download, all other machines cannot surf or check email.

Need to know if there is a set way to aggregate the connection over the connected hosts, rather then one host reciving all priority.

Any suggestions, or further info required?

 

[RebateMonger]

DirecWay satellite. I can't imagine trying to run a business with shared dialup.

Business.direcway.com - It's only $200 a month for 2Mbps/500Kbps/Static IP.

For $200 a month, they can actually USE their Small Business Server the way it's intended. They'll have full Remote Access, be able to host sites and their own email server, etc.

Even if you got set up to use two dialup lines, you are going to have to pay for two phone lines plus two ISP accounts. At a minimum, that'd be about $30 for the lines, plus another $30 for the ISP accounts. That's $60 and you'll STILL have sharing issues.

 

[blakeatwork]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
DirecWay satellite. I can't imagine trying to run a business with shared dialup.

Business.direcway.com - It's only $200 a month for 2Mbps/500Kbps/Static IP.

For $200 a month, they can actually USE their Small Business Server the way it's intended. They'll have full Remote Access, be able to host sites and their own email server, etc.

Even if you got set up to use two dialup lines, you are going to have to pay for two phone lines plus two ISP accounts. At a minimum, that'd be about $30 for the lines, plus another $30 for the ISP accounts. That's $60 and you'll STILL have sharing issues.

That's great that you wouldn't consider dial-up, however, some businesses have to live with their choice of locale.

They're considering satellite (this is in Canada BTW), as they would love to have broadband access... however, given their locale, they have very few options, and are not overly willing to shell out anymore then they have to at this point.

Basically, the crux of the problem is this:
On their old Server 2000 box, they had dial-up sharing, and everyone could surf away, albeit at around 1 or 2 KB a sec, which they were happy with, as they understood the limitations. Now, on the Server 2003 box, they have run into the problem of not having the bandwidth split between the hosts. If one person is sending a 5MB email attachment, or downloading RFQs, then access is non-existant for the other hosts.

 

[yukichigai]

Server 2003 has an option called Network Load Balancing which may be able to help here. Since the 2k3 box is the gateway for the dialup (at least that's what I'm understanding here) you should be able to enable/install NLB and configure it so that no single user can eat all the bandwidth at any one given time. However, NLB is usually used across multiple network cards, not between a dialup account and the internal network. I'm only guessing that it can be helpful here.

Also, see if the ISP supports Multilink on their dialup accounts. If they do then all the customer needs is a second phone line and modem and they'll be able to double their speed. (roughly) It's a godsend for users in that situation, believe me; I was stuck on dialup in the boonies for 4 years.

 

[JackMDS]

I do not want to be cynical, but when some comes to the Doctor?s office and says: ?I used to leave in LA and I ate 10 Burgers a day and my cholesterol level was normal. Now I am in New York and it does Not work this way, my cholesterol is dangerously high. Why it does not work in New York the way it worked in LA? I other words I do not always believe ?Past Glory Stories?.

If the old Box is available find out how it was done, may be they have ad-on that is not on SBS.

I really cannot see how you send 5MB attachment with 1-2KB/sec. upload, it will take more than an hour and it probably would abort few times with errors.

Some private organization offer Bonded Dialup. They can double the Bandwidth and get a more stable service. It costs more than ?AOL? but Not much more.

Example: http://www.cruzio.com/services/highspeed_access/bonded_dialup_faq.html

As far as Bandwidth control may be this can Help, http://www.softperfect.com/products/bandwidth/

:sun:

 

[yukichigai]

Bonded Dialup is basically another name for Multilink, at least from what the links JackMDS posted say. Windows has supported this since Win98, so getting the customer's 2k3 box to use it shouldn't be a problem if they decide to spring for it. It's literally as simple as clicking a few checkboxes in the Device tab of the dialup connection.

I should point out that my old ISP (now defunct, alas) offered multilink for free with their dialup accounts, though each connection added to our time useage independantly. (There were certain limits on connection time imposed during certain peak times, etc., which I only managed to break using multilink) The point is that it may be offered even cheaper than what cruzio prices it at.

 

[JackMDS]

Originally posted by: yukichigaiThe point is that it may be offered even cheaper than what cruzio prices it at.

Yeah that was only an example you can search for a better deal.

However it has to be a feature supported by the ISP, not just two accounts.

:sun:

 

[RebateMonger]

Have you guys actually seen bonded dialup (multilink) done with Windows Server 2003? I haven't been able to find any references to anybody using it. I'm curious if it's supported. You'd THINK it would be. But Server 2003 is a bit picky about drivers. Cuzio's description implies that they are working off of old drivers, because not many people use multilink diaup anymore.

 

[yukichigai]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Have you guys actually seen bonded dialup (multilink) done with Windows Server 2003? I haven't been able to find any references to anybody using it. I'm curious if it's supported. You'd THINK it would be. But Server 2003 is a bit picky about drivers. Cuzio's description implies that they are working off of old drivers, because not many people use multilink diaup anymore.

I haven't actually seen it done with 2k3, but I have seen it done with XP Pro. As soon as you add a second modem device the "connect using" entry becomes a list with checkboxes. Selecting two (or more) of the devices will allow you to use multilink, provided that the connection is set up to dial using all devices in the Options tab. (It's set that way by default) I can only assume this works in 2k3 as well; it's hard to picture XP Pro having a network capability that 2k3 doesn't.

So you know what I'm talking about, here's a link to a screencap of a dialup connection on my laptop.

Imageshack Linky

P.S. To avoid any possible issues with modem drivers, I highly recommend using an external serial modem. Serial ports are actually capable of double 56k speeds, so they're just as good as any other modem. The compatibility comes into play because almost all external modems made in the past 4 years use the same set of commands and transmission formats. If by some fluke they don't use the USR, Hayes or AT&T standards -- supported in 2k server, that much I know -- then all you need to do is look up the appropriate command strings and input them manually.