Using 2 fones 2 surf

[Prometheus]

I remember the 2 lines idea from the days of diap-up. People used two modems and two phone lines not isdn lines either. I don't know if there is any special software, but it was the days of Win95 and Win98 so there is likely built in support in XP. Unless the support for two isdn connections is built into the modem and not the drivers you should be able to just select the two phone connections instead of the isdn connections you normally have like Repitah said.

Just a note though. Because of the way the protocol works you won't be able to download a file using two connections unless you use segmented downloading. A connection is first established to the server starting at a specific point in the file if resume is supported. The data is then requested sequencially and you can't skip a fragment or request a prior fragment without a new connection to the server. With web pages the elements will be downloaded equally on the available connections. With single segment downloads it will only download the file using one connection.

[ginggs]

I remember the 2 lines idea from the days of diap-up. People used two modems and two phone lines not isdn lines either. I don't know if there is any special software, but it was the days of Win95 and Win98 so there is likely built in support in XP.

Its called Multilink and it is built in to XP.

Just a note though. Because of the way the protocol works you won't be able to download a file using two connections unless you use segmented downloading.

That's not entirely true, Multilink aggregates the two connections, so you see them as one and you only get one IP address. All traffic is split across the two connections, effectively you get a single connection with double the bandwidth. The downside is the server you are dialling into needs to support Multilink and as far as I know, only Windows servers supports this.

[Prometheus]

Its called Multilink and it is built in to XP.

That's not entirely true, Multilink aggregates the two connections, so you see them as one and you only get one IP address. All traffic is split across the two connections, effectively you get a single connection with double the bandwidth. The downside is the server you are dialling into needs to support Multilink and as far as I know, only Windows servers supports this.

Don't know about the multilink, but it is not what I am talking about. Yes the connection still appears as one. Applications generally don't work with ips. They send a network request to the windows api which formats the request into a packet with a header that contains your ip and the destination ip. The application then receives the incoming data stripped of it's header and return ip. When a browser for instance wants to download an image it sends a request to the api to make a connection to the server and then asks for the data in a stream format similar to a file stream. If the browser sends another request to the api it will use the connection with the least amount of load at that time.

This means that multiple files may be downloaded at the same time over one connection, but a file will only be downloaded over one connection. This is the standard way it works over http. There are protocols that allow true byte serving where you can download the bytes as you wish using any number of connections, but http by itself is generally not one of them and most servers won't allow this and some of the older ones or a few new ones won't even allow you to resume a disconnected download. One connection will always end up using more bandwidth than the other so your airtime won't be in sync either. It is entirely possible that one connection will always be chosen over the other if it is available.

[ginggs]

Applications generally don't work with ips. They send a network request to the windows api which formats the request into a packet with a header that contains your ip and the destination ip. The application then receives the incoming data stripped of it's header and return ip.

I beg to differ, you need to specify the destination IP and port when opening a socket, how else will Windows know where to send the data? You can also specify the source IP and port, but you can leave it up to Windows to choose the appropriate IP and find an open port.

I know you weren't referring to Multilink, but just to clarify, the reason I mentioned that you only get one IP address with Multilink is that TCP/IP components don't need to know that the physical connection is made over two or more lines. This is handled by RAS at a lower level, and it ensures that data is split over both connections equally.

There's more information here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307849

[Prometheus]

I beg to differ, you need to specify the destination IP and port when opening a socket, how else will Windows know where to send the data? You can also specify the source IP and port, but you can leave it up to Windows to choose the appropriate IP and find an open port.

You can specify the destination ip and port if you have it, but since you generally don't you would use the domain name instead. Don't know if windows has the ability to bypass requesting the ip first, java has. There is two ways to request information. One is to download the object as a stream and the other is to open a socket. A socket is used to establish a permanent connection where information is sent and received. Anything that gets downloaded in a browser or with a download manager will generally be opened as a stream. The main difference is that with a stream you only receive information when it is requested and with a socket you can receive information without requesting it. Browsers and download managers are unlikely to work with sockets which are used for instant messaging, p2p, and things like that. You also don't have to specify the port as the default one for the protocol will then automatically be used.

I know you weren't referring to Multilink, but just to clarify, the reason I mentioned that you only get one IP address with Multilink is that TCP/IP components don't need to know that the physical connection is made over two or more lines. This is handled by RAS at a lower level, and it ensures that data is split over both connections equally.

There's more information here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307849

Still a bit confused by the multi-link thing. Saw an option in my PPP settings which says "Negotiate multi-link for single link connections". Now this sounds to me like making a single connection look like two or more which is exactly the opposite of what we are talking about, but maybe Microsloth is just confused with the wording as usual. What multi-link sounds like to me is that when you dial-up and login to the server you get assigned one ip for both connections and can use both interchangeably. In this case it would be possible to download a file over multiple connections.

Btw. I would think that multi-link should also be possible if the server is running on Linux like a lot of them are as it is open source. If not I am sure a network engineer can easily write some code to handle it.

[ginggs]

Don't know if windows has the ability to bypass requesting the ip first, java has.

Nope, Windows' implementation of sockets is the same as Linux, you need to call a function to resolve the IP address. First it looks in your 'hosts' file, failing that it checks your DNS cache, failing that it sends a DNS query and finally, if all else has failed, it broadcasts on the local subnet.

Still a bit confused by the multi-link thing. Saw an option in my PPP settings which says "Negotiate multi-link for single link connections". Now this sounds to me like making a single connection look like two or more which is exactly the opposite of what we are talking about

Yup, to get Multitlink as I understand it, when you create your new dial-up connection, you choose more than one of the available modems you are presented with.

Btw. I would think that multi-link should also be possible if the server is running on Linux like a lot of them are as it is open source.

So far, I haven't come across one ISP that supports Multilink, the company I work for provided a Multilink solution for a number of our clients using multiple analogue leased-lines aggregated for speed and redundancy, which ended up being cheaper and offered a whole lot more bandwidth (due to data compression) than Telkom's competing Diginet technology.

[nebulous]

Thanks for all the info here.

One question:
Will multilink work with any of the cell providers?
From what I understand, the answer is no.
Is this true?

[Manifesto]

check out this link .. if you wait for this release it may be what you need... Raid for internet connections http://josh.com/teepipe/index.htm

[WireFree]

Guys,

Connecting to the Internet with 2 phones will not give you faster Internet access. If you are using 2 Cell C (or Virgin) SIMs, both phones will use the same base station and your access bandwidth will be shared by the 2 phones. In this case you might as well just use one cellphone. For the best speed results on Cell C use a phone that supports EDGE class 12 or a modem like the Advinne EDGE USB modem.

If you can get both phones to use a different base station, e.g. one Cell C base station and one Vodacom base station you may get better results. You may also need to load balance your traffic on a TCP connection basis (and not at IP packet level).

WireFree

[Prometheus]

I would agree with you except that the total bandwidth available is more than that of a single device. On quiet towers you will get double your bandwidth especially for multiple small files and on busy towers you would at least get a larger share of the bandwidth. I have also formed a visual picture of signals as the device seem to use different towers for different areas in the same room where sometimes it's a difference of mere centimeters so they may well use different towers a lot of the time.