FTTC Load Balancing

Hi,

in the next few weeks I'm having 3 ADSL lines in my premises replaced by 2 FTTC lines.

At the moment the 3 ADSL lines are connected to a 4 WAN load balancing router which I assume is not suitable for balancing FTTC lines.

Could anyone advise me what I need to get to load balance the 2 FTTC lines? Help much appreciated!

Edited by Chips (Sun 26-Jun-11 15:55:47)

So long as they are straight Ethernet ports fed by external modems rather than DSL ports it's fine.

Thanks for that, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for. My searches for load balancing routers all seem to come up with ones that have WAN ports.

What is the one you have?

It's several years old. It's a Prolink 4WAN.

Well the MH8241 says

Up to 4 WAN connections are supported with MH8241. As a result, the network constructer can easily combine many ADSL or cable connections to increase the total bandwidth.

Note - "or cable". FTTC is cable in this context, PPPoE.

Is that the one?

Might be the 8041. Those will work ok.

Thanks for the info. My router IS the MH8041. In my ignorance I was associating a WAN with ADSL and not FTTC.

However, I recall an exchange of emails with Prolink before I purchased the 8041 about 5 years ago. They informed me that it would support a combined throughput of 22megs which was fine for my 3 x 5meg lines but will (hopefully) not be sufficient for 2 FTTC lines.

Any alternative suggestions?

Hi, i bought a TP-link R488T off of amazon it is a router that require a modem
i use a tp-link 8616 ethernet modem with that to provide the link,
i use it to throttle certain ports and give other ports a higher priority
The router itself has 4 modem ports for 4 lines (bearing in mind they are not wan ports they are modem ports) for the modem that connects to the wan
Im almost certain that this device will work when i get fttc (in late 2013) as the openreach modem is a modem that connects to the wan and you have to either have a ethernet modem router or the bt hub
here this is what it states on the bt infinity for business page
BT Infinity for business requirement

To get BT Infinity for business you'll need:

a BT line or equivalent
a fibre compatible router with Ethernet WAN interface


So i hope this sorta answers your question
oh and yes this router does do load balancing (although i only have 1 adsl 8mb line)

Sources
BT Business Fibre
TP-Link 8616 modem - Amazon
TP-Link R488T Router - Amazon

In reply to a post by Chips:

Any alternative suggestions?

This may fit your (vague) requirements.

You'll require a router/balancer that can establish independent PPPoE sessions on each WAN port. You'll also have to factor in the WAN->LAN throughput - your current router/balancer is limited to 48Mb/s which may not be adequate for your chosen application/undisclosed requirements.