Routers that support 2 Broadband feeds with load b

Hi

It looks like to get the Broadband speed I need I'll need to use two feeds - I know there are routers that support this, Draytek 2910 for instance, and one from Netgear. However the feedback I've seen on the Netgear product is not good. Anyone any experience with these types of products and any suggestions?

Cheers

Graham

I'm using the Xrio Cyclone 200, which is a discontinued product - the latest version is the Agile 200 - http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?ProductID=400

You should be able to get the basic functions working OK, but more complex stuff like P2P becomes a bit of a nightmare, unless you're a whizzkid at networking. You'll find that the extra speed will only be useful for "multi-thread" functions like web browsing, although downloading can use the full bandwidth if you use a downloading tool like ReGet or GetRight, which break down downloads into smaller chunks which are downloaded simultaneously. The router will be of no use at all for watching streamed video, because it will only use one channel.

Are you talking about a bonded connection ( 2 ADSL lines linked to the same ISP using specialist equipment) or "twin wan" - two links with traffic shared between them.

I went for a "twin WAN connection" router as well in the past and yes, it works OK but it is not nearly as good as having a faster single connection.

I imported mine from the U.S. made by a company called Xincom - which bears a very strong resemblence to some other load balancing routers...

http://www.provantage.com/xincom~110XINC.htm

You'll need to get a UK power adapter from Maplin for

Edited by GavinP (Thu 26-Oct-06 13:14:30)

Yes, I looked at the Xincom routers, and they do look uncanilly like the Xrio's. I tried downloading the firmware for the Xincomm, so I could try to flash my Xrio with it, but it won't play

Can you tell us more about your experiences with this product? Like others I looking at increasing my speed through bonding 2 ADSLmax connection. And this seems like a cheaper/one time cost solution than some of the ISP offerings (even though it seems to be more for loadbalancing/redundancy than bonding. Also, i'm with BT and don't think that BT offers dsl bonding.

Also -- what are you 2 connections and combined throughput through this device?

thanks in advance,
-jim

When I was using mine, I had 2 x 512Kbps ADSL connections to 2 different ISPs.

Configuring IE to use multiple threads and using a download manager like FlashGet, it increased the speed of browsing and downloading files (FlashGet basically breaks large files into chunks).

It did also confuse some websites as you were connecting via different IP addresses.

I also had more of an eye on failover and redundancy apart from the only outages I experienced knocked out both lines (i.e. BT exchange related)...

It does work but not as well as a proper bonded connection (I suspect - no experience of one) and a single, faster connection is always going to be preferable.

Thanks

Gavin