Am I being naïve in this purchase/plan?

eLbot · 23 Jun 2006 at 15:53

I’m planning on buying a Linksys RV042 with the view to aggregate the bandwidth supplied from two separate internet connections (supplied via two D-Link DSL300T modems.) There a plenty of dual WAN routers that offer load balancing;
[Small list for anyone interested in doing something similar:

BroDigit NFR3024
Linksys RV016
Linksys RV042
Linksys RV082
Symantec VPN 200
Nexland Pro800
Hawking FR24
Xincom XC-DPG402
Xincom XC-DPG502
Xincom XC-DPG602
OvisLink MN200
HotBrick Firewall VPN 600/2
HotBrick Firewall VPN 1200/2
ZyXel ZyWall 35
ZyXEL ZyWALL 70
Edimax BR-6104K
Xterasys XR-4106
Pheenet BIG-02/4 ]

But I decided on the RV042 because of the flexible balancing allowing my network to aggregate between inbound and outbound. Now, the plan is to supply this with the two internet connections via the two D-Link DSL300T modems as mentioned before; and they are on different phone lines and have a different provider so no problem there.

But the problem is that 3 ports is insufficient for my needs and the 8 port version (RV082) is much more expensive. (The reason it will only be 3 is because I will connect a Belkin Wireless Pre-N router to one port for my wireless network and configure it as a gateway.) For more Ethernet connections I have a D-Link DES-1024D that I use for gaming lans and that has an auto-sensing uplink bridge that hopefully will just work as expansion but I’m not very well versed in the complexities of networking of this kind. So after that long and complicated description of what I will try to do, do you think it will work as I intend?[after the expected hiccups and configurations that will undoubtedly take me a day]

Answers before 5.15pm will be greatly appreciate as I can grab Saturday delivery but most of you have jobs so I’m not expecting it. Cheers for your help guys.

-Will.

OllyM · 23 Jun 2006 at 16:03

You can just plug a switch in to expand the ports, yes.

You do realise that a single download or upload can't utilise the combined bandwidth of the connections? If you want that, you need to bond properly. Load balancing seems a bit crude and nasty to me...

eLbot · 23 Jun 2006 at 16:09

Yes I understand that a single download from a single source will be capped at the speed of the connection allocated to it; but multi-source downloads from p2p or smart download managers using two mirrors will allow it to use the speed of both connections. Also, downloading a patch and playing a game or downloading an update on one pc will not slow down an update on another etc…

Isn’t bonding the connections expensive beyond the reach of a home user? How much are we talking? And that would need to be done through the service providers too yes? So I would need to change my payment plans to the same provider and they would have to be willing? Seems easier and cheaper this way no?

EDIT: Sorry I sound a bit aggressive, not intended

, those are genuine questions

OllyM · 23 Jun 2006 at 16:15

eLbot said:
Isn’t bonding the connections expensive beyond the reach of a home user?

Depends what ISP you're with. My ISP charges no extra for bonding, and extra lines are far cheaper, because you're charged for your usage. However, if you're a mega leecher during daytime hours, don't bother... with them.

How much are we talking?

Depends what you need, really...

And that would need to be done through the service providers too yes?

Both lines need to be with the same ISP...

So I would need to change my payment plans to the same provider and they would have to be willing? Seems easier and cheaper this way no?

Hmm... that depends what you want/need.

There are a couple of ways you can do bonding, I'd strongly recommend you look in to it further, load balancing is, in my opinion, a waste of time.

eLbot · 23 Jun 2006 at 16:22

Ok cheers for the heads up, I hadn’t thought of that as an option; I will contact my ISP and see what they say.

OllyM · 23 Jun 2006 at 16:24

What ISP are you with? Most don't offer bonding.

eLbot · 23 Jun 2006 at 19:24

Eclipse www.eclipse.net.uk

Diddn't mannage to call them yet, can you suggest one that you know will? Who are you with?

tolien · 23 Jun 2006 at 19:39

AAISP and Nildram will both do it. Olly's been with both

As said, AAISP becomes ridiculously expensive if you plan on doing any downloading much beyond web browsing (at peak times).

Pinkeyes · 23 Jun 2006 at 19:51

We did something similar once using a Firebrick to bond a backup ADSL line to the JANET feed we already had.

Worked fine for a while too - we configured it to pull a single web page from 2 different sources, so say you downloaded a couple of demos from a web site, you might download one from ADSL and the other through JANET. It was very snappy and very fast indeed.

Does bring you some issues though, epsecially with secure webpages, as suddenly you are making requests from two different IP addresses, and sites like Online banking, tend to freak out.

OllyM · 24 Jun 2006 at 23:23

tolien said:
AAISP and Nildram will both do it. Olly's been with both

As said, AAISP becomes ridiculously expensive if you plan on doing any downloading much beyond web browsing (at peak times).

Nildram don't do it any more, they only offer load balanced now, for some crazy reason.

I use AAISP with a FireBrick to bond.

eLbot · 25 Jun 2006 at 11:25

Hmmn, they seem by far the best provider I’ve come across and I think I could make do with 10GB allowance at peak times by queuing anything substantial for off-peak hours but that’s still £94 monthly on the 2x Max Premium 5’s for the very attractive 1.6 upload. You're killing me here I really want to do it. :eek:

OllyM · 25 Jun 2006 at 11:43

You'd go on Max-12 Premium + Max Premium Extra line, which is £75 + £27 = £102 inc. VAT, or Max-8 Premium which would be £86.

As far as I know, you can't bond two lines with usage included - the main line has the usage included, and you buy the extra line at a reduced rate.

They are superb though, they offer lots of unique features, and if you can live with the cap (which only applies Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm), it's great.

I bond two Max Premium lines, and the upload is fantastic, really makes doing things a lot easier, especially accessing it remotely.

eLbot · 25 Jun 2006 at 13:05

Aha ok, I thought that second line option was for rollback on a different line but it makes for more sense that way! Well I’m completely sold as the cap is only down and not up and I can get a handful of ips- one for each machine. You sure you aren’t working for them

?

OllyM · 25 Jun 2006 at 13:12

Yes, I'm sure

What equipment do you plan on using to bond?

Feel free to drop me an email or have a chat with me on MSN if you want to go through things