upstream one one ISP, downstream on another?

Hi there, I have 2 separate lines coming into the house, one has a great upstream but quite bad downstream with packet loss and the other has great downstream but a poor upstream speed. I was wondering if it would at all be possible to utilize the downstream of one and the upstream of another for SVN, gaming, large file transfers, streaming and general use?

The 2 connections use different technologies (FTTC and DOCSIS 3.1) and as far as I know rules out bonding. What equipment would I need if this is possible.

Thanks

It would take some pretty specific network equipment to do that. I can't think of any way you could do this as the packet will be sent by a particular path and any response will return via the same path - the only way would be if both were with the same ISP and some specific kit was installed at that ISP to control the traffic and that just is not going to happen.

Can you put some numbers to the good and bad speeds? I assume as one is DOCSIS that it is Virgin Media so what package is it on?

Kinda. You could certainly use static routes with a load balancing router.

In reply to a post by Chaoss:

The 2 connections use different technologies (FTTC and DOCSIS 3.1) and as far as I know rules out bonding. What equipment would I need if this is possible.

There are solutions which can do this. Sharedband and Firebricks come to mind.

However, if one has packet loss, that's going to cause issues for any software/hardware bonding combination.

Matt

One is BT Buisiness Infinity, this has the minor downstream packet loss but not upstream packet loss and the other is Virgin on the 152 package

So is there a problem with the upstream on the VM package - I am not with VM and can't get it so can't quite remember what the upstream is supposed to be (I know VM don't tend to be that generous with upstream).

What sort of speeds do you get out of the BT connection? Are you very far from the cabinet?

But do those solutions allow you to send via one but receive via the other? Are they rewriting the packet headers to give a spoofed IP for the return path as otherwise the traffic will come back on the same path it went out on - which is not what the OP asked for?

Sharedband you can set the line priorities, so one you could set 0 for up and the other 0 for down.

Unsure on the FB though.

Matt

But I still don't see how that would work without hardware the other end. If you send a packet via an upstream it will have the IP of that link and the return packet will come back the same way. I may be misunderstanding what SharedBand can do but from my network understanding what the OP has asked for cannot be done without a solution at the other end (and as the links are from 2 different ISPs this cannot happen).

So, unless ShareBand is rewriting the IP headers to spoof the other lines IP address then the packet responses will return on the same connection as they were sent on.

It will need kit at the other end, which applies to both Shardband and FB - but the reply was more clarifying that he can bond the two connections....

Both of these solutions can work with two different providers as the kit is hosted in a central location and does not have to be on the same network as either ISP.

Due to this, the traffic does not go down one specific line and does not need to return on the same line meaning the OP can achieve sending data down one and receiving up the other at least on the SB solution.

Matt

Due to this, the traffic does not go down one specific line and does not need to return on the same line meaning the OP can achieve sending data down one and receiving up the other at least on the SB solution.

Sorry, I may be being thick here but I still can't understand how this can happen across 2 different ISPs and 2 different IP addresses. Does the SharedBand product rewrite the IP headers to get the traffic coming back via a different path? If it does not then the return traffic must return by the same path as the original request - I can't see any way for the remote endpoint to know that it can send the traffic via a different path or indeed that it should in order to balance the traffic.

OK, think I have now found the answer to my question.

If I understand it correctly the routers actually connect via the ISP to a SharedBand aggregation point. So, because the hardware at both ends are operating the load balancing the SharedBand remote end essentially does the upload/download and then sends/receives that data via the routes to/from the end user balancing it across the links.

But for £10 per line per month with a 250GB data limit that could prove a pretty expensive proposition. And add the up front costs (£49 plus between £49 and £299 per line for routers and £10 shipping) then you have to really need the solution to justify it.

Thats right as per my earlier ref to having kit installed on the other end and can be outside of the ISP network.

Sharedband direct costs can be expensive but there are various suppliers offering the services too, on their own networks which work out far more competitive.

Matt

In reply to a post by Chaoss:

Hi there, I have 2 separate lines coming into the house, one has a great upstream but quite bad downstream with packet loss and the other has great downstream but a poor upstream speed. I was wondering if it would at all be possible to utilize the downstream of one and the upstream of another for SVN, gaming, large file transfers, streaming and general use?

The 2 connections use different technologies (FTTC and DOCSIS 3.1) and as far as I know rules out bonding. What equipment would I need if this is possible.

Thanks

I've read this again and will give the same response. The closest you could get without additional hardware out in the internet is using a dual WAN router and a series of routing policies. This would be complicated though, and tiresome to administrate.

I use this to a very limited extent here, with a very select group of services which don't load balance too well pushed down a single line.

If you know where you're going to be downloading from you can set the policies to route requests to those servers via your VM connection, and have everything else go via the FTTC connection.

Beyond that a VPN based solution is the way to roll.