Load balancing DSL connections.

[Jez]

Hi, I have noticed this seems to be a knowledgable forum and just have a quick question to tax your brains with, basically i am too far away from my telephone exchange for standard ADSL, therefore i am having to get RADSL which atm in the UK seems to only operate up to 512k down/256k up.

I have read through all the posts in this forum but havent quite found an answer, i wanna make sure it will work before i go out and buy 2 DSL modems and get 2 DSL accounts with an ISP!

I want to know if the following topology will work:

(SERVER)
NIC1-----Ethernet DSL Modem 1-----ISP1 ***Load Balanced***
NIC2-----Ethernet DSL Modem 2-----ISP2 ***Load Balanced***
NIC3-----LAN-----Other pc's

I am thinking i could just use standard .NET enterprise server load balancing on the 2 NIC's going to the DSL modems? would this work? are there any problems with the setup that anyone can see?

Thanks for your time:)

[Jez]

Here in the UK we only have 4 types of ADSL available:

RADSL @ 512k/256k
ADSL @ 512k/256k
ADSL @ 1024k/256k
ADSL @ 2048k/256k

Thats ALL thats available to anyone in the UK using british telecom exchanges, the only one i can get is 512k/256k there are no choices at all there as my line is 4.1km long, BT automatically fail any line which is longer than 3.51km for ADSL so i dont have a chance to get it, only RADSL for me which is only available in the 1 speed i mentioned:)

I know that bundling wont work, as there are no UK isp's that support it, but load balancing will, i just need to know if the way i am planning to set it up using windows integrated network load balancing features will do it ok.

Failing that i will use a program called midpoint, but ideally i would like to keep 3rd party appz away:)

[TheDude]

Thats a shame, if isp supported it you could use "DSL Bonding", it uses inverse muxing to "aggregate bandwidth across multiple physical DSL links." You could connect as many as 8 DSL modems. I will ask my M8 at work who knows much more than I do about DSL and load balancing. Yeah, you could use Connection teaming in Midpoint..plus it has a lot of other cool features.:D

[Jez]

What other cool features does it have? might use it afterall then! With midpoint would i be able to use 2 internal (cheap) PCI modems instead!?

That would then set me back a total of like £40 as PCI DSL modems are only about £20 a pop which is significantly less than ethernet modems are. (£40 is about US$60 :))

Would running 2 internal pci modems and using 2 separate log ons on one pc work ok? i dont know if there would be problems with connecting as i dont know if the DUN connection you use to authenticate a dsl connection is specific to each device?

[Charles Wirth]

Welcome to XtremeSystems

Jez, your above case senario would work fine.

Do not bridge the connections as that will route unwanted traffic finding the shortest route across your machine. It is a option you will come across setting up. The only reason you would bridge the connection is if one side did not have internet access and you want to get thru that machine.

You might run into problems if you are sharing databases or using remote access software that does not have the ability to pick what IP to use by default.

[Charles Wirth]

You can do multiple if needed to logon multiple connections at once. This is not a problem.

You might want to pick up norton personal firewall if you not running a firewall/router.

You can get DSL from 2 different providers, this is most likely a better option if one of them happens to go down. If you go this route you will see the faster connection based upon usage. One connection might sit unused most of the time. Unless you want to run a web server or other services on each IP.

[Jez]

Thanks :) so the cheapo PCI modem idea will work then? Superb :D

Never know, eventually BT may get their arse in gear and introduce 1mbit RADSL, then i can keep the equipment and have teamed 2mbit over RADSL.

I think we are quite a bit behind the US when it comes to internet connectivity seeing the above bloke mention 3mbit over RADSL!! we cant even get close to that over proper ADSL :(

edit: also taking into account the fact that 2mbit ADSL costs £130pm at the cheapest, thats like $200 per month from the cheapest isp ive seen. There are some cheaper options comming through soon aparently, but they will probably be crap :(

[TheDude]

I looked into using it a while back, but went with a package my provider had instead.
Connection teaming lets you use more than one connection to the Internet at the same time. If different connections are used, it will split up the workload based on throughput. Download double works with connection teaming by starting downloads in the middle. With a large file , part of the file will be transferred on one connection and the other part will be transferred on the other connection. When done, the file is joined back together.This is completely transparent to the user.
If you use multiple connections to the internet, one may be assigned a ‘fail over’ roll. If the first one goes down, the second connection will be used automatically.
It uses nat for connection sharing, it has performance tuning wizard, it uses the fastest DNS server available, it caches web content so it can pull pages from cache that you use often, it has a decent firewall,(better than XPs anyway), there's tons of other stuff that I don't remember. Only thing is it costs $79...but it really sounds like it's worth it. I'm not sure about the modems. As far as I know, you need at least one DSL modem, then you could probably share the connection to your other machines with nic cards? Midpoint has internet connection sharing.
Try the free demo and see if it works before you buy it..nothing to lose but the time. :D
http://www.midpoint.com/homepage.htm

FUGGER makes a good point about using 2 DIFFERENT PROVIDERS in case one is having problems..good backup idea..I didn't think of that.

[Jez]

Ooo i have m8, thats why i was thinking of midpoint as it works like a beauty with an ISDN line and a DACS PSTN modem i have here, you can see a constant 100kbps over the single ISDN channel and modem combined :)

http://members.aol.com/temp56987//midpoint.jpg

[TheDude]

You already have Midpoint? Well you know about it than I do..I've never used it!:rolleyes:

[Jez]

Ive only used it very briefly for that test, and havent used ANY of the features other than multilinking :)

The dual PCI modem idea will be excellent, i just wasnt sure whether the modems would get confused when it came to the ADSL authentication!

[Charles Wirth]

$50 per month for 3meg cable here in Las Vegas, sadly my upload speed is 256k and that includes basic cable.

I still find one connection being dominant, I am using different providers.

[TheDude]

I'm tempted to do something similar. I have a 2nd identical DSL modem to the one I'm using for 1.5 ADSL connection. 1.5 is the fastest connection available to me and it's in a package deal that includes unlimited long distance calls for a set fee. 3mb would be awesome!:D

[Jez]

Originally posted by FUGGER
$50 per month for 3meg cable here in Las Vegas,
.

i *HAVE* to move to the USA:(

Also your petrol is so cheap i could cruise around all day in a 10 litre car, and buy a 10 bedroom house for about as much as there is down the back of my sofa in change (almost:D)

USA>UK:(

Back on topic...you should go for that TheDude, i bet your paying almost nothing for your connection also and as you say..3mbit would be shweet:slobber: