Line bonding setup

Hello,

I'm planning to get 2 x adsl2+ broadband services with AA Net Broadband (AAISP).

I'm wondering if anyone with this ISP has this setup or just a general line bonding setup and which bonding router do you use?

So far i have had the MikroTik RouterBoard 750 suggested to me for bonding the download and also upload.

The Firebrick series of bonding routers have been suggested also but these are currently out of my price range.

I plan to use either a Billion BiPac 7800DXL or Asus RT-N66U as the main router for my home network.

Looks like based on the research i'm doing i will need 2 x modems in bridge mode? is this right?

I currently use 1 x HG612 3B (Unlocked) with this firmware using the newest hardware BLOB (A2pv6C035m.d22g)

It's ran fine for me for a long time so i may get another HG612 to setup the same way.

Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Edited by deleted (Wed 13-May-15 19:52:07)

In reply to a post by Ozil_416:

I currently use 1 x HG612 3B (Unlocked) with this firmware using the newest hardware BLOB (A2pv6C035m.d22g)

That's not the latest firmware now - there's unlocked B030SP08 firmware with the A2pv6C038m.d24j blob. This is now crucial for use on Openreach FTTC use as older firmware doesn't support G.INP, but probably doesn't matter for ADSL2+.

In reply to a post by David_W:

In reply to a post by Ozil_416:

I currently use 1 x HG612 3B (Unlocked) with this firmware using the newest hardware BLOB (A2pv6C035m.d22g)

That's not the latest firmware now - there's unlocked B030SP08 firmware with the A2pv6C038m.d24j blob. This is now crucial for use on Openreach FTTC use as older firmware doesn't support G.INP, but probably doesn't matter for ADSL2+.

I won't be getting FTTC anytime soon but thanks for the heads up. I will remember that in case my FTTC situation changes. As for ADSL2+ i don't think it matters as it's been running fine on the most part, no major problems.

Edited by deleted (Thu 14-May-15 17:05:14)

I guess line bonding setups aren't to common?

I use line bonding with AAISP on my long lines, 2KM from the exchange. Before we were upgraded to FTTC I used the bonding on ADSL.
It works exactly as promised using the Firebrick 2700 and two standard AAISP supplied routers.
The Firebrick is expensive but without it my broadband would be unusable.
I can still only get about 5Mbps, even with the bonding and it was below 2Mbps with bonding on ADSL.

Personally I wouldn't use the RB750, It will probably work depending on your Sync speeds but the 750 is one of their lowest end products and as such can run out of Grunt pretty quickly.

Depending on how the bonding is being done the CPU overhead can be quite high.

Also routerOS has a steep learning curve and can be a bit buggy at times, that said once you get to grips with it it will make those Billion/Asus routers look like childrens toys.

I tried using a Linksys LRT224 for a while and whilst it can push more throughput than my RB450G it's firewall leaves a lot to be desired, Linksys/Belkin decided for some reason that a port forward should automatically ignore any firewall rules and open that port to the entire world.

the routerOS firewall does exactly what you tell it to which does mean a bit of work to secure your box but you get a LOT more flexablity

Thanks for both your replies.

@dragon2611

Is there any in the RB range that you would recommend?

I'm not 100% sure how the bonding is being done but it will be with AAISP as I've read very good things about this ISP.

Depends when you plan to buy it and how much you want to spend

Also which features you want, e.g wireless built in?

There's supposed to be a 3011 coming out at somepoint with a dual core 1Ghz CPU but that might be a while I think it was Q2 or Q3 launch which means we won't actually see it till late Q3/Q4.

Asking on the Mikrotik forums might be a decent bet as I'm still running on older 450G's (I was running a UBNT edgerouter Lite, but sadly it's ram died)

If I was going to buy one now I'd probably go for a 2011 or a 850Gx2 for Home use but then I have an FTTC line. I'd also find out from AAISP exactly how the bondings done, if it's MLPPP it's not as taxing on the cpu as some of the VPN based bonds.

I use sharedband.com with two Zen adsl lines. It works pretty well just unfortunately adds another £20 a month to my broadband cost.

The cool think about sharedband is you can use two different ISPs.

Good Morning!

I am presently using a bonded AAISP setup (3 x 20 CN ADSL lines), so hopefully can provide you with a little more information.

You are correct that you will need modems in bridge mode, I presently use a selection of Zxyel P660R and HG612 (latest firmware). The HG612 work fine and would be a good bet for a future wires only FTTC upgrade (if/when available at your location?).

With regards to router, I have had full downstream and upstream bonding working with CIsco IOS routers and I presently use a FireBrick (which is excellent). The Cisco configuration is a little cumbersome and requires a fairly large power inefficient device to get this working with any usable level of performance (I used a modular chassis).

As you have found RB also work, the AAISP Wiki is your friend here, as it has configuration examples for hardware known to work:
https://support.aa.net.uk/Category:Bonding_Configura...

Another good resource would be the #A&A IRC channel, which is frequently populated by users and staff: http://aaisp.net/kb-irc.html

Regards