Merge two internet connections

[Jakalwarrior]

Is there a way to merge two internet connections so your computer will pool them together and use both? I know they cant be made into one connection since they have different IPs and have to form seperate connections but can it be made smart enough to use both at the same time to combine bandwidth?

[shard]

well first off you are contridicting yourself, by saying that you know that they cant work together due to different IP's but you ask if they can combine bandwidth, so thus your answer is no, but dont feel bad, i am just pointing out that you figured it out by yourself, just you had to think about it more.

BTW welcome to the forums :D and have fun!

[TalRW]

Shard is slightly off. It is possible, what you need is something called a Dual WAN router. They are pretty expensive but here is an example of one

http://www.guru3d.com/article/network/103/01/

Also here is a list of some dual wan router models.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,10452186~mode=flat

Good luck!

[shard]

well you do "use" bolth, but you dont at the same time for the same usage, for instance, you would not be able to DL a torrent using bolth at the same time, but you could DL 2 different torrents using bolth

[TalRW]

But see most of those dual wan routers have a feature called load balancing.

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/L/load_balancing.html

So lets say you have one comcast 4mbps connection on a regular router and then on another you have 2 4mbps connections on a dual router. If network A tries to DL more than 4mbps at any time everything will slow down and you will run into trouble. If on the other one you use more than 4 it switches over to the other WAN, thereby using both, wich I think is what he is trying to accomplish by using 2 WAN connections, I think he wants more bandwith.

[tenchi86]

I am currently multi linking two 56k modems into one. For that just connect both connections and in their proporties enable something called Multi-Link. Windows does the rest.

[shard]

hmm, well i guess this shows my noobness with networks :D but that is actualy quite interesting, i had an idea for a dual comcast lines to my house, but for seperate usages, but now i hear of that, might tinker around with that idea for a bit

[Jakalwarrior]

I was hoping for something like how download accelerator works. Multiple connections too one server except using both connections and IPs at once, but since I probably cant do that I also wouldnt mine being able to play WOW while burning all my bandwidth from the other connection somewhere else.
Guess ill just have to play around with it and see if I can do it without that expensive router :D

[DDR-PIII]

http://www.falconstor.com/productsnicexpress.asp

good product to own, which i do :) it does what your lookinmg to dso, but done expect to find something like this for free just yet :)

[four4875]

I thought that load balancing routers sent half of the requests to one conenction and the other half to the other connection. would this send individual requests for like bit torrent to the different connections?

but with a load balncing router you cant have single source downloading with both connections. i can see where it would be possible with like a torrent or sometihng like DAP.

[zsazsa]

Hey guys sorry to bring back an old thread, but I found it on google while I was researching network bonding as a better alternative to load sharing. I read about a company named mushroom networks who seems to specialize in these products. Does anyone know anything else about their products?

Thanks!

[I.M.O.G.]

They sell routers that do this stuff for small businesses. You have to subscribe to a service to get the benefits the OP in this thread was talking about, which is expensive, and the devices are expensive also or you can lease them starting at $80/month.

[Adragontattoo]

Pfsense can do load balancing.

http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Multi-WAN_Version_1.2.x