ADSL Bonding – Sensible Way of Teaming Two ADSL Connections

adslbondingload balancing

I work in an office complex that has two seperate ADSL connections, which they use to provide two seperate networks (actually both the ADSL routers go into a Cisco managed switch with two VLANs, one for each ADSL connection).

Circumstances have changed so that 95% of the users are all on one ADSL connection. It would be great if there were a way to join together both connections to emulate a single connection at double the speed, but the ISP doesn't support bonding.

So, is there a sensible way to take two completely seperate ADSL lines and use them to provide a single internet gateway?

Best Answer

There are numerous appliances and routers (e.g. Zyxel P-663H) which will support two internet connections and balance outbound sessions across the two links.

For IP routing reasons this almost always involves NAT, although if you're already using NAT that shouldn't be an issue for you.

Balancing inbound traffic resiliently is a lot harder, since you have to publish an IP address for each inbound service, and those IPs can only ever be associated with one link.

The alternative is to swap to an ISP who can bond lines so that each line is properly bonded.