2 DSL Lines

[kingmilo]

Hi All,


I have recently installed x2 4mbps ADSL lines at our office. I would like to use 1 primarily for downloading and the other primarily for uploading, is this even possible? Would I be able to get the 4mbps on the upload.

An example would be that when a user receives an email it comes down the 1st ADSL line, when they reply to the email it is sent on the 2nd ADSL line, thus not interfering with the 1st. My logic tells me it should be possible and that the hard part will be getting the 4mbps speed for upload?

I've been looking at some software firewalls, Smoothwall etc to see what kind of modules they offer, the Smoothwall Advanced Firewall seems to have the ability to load balance across 2 DSL connections, but perhaps there is a much easier way to get this done.

Thought I would post the question to the forums just to see if anybody has any sort of experience with this sort of setup or if anybody can provide advice.

Thanks in advance.

milo

 

[Messugga]

Would I be able to get the 4mbps on the upload.

You can't. That 4Mbps is down. Up is far less and you can't switch the values around.

 

[thisgeek]

Yeah upload on a 4mb line is around 512k. It's ADSL - Asynchronous, meaning the up/down speeds differ.

 

[kingmilo]

Damn I was afraid of that! Was hoping there would be some sneaky way to use the download as upload if you didnt use the downloading for downloads at all.. .

Thanks gents.

 

[Pada]

4mbps ADSL refers to the download speed. 4mbps download is usually (if not always) accompanied by a 512kbps upload rate.

I'm actually interested in knowing how to do "channel bonding" / load balancing across multiple lines too.

Sorry for sort of high-jacking the thread, but what is the (monthly) cost implications to get an additional ADSL line? Just another R152pm for a 384kbps line if you already have a telephone & ADSL line installed?

If you cannot do load balancing, you could simply route certain traffic over the one line (eg. email) and other traffic via the other line.

 

[kingmilo]

Yup re 4mbps.. .

Smoothwall Advanced Firewall can do load balancing across multiple DSL connections; http://www.smoothwall.net/products/advancedfirewall2008/

Line rental for whatever speed I guess, for 4mbps it will be R413, so yea I guess R152 for 384kbps.

The problem is that incoming traffic is going to fly, but outgoing traffic is going to suck, but I think the only really 'uploding' that the users will be doing is sending mail, I cant really think of anything else that takes a lot of kbps when uploading. Email just depends on the size of your attachments I guess.

 

[Nerfherder]

Also perhaps you could have your mail on one line and internet on the other...

 

[ponder]

What do you upload?

The 512kbs upload on adsl does not interfere with your 4mbs download anyways.

 

[Nod]

Ask Telkom if they can provide a SDSL line. Might have to speak to somebody with a bit more knowledge than their call-centre staff.

 

[kingmilo]

Also perhaps you could have your mail on one line and internet on the other...

Yeah that's an idea, +- 70 user mailboxes, downloading on avg. 5GB of mail per month, +- 1GB a week, +- 250MB a day shouldn't be a problem at all.

Then the 2nd ADSL line could be used for restricted browsing which shouldnt generate much traffic whatsoever, and also for out telnet sessions into our hosted operations systems, give telnet port priority so it doesnt lag/stick at all.

This could work!

 

[prox]

Ask Telkom if they can provide a SDSL line. Might have to speak to somebody with a bit more knowledge than their call-centre staff.

Does Telkom even offer SDSL?

 

[Nod]

Does Telkom even offer SDSL?

Apparently, but not under the name "SDSL".

 

[killkom]

hi Kingmilo

Channel bonding would be the solution for you

Instead of trying to control the flow of traffic rather just channel bond the lines

I currently have 5 ADSL lines using the technology concepts Channel bonding solution but I believe Datapro gives something similar

I have done reseach on both the Datapro solution uses the Saix backbone and the TC solution can either use the IS backbone or the MTN Business/verizon backbone so there is a it more Flexibility with the TC Solution thats why i went with them.

But Anyway With this solution I am getting about 20Mb/s Download speed and 2Mb's upload and I do get this

I do a Download from IE I get 2MB/s I download Vista SP1 in 6 minutes.

There is just one catch at these speeds your cap can get eaten up very quick

I have 100 gig cap they charge me just over R100.00 per gig and I can kill this cap in a day if I want to

The key to this solution in control you can't let people go crazy with it or it will cost a fortune you need to have very tight control on who is using it and what they are using on it

We use this to replace a 256K diginet line we had with IS that was costing over 20k per month now this solution is costing us about 10k quite a saving and a huge performance increase.

 

[prox]

Apparently, but not under the name "SDSL".

Link to product on their website maybe?

 

[McGuywer]

Link to product on their website maybe?

I'm also interested.

 

[kingmilo]

@killkom,


Thank you for the info, this is exactly the same situation I find myself in. We are also currently spending +-R20k for an ATM line, and see the DSL has a faster more cost effective solution, so I am glad to see that someone else has taken the same route.

While we don't require 5adsl lines I believe we might end up with 3. We are moving our hosting to Afrihost, 2 full racks, and so we currently buy our bandwidth through them.

I will look into the channel bonding option, it seems like the exact solution I need. I would however possibly try and find an open source possibly linux software solution that I can achieve this myself, but thank you for providing info re TC etc I have read through their solution and it looks great!

With regards to abuse of the bandwidth/speed we already have quite strict policy's in place example restricted browsing and a very decent email solution which for example doesn't even allow .ppt files through our system, so I think we have that all in place now we just need to get the ADSL working nicely.

Again thanks for your input, that is exactly what im looking for!

cheers,
milo

 

[Pada]

I actually have a 2mbps SDSL line at home, which connects me to the University of Stellenbosch and we still have to pay Telkom line rent. So my dad is going to cancel it since its too damn expensive for our use.

I can try to find out what it's costing us & what its called...

 

[kingmilo]

@killkom,


Thank you for the info, this is exactly the same situation I find myself in. We are also currently spending +-R20k for an ATM line, and see the DSL has a faster more cost effective solution, so I am glad to see that someone else has taken the same route.

While we don't require 5adsl lines I believe we might end up with 3. We are moving our hosting to Afrihost, 2 full racks, and so we currently buy our bandwidth through them.

I will look into the channel bonding option, it seems like the exact solution I need. I would however possibly try and find an open source possibly linux software solution that I can achieve this myself, but thank you for providing info re TC etc I have read through their solution and it looks great!

With regards to abuse of the bandwidth/speed we already have quite strict policy's in place example restricted browsing and a very decent email solution which for example doesn't even allow .ppt files through our system, so I think we have that all in place now we just need to get the ADSL working nicely.

Again thanks for your input, that is exactly what im looking for!

cheers,
milo

 

[killkom]

@killkom,


Thank you for the info, this is exactly the same situation I find myself in. We are also currently spending +-R20k for an ATM line, and see the DSL has a faster more cost effective solution, so I am glad to see that someone else has taken the same route.

While we don't require 5adsl lines I believe we might end up with 3. We are moving our hosting to Afrihost, 2 full racks, and so we currently buy our bandwidth through them.

I will look into the channel bonding option, it seems like the exact solution I need. I would however possibly try and find an open source possibly linux software solution that I can achieve this myself, but thank you for providing info re TC etc I have read through their solution and it looks great!

With regards to abuse of the bandwidth/speed we already have quite strict policy's in place example restricted browsing and a very decent email solution which for example doesn't even allow .ppt files through our system, so I think we have that all in place now we just need to get the ADSL working nicely.

Again thanks for your input, that is exactly what im looking for!

cheers,
milo

Yeah the 3 ADSL bonding solution will give you good performance its actually the more common solution. I am one of the few in the Country that got 5 ADSL's bonding. Got a bit over eager I guess.

You going to struggle to find a Linux or open source solution for this to get true channel binding you need special Channel binder on your network and you ISP have to have one

The packets are split apart on your network and brought back together at the ISP's side so you won't be able to get true channel bonding without the ISP playing along

As far as i know Afrihost does not offer this solution you will have to choose between Datapro and TC I'm afraid

There are ADSL joining devices on the market Linksys has them but it is not the same as bonding. With these devices each connection goes down a line so they are not split what I find with this is that one line gets used a lot and the other is idle

 

[Nod]

Link to product on their website maybe?

I'm also interested.

PM "moggie", he might know.