mookaloid
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 08:09 AM |
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Load Balancing IT techie question
Does anyone here do load balancing with broadband?
I am thinking of moving house and the expected broadband speed is only 2mbs.
I need to access my work network from home and if the connection is no good then it would be a major issue for me.
My router has 2 WAN ports and is capable of load balancing so if I get 2 telephone lines and 2 broadband connections I can aggregate the broadband and
supposedly double the speed.
The question is then is: is this really doubling the bandwidth? how does the load balancing work? if I am for example trying to watch a video on
youtube will this see the full 4mbs bandwidth or will it only see one half and then any other traffic be directed to the other half because the first
channel is full?
all help gratefully received.
Cheers
Mark
"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."
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madmandegge
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 08:27 AM |
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Hi Mark.
What router are you using to load balance? It depends on the router as to how it load balances.
If it was me I'd keep one ADSL connection for work and one for home, although I understand that doesn't utilise the spare bandwidth when
one isn't being used.
If actual speed isn't such an issue and you prefer a reliable constant speed, you could use QoS to supply certain services or IP's with a
more robust speed than other devices? eg RDP, SSH, depending how you connect.
Failing that is the 2MB speed quoted for ADSL or is ADSL Max a possibility?
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scudderfish
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 09:08 AM |
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AFAIK, load balancing like that will not give you 4Mb bandwidth for one connection, but you will be able to run two connections simultaneously at 2Mb.
A single download will run at 2Mb.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 09:11 AM |
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Where are you looking to move to?
Look for BT Infinity and cable access rather than traditional ADSL. Either of these should see a significant increase in speed.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 09:12 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by scudderfish
AFAIK, load balancing like that will not give you 4Mb bandwidth for one connection, but you will be able to run two connections simultaneously at 2Mb.
A single download will run at 2Mb.
Correct. If you're using a single VPN connection to the office then this will only go out of 1 pipe as each of the 2 links will have a unique IP
address but you need a 1:1 mapping for the VPN; any packets coming from your second IP address will be discarded as invalid source.
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stevebubs
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 09:13 AM |
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www.samknows.com is a useful site for seeing what services are available in the area...
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mookaloid
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 10:41 AM |
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Thanks chaps - it seems to be as I suspected ie it doesn't give a true 4mbs pipe I have a Draytek 2820n.
its a village in the middle of nowhereland, North Yorkshire so there's no cable or BT infinity. The 2mbs is the expected line speed as quoted by
BT when enquiring via the web site using a post code search.
Not sure what ADSL max is though? does it boost regular ADSL or is it something different?
Cheers
Mark
"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."
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madmandegge
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 posted on 5/10/11 at 11:27 AM |
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I always thought ADSL Max was a bit of a grainy area, but it's something offered by BT that allows for prioritisation. From experience
I've seen performance increases, but it still depends on how busy the exchange is, and how far away you are, etc etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADSL_Max
ADSL max totally depends on your location for availability and it doesn't give a guaranteed improvement.
Looking at the specification for the Draytek 2820n you have, I think WAN2 is only an RJ45 port, rather than another RJ11, so you'd need another
cable modem to connect to your second ADSL line, then connect to this. The device itself won't connect to two ADSL lines on its own.
So sadly I don't think load balancing will be possible
Sorry!
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mookaloid
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 12:12 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by madmandegge
I always thought ADSL Max was a bit of a grainy area, but it's something offered by BT that allows for prioritisation. From experience
I've seen performance increases, but it still depends on how busy the exchange is, and how far away you are, etc etc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADSL_Max
ADSL max totally depends on your location for availability and it doesn't give a guaranteed improvement.
So ADSL max is just a prioritisation service from BT then not a line speed thing.
quote:
Looking at the specification for the Draytek 2820n you have, I think WAN2 is only an RJ45 port, rather than another RJ11, so you'd need another
cable modem to connect to your second ADSL line, then connect to this. The device itself won't connect to two ADSL lines on its own.
I understand this and I have a spare modem
quote:
So sadly I don't think load balancing will be possible
Sorry!
well the spec of the router says it does it but really I am happy to buy whatever it takes (within reason) to get it to work.
[Edited on 5/10/11 by mookaloid]
"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."
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phoenix70
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 12:13 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by mookaloid
Thanks chaps - it seems to be as I suspected ie it doesn't give a true 4mbs pipe I have a Draytek 2820n.
its a village in the middle of nowhereland, North Yorkshire so there's no cable or BT infinity. The 2mbs is the expected line speed as quoted by
BT when enquiring via the web site using a post code search.
Not sure what ADSL max is though? does it boost regular ADSL or is it something different?
Cheers
Mark
I think you are already been quoted for ADSL MAX, the standard speed for ADSL is 2Mb. ADSL MAX adjust the upload speed to get a better downloads
speed. Another problem with your load balancing idea is ADSL is a contended service, for home user, normally 50-1. to bind two ADSL's together
you would also need support from your ISP to create a virtual path over the two line (We use this at work at a backup to our Ethernet circuit)
Why do you think 2Mb isn't going to be enough, can you not use something like remote desktop to connect to a works machine.
Cheers
Scott
[Edited on 5/10/11 by phoenix70]
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jossey
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| posted on 5/10/11 at 02:53 PM |
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If you need faster downloads look into satelitte broadband. It will give you 10mb for a reasonable price.
As people have mentioned above you won't get 4mb nor
Will your browsing be any faster.
If you go the route of 2 lines use one for work VPN etc and one for home use eg films n browsing....
Thanks
David Johnson
Building my tiger avon slowly but surely.
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ironside
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| posted on 8/10/11 at 11:16 AM |
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Some ISPs will bond multiple physical lines to create a single virtual connection (so you'd get a single 4Mb download with 2x2Mb lines in your
example).
This is different to load balancing, you will only "see" one connection so you don't have to treat it any differently to regular
broadband at your end to get the most out of it.
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