Piggybacking ADSL connections

[Ben]

Hi there,

Just after a bit of advice if possible. I am looking to set up 2 ADSL connections with 2 different service providers, both ADSL Max. However, i'm looking to piggyback these but have no idea what is involved! Do I need a special router? can it be done with software? The reason i'm looking to do this is for contingency purposed and obviously for additional speed.
Any help much appreciated,

Cheers,

Ben

[Walrus]

You cannot get additional speed from this type of setup, only resilience. Anywhere you 'go to' on the internet will route to each ISP along different paths.

[Aaron]

You cant do it with 2 separate providers.. but it might be possible with a single provider to bond the connections. It used to be possible with dialup connections, and I've heard of it being done with DSL too, but you'd have to pay 2x line rental, 2x connection etc etc. And - if it is still possible at all - you would need a special router or even a computer set up as a gateway to balance the loads.

[Anonymous]

There is some illegal way of duping ntl internet with a second box, and intergrating the connections, and then getting effective double speed. It requires hacked firmware and stuff. Cannot comment on it as its illegal and havent personally tried.

[ukchris]

you can do it if you buy a seperate firewall with 2 wan connections that supports load balancing

[jeaffro]

First buy a wireless adaptor and see if any f your neighbours have unprotected wireless connection. If they do, just use theirs for free :)

[Himesh]

[quote:c22aeb955b=\"jeaffro\"]First buy a wireless adaptor and see if any f your neighbours have unprotected wireless connection. If they do, just use theirs for free :)[/quote:c22aeb955b]

lol i hope you don't live near me :P lol

[Hosser]

I know this can be done with ISDN, but that's about it. I have no experience or knowledge in this area.

However it appears to me that you could solve both problems (speed and reliability) by simply switching to a decent (and faster) service. =/

[jeaffro]

ISDN was the biggest cop out of all time! All the idiots that bought it had to have their lines downgraded back to normal so they could use ADSL when it came out :P

[jman]

the only way you could do it would be to get a hardware load balancer. Easiest way to describe this is to think of it as a router with 2 internet ports. Depending on which one you get it will either send certain types of traffic through one of the ports or randomly distribute the traffic through both. Probably a good time to mention that these wont come cheap as they're generally enterprise class products.

Bonding will probably be pretty expensive too for domestic ADSL (thats if someone offers it on domestic packages anyway).