Bonded ADSL

Hi,

I'm in the annoying position of having an Exchange Only Line on a Fibre Enabled Exchange (Bridge of Weir) and following some enquiries, doesn't sound at all like anything is being done about new cabinets or other solutions in the near future.

We already have two phone lines (throwback to the dial up days) and I would like to look into a bonded line as I work from home and could do with the additional bandwidth.

Could anyone recommend any ISPs or other providers who have a managed bonded service i.e. Supply the broadband, supply and configure a suitable router, provide support etc.

I'm aware that this will cost more than fibre and I am willing to pay a bit more for the service than the basic costs of two lines (rental + broadband service), off the top of my head budget would be around £100 a month so would appreciate any suggestions of anyone who might be good for this sort of service?

I believe AAISP offer that.
https://support.aa.net.uk/Category:Bonding

Edited by deleted (Mon 02-Nov-15 16:55:54)

An alternative:-
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/features/1412-bonded...

Talks about the difference between bonding and load balancing, but goes on to say they can bond lines from different suppliers.

Thanks will take a look.

Should also add, no Virgin service here either, despite one of their trunk cables 200m away, teasing me

Just spoke with AAISP and they are actually fairly reasonable for price and can bond a BT and a TalkTalk line together (in fact said that was better for reliability) so think it looks a good option. Only slight downside is the router they supply is quite expensive but can get me own if I prefer.

I found that on a simple FTTC line the ZyXel router they offer is worth having, as they have a good relationship with the manufacturer and the list of fixes they got made is impressive. Also of course, they know it inside out if you have a problem.

I expect the same applies with their bonding one. Possibly particularly important with using two wholesaler providers.

Does the router have two ADSL ports, one for each line? Or do you need two modems and a router?

?
Did you mean to ask me that? As I haven't got a relevant router. Mine is what they supply for a single FTTC line.

Plus, I forgot to say, a lot of the mods they requested from ZyXel were done before AAISP decided to make it their default offering.

I was simply pointing out to the OP, (using mine as an example of their thoroughness), that although the AAISP suggested one for him may be expensive, it could be a wiser investment than something cheaper from elsewhere .

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 02-Nov-15 19:26:25)

Hi

There are lots of options for bonding -- main difference i found was very different approaches to hardware costs vs bonding costs vs broadband service costs so it took a bit of effort in making comparisons.

I went with AASIP and their hardware cost around 1000 so I'm locked in now but I would probably go with Uno if I was starting again.

Other providers with similar services from memory were vivaciti, fido, managed comms, shared band.

Chris

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

An alternative:-
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/features/1412-bonded...

Talks about the difference between bonding and load balancing, but goes on to say they can bond lines from different suppliers.

It's essentially tunnel/vpn based bonding.

Seems to me that there may still be work going on for e/o lines in bridge of weir. No firm date though

Yeah I have been told previously that there was an indication of new cabinets coming at some point but someone asked on our behalf a few days ago and the reply was that the cost was fairly prohibitive at the moment and that we should manage our expectations Which i'm reading between the lines as "not for a while".

Its fairly frustrating not being able to get even an indicative date from BT, but I guess thats just the way it works.

I believe its two modems and a fancy router. Think I was told it was around £650 for the supplied router but that there were plenty of other models I could get myself for less.

I looked at bonding two ~2.5Mbps ADSL lines but found the setup cost and monthly cost prohibitive for the gains I was going to get.

If you have friends or family who live close to a better internet connection and you have line of sight to them, you may be better investing the money in a second phone line at their property and a set of long range wifi links (ubiquiti or similar). Setup cost may be in a similar range but cheaper on the monthly cost.

In reply to a post by craski:

I looked at bonding two ~2.5Mbps ADSL lines but found the setup cost and monthly cost prohibitive for the gains I was going to get.

If you have friends or family who live close to a better internet connection and you have line of sight to them, you may be better investing the money in a second phone line at their property and a set of long range wifi links (ubiquiti or similar). Setup cost may be in a similar range but cheaper on the monthly cost.

Yeah, I'm thinking the same. Don't want to spend all that extra money just to get an extra 1.6Mbps.

Still hoping virgin media will cable my street once the council sort out the road ownership.

Eclipse ISP as well.
But if you want a cheap way follow this.
http://simonmott.co.uk/vpn-bonding

I got my lines bonded through Sharedband, after reading reviews they seemed the cheapest and most highly rated.

Hope this is of some help

Before I got FTTC I used shareband, decent enough service. However the way it works wasn't great for online gaming.