Bonded ADSL at Home

I currently have a single line with (Plusnet) ADSL2+ giving a speed of about 3.5meg down / 300kbps up. I also have a 3G Mifi unit which gives me about 4meg down / 500k up! (Better than the dsl if you ignore latency!)

I am considering taking up the post office deal to get a second line installed and setting up a second ADSL2+ service, then using a suitable router to load balance the two. 

I have a couple of reasons for looking at a load balanced solution (although bonded would be a better answer I don't think the extra costs are worth it).  I work from home and do a lot of video calling plus working over VPN - this is pretty poor quality as you would expect. We also use the internet on multiple devices at night so this would be a help then too (no really downloading etc just web). 

I have a few questions in regard to load balancing which I would appreciate any thoughts on:

1. Will a load balanced connection + VPN from the client machine lead to a 'bonded' output on my work network? Or will it stick to just one of the ADSL lines?

2. Will a router like the draytek vigor 2830 make sense in this scenario?

3. I have heard that some websites fall over when being accessed by multiple IPs - but no details. Does anyone have any experience of what types of sites etc?

Thanks!

AllWork

300Kbps up on ADSL2+ That doesn't sound right.

Please post your full line stats, also, which exchange are you served by ?

They default it to 448kbps unless the customer requests it be uncapped.

@OP - Get that? They will warn you that it can upset the download. That's rubbish.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

300Kbps up on ADSL2+ That doesn't sound right.

Please post your full line stats, also, which exchange are you served by ?

Those figures were the actual achieved speeds via speed testers (and were 'about'). My exchange is WNBS and my stats are


Net gear 834G v1
Connection speed:
Down 6077
Up 439

Attenuation:

Down 37
Up 9.5

Noise Margin:

Down 9db
Up 22db

I have tried all the usual tricks and there are no connected extensions etc. just the router and a dect base station. I did wonder about just going for a new router but the firmware is the latest on the 834g.

Any help appreciated!

All Work

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

They default it to 448kbps unless the customer requests it be uncapped.

@OP - Get that? They will warn you that it can upset the download. That's rubbish.

Thanks Roberto but as I don't achieve the 448 I haven't bothered to ask about uncapping.

Cheers - AllWork

.... and that was my point. Syncing at 448 upstream should be the norm, and to be fair, you should be seeing a higher downstream rate at that attenuation also. Getting your ISP to reset the snr profile to 6db will squeeze more from your line.

Samknows reckons you have a 21cn enabled exchange, time to see if your ISP will provide service over this, or move to one that will. This will increase both up and download speed on your line.

For some odd reason, on Plusnet it doesn't seem to hit the 448. Get it uncapped .

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

.... and that was my point. Syncing at 448 upstream should be the norm, and to be fair, you should be seeing a higher downstream rate at that attenuation also. Getting your ISP to reset the snr profile to 6db will squeeze more from your line.

Samknows reckons you have a 21cn enabled exchange, time to see if your ISP will provide service over this, or move to one that will. This will increase both up and download speed on your line.

Thanks Zarjaz - I am already on ADSL2+ and the switch gave me about another meg sync and half a meg 'real' on the speedtest. No improvement on the upload though.

I feel I should get more out of that sync etc but during the initial ADSL2 switch I got up to 13meg but it kept resynching so I guess that's why it's lower and at 9db.

AllWork

http://www.robertos.me.uk/html/unstable_lines.html

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

http://www.robertos.me.uk/html/unstable_lines.html

Thanks for the link but I have done all the remedial work and this seems to be what I have - hence looking at load balancing or bonded. Does anyone have any experience or can offer advice on my questions?

Thanks!

AllWork

Hi,

If your stats are correct and you do have an old netgear DG834(G) V1 (Silver with a 15V AC Power Adapter) then your router will still be using G.DMT (up to 8Mb ADSL).

To benefit from ADSL2(+) you'll need a new router and if you get a newer netgear remember to change the PSU as well as they are now 12V DC, not a mistake you ever make twice.

Regards,

Mark.

Mark

Hmm. I thought I would need to ditch my trusty router when I moved to ADSL2+ but noticed that the latest firmware seems to support it - http://support.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/259

I could be wrong here, and can't find a way of easily checking, and if so am happy to be corrected so I can just change out the router and hopefully get more from my connection!

AllWork

Interesting.

You've got no real way of knowing what it is doing. The config page certainly doesn't allow you to select Adsl1, 2, or 2+ like on the later models.

Any way you can borrow a router to test on your line?

The other option may be to try some 3rd party firmware, this would give you a few more options to tweak and much better connection stats.

There is however a chance that it might not upgrade sucessfully and leave you needing to buy a new router.

I don't think he is on G.DMT, as IIRC that profile on WBC still provides downstream sync's in multiples of 32kbps.

The simplest, zero-cost, obvious thing to try, is asking PN to uncap the upstream . The worst that can happen is that it doesn't improve it.

Thanks. I have asked to uncap the upstream and we'll see what happens. Thanks for that advice.

Still won't improve my downstream, sadly but maybe a new router might? Plusnet's response to my asking why a 6meg sync gives far less on speed testers was "this fits within the speeds your line test suggests"

AllWork

In reply to a post by Anonymous:

Does anyone have any experience or can offer advice on my questions?

AAISP (www.aaisp.net.uk) and BE (www.bethere.co.uk) offer line bonding products - but they're quite expensive as you need two BT phone lines (~£13/m) and then you need two ISP accounts; and then they're added together. This is why the others are trying to help you get the most out of the first line.

Edited by jchamier (Mon 30-Apr-12 19:25:23)

Good ! Re the uncapping.

Re speed tests, on 6077 connection speed your fastest possible download is 5300kbps. What are you getting?

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 30-Apr-12 19:25:42)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Good ! Re the uncapping.

Re speed tests, on 6077 connection speed your fastest possible download is 5300kbps. What are you getting?

I've run speedtests at all times of the day and the max I've had is 4meg down (commonly 3.7 meg) with the bt speed tester giving me 3.5meg consistently.

AAISP (www.aaisp.net.uk) and BE (www.bethere.co.uk) offer line bonding products - but they're quite expensive as you need two BT phone lines (~£13/m) and then you need two ISP accounts; and then they're added together. This is why the others are trying to help you get the most out of the first line.

Thanks. I appreciate that they're expensive but if I have no other option thy beat a leased line. I was also looking at loadbalancing to try and reduce costs. Having said that if they don't improve video conferencing etc then they're not much use,

Are those speed tests wired or wireless to the router? Wireless is unreliable for this purpose.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Are those speed tests wired or wireless to the router? Wireless is unreliable for this purpose.

Wired - although wireless doesn't really offer much difference either interestingly.

Thanks

AllWork