Sharing bandwidth across multiple internet connections?

DISCUSSION Simon 3 participants 5 messages Oct 17, 2002

Share & tools

Simon

author

2002-10-17 13:54 UTC #0 lore raw

Hi,

I recently (yesterday) upgraded my home internet connection from BT ADSL (512k/256k), to NTL Cable(1Mb/256k), for the extra speed. However, for the next 30 days I seem to be the owner of two broadband connections in my home.

I have a linux (2.4.19) box running as the gateway for my home network, and it's doing masquerading over eth1, which is the connection to the cable modem. ppp0 is the connection to the ADSL, but is no longer used. (The internal net hangs off eth0)

Is there a clever trick I can do, to allow my home net to use the available bandwidth on both connections? It would be weird, as they would both have a very different real-world IP... But is it in any way possible? Seems a shame to have this bandwidth knocking about unused.

Simon

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2002-10-17 14:53 UTC #1 lore raw

Quoted 10 lines

I recently (yesterday) upgraded my home internet connection from BT ADSL (512k/256k), to NTL Cable(1Mb/256k), for the extra speed. However, for the next 30 days I seem to be the owner of two broadband connections in my home.
I have a linux (2.4.19) box running as the gateway for my home network, and it's doing masquerading over eth1, which is the connection to the cable modem. ppp0 is the connection to the ADSL, but is no longer used. (The internal net hangs off eth0)

Quoted 4 lines

Is there a clever trick I can do, to allow my home net to use the available bandwidth on both connections? It would be weird, as they would both have a very different real-world IP... But is it in any way possible? Seems a shame to have this bandwidth knocking about unused.

Yes, you effetively just need to set up the routing on your gateway box to use both interfaces.

As long as you load-balance your _outgoing_ packets, you'll effectively load-balance your incoming ones as well, because other machines will send back data to the I.P. that they get the request from. Therefore, you'll want to send out more data over the NTL Cable service than the BT ADSL service, because you've got more downstream bandwidth on the cable pipe.

Have a look at various Linux firewalling and masquerading HOWTOs, and you should be able to work out the best way to set it up.

John.
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Dragos LUNGU

2002-10-17 15:38 UTC #2 lore raw

In reply to Simon

Quoted 1 line · Simon

Hi,

Hi,
[...]

Quoted 4 lines

Is there a clever trick I can do, to allow my home net to use the available bandwidth on both connections? It would be weird, as they would both have a very different real-world IP... But is it in any way possible? Seems a shame to have this bandwidth knocking about unused.

I'm in the same situation (I subscribed to a second provider) and I've google'd all afternoon about this issue. I think I found what I need and maybe this is what you need as well :

4.2. Routing for multiple uplinks/providers
A common configuration is the following, in which there are two providers that connect a local network (or even a single machine) to the big Internet.

http://www.lartc.org/howto/lartc.rpdb.multiple-links.html

Quoted 1 line

Simon

Hope it helps.
Dragos .

[email protected]

2002-10-17 15:02 UTC #3 lore raw

Quoted 19 lines

Quoted 1 line · Simon
Hi,
Hi,
[...]
Quoted 1 line
Is there a clever trick I can do, to allow my home net to use the
available
Quoted 1 line
bandwidth on both connections? It would be weird, as they would both
have a
Quoted 1 line
very different real-world IP... But is it in any way possible? Seems
a shame
Quoted 1 line
to have this bandwidth knocking about unused.
I'm in the same situation (I subscribed to a second provider) and I've google'd all afternoon about this issue. I think I found what I need and maybe this is what you need as well :

Quoted 6 lines

4.2. Routing for multiple uplinks/providers
A common configuration is the following, in which there are two providers that connect a local network (or even a single machine) to the big Internet.
http://www.lartc.org/howto/lartc.rpdb.multiple-links.html

Assuming that you want to use this bandwidth primarily for downloading applications, as opposed to running servers, make sure that you weight the connections based on the downstream bandwidth.

I mean, if you had a 512/256K ADSL line, and a 2048/256K ADSL line, instead of weighting them equally, it's best to send more data out over the 2048/256K line, because you'll get more replies _back_ through it.

Simon

author

2002-10-17 18:37 UTC #4 lore raw

In reply to Dragos LUNGU

Quoted 1 line · Dragos LUNGU

http://www.lartc.org/howto/lartc.rpdb.multiple-links.html

Okay, I'm trying to implement this atm... But I'm slightly confused about one thing...

The document says:

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Let us first set some symbolical names. Let $IF1 be the name of the first interface (if1 in the picture above) and $IF2 the name of the second interface. Then let $IP1 be the IP address associated with $IF1 and $IP2 the IP address associated with $IF2. Next, let $P1 be the IP address of the gateway at Provider 1, and $P2 the IP address of the gateway at provider 2. Finally, let $P1_NET be the IP network $P1 is in, and $P2_NET the IP network $P2 is in.
<<<

How exactly do I determine $P1_NET and $P2_NET... I'm slightly confused about what they are supposed to be.

Thanks,
Simon

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