Load Balancing Router/Modems

Hi,

I am fairly new to all this but I am just about to have a second line installed with BT Business BB on it and I have an Orange BB connection on the other line. I am considering changing the Orange BB line to another BT Business line but what I would really like to do is have a single Modem/wireless router that can connect to both ADSL lines and then load balance them.

Does anyone know of a router that will offer this functionality at an affordable rate?

Thanks in advance.

Edited by deleted (Wed 22-Feb-12 11:06:41)

http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2820.html

The Vigor 2820 will do a back up service, but not load-balancing (and also, upon reading, that back-up service is only an ethernet port so still requires another separate ADSL modem on the backup line).

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/Shop/ShopDetail.asp?...

This one looks more promising, with 4 load balancing WAN ports. More what you are seeking, I suspect.

None.

If you want two hardware devices (routers/modems) to treat the other end of the connection (big download, say, BBC iPlayer Panorama) you will need special equipment at your ISP to merge the streams.

What are you wishing to achieve?

You may be netter off looking at an ISP that can provide a bonded service e.g. AAISP or Eclipse

Thanks for the information I was looking at the Vigor 2800 Router that does load balancing. but it only have one modem build in and you then require a separate modem for the other line. Which they suggest the Vigor 120. As shown here http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2830.html

What am I after? Where I live the BB connection are very poor, like 2mb max and I wanted to have better speeds available to me and from what I read if you use round robin (i.e. load balancing) then you can achieve this at a lower cost. That's what I want, I want to increase my connection speed if possible and this seems to be the cheapest way.

Your gonna need two routers (or modems) any way. You either get a router that does per-packet load balancing like the Vigor, or you build your own using Pfsense and an Alix, or MicroTIk, if you don't have a spare PC.

That was my question initially, does anyone know of a router out there that is essentially the Vigor 2830 and the 120 build into one unit?

I also have to say I said Vigor 2800 above in a previous post when I mean 2830. That offers load balancing.

Edited by deleted (Wed 22-Feb-12 14:20:45)

I have an Edimax BR-6624, which is a load balancing router.

I actually failed to make it work when on a normal ADSL connection, which I think was not knowing how to make it and the modems work together. Since switching to FTTC it works perfectly.

I keep it though as by backup router as it does not quite have the omph to deal with two FTTC lines.

Note you would also need two modems and this device does not "double" the speed of your connection, just shares the traffic between them, which will probably in effect be a little faster than each of them. To make use of the combined speed of your connections you would need as mentioned above a bonded connection, with both connections from the same supplier. I deliberately chose not to do this, as I was looking for a setup that would still work if one of the suppliers was having problems/ line problems etc. Unfortunately the only time I have really needed it a falling tree got both physical lines, however BT were very quick to fix the damage on that occasion.

You can use this service:

http://uk.sharedband.com/

I used it for a while did the job nicely.

We have 2830 & 120 on a pair of lines and use AAISP

The download speed is effectively bonded the upload speed depends on which line the data passes along. The lines both have different upload and download speeds but this is never a problem.

Moving to AAISP and the Vigor hardware took the best line from 2.5Mb - 3Mb with the previous provider to 6.4Mb and the worst line to 5.8Mb. This gives just over 12Mb effective download

The way to get a bonded upload speed is to buy a Firebrick router but these are expensive like £800 & up.

AAISP give you lots of really useful continuous stats so with telnet via putty into the 2830 you can really tweak a connection over time.

On a small technical note the 120 always sync's faster than 2830 on the same line even if you switch them around. Not sure why that would be?