2 internet connections - what to do?

 
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rrinc
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Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 725
Location: Arkansas, USA

PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2008 11:33 pm    Post subject: 2 internet connections - what to do? Reply with quote

I recently discovered the cable internet I had awhile back hasn't been canceled. I also have DSL. So I've got 2 internet connections...what to do with them?

I've got options:
- Run the server on DSL and my personal computer on the Cable
- Run the server on Cable and my personal computer on DSL
- Run the server on Cable and DSL ("2 servers" but actually just one server with 2 connections: load balancing? how?) and also hook my personal computer up to one of those. Also somehow could fault-tolerance exist in there?
- Some other option?

Here's the connection specs:
DSL (ISP is AT&T)
Upload: average 600kbps (fairly static though - it never changes)
Download: 5.2mbps

Cable (ISP is Comcast)
Upload: Peak 900 kbps (lowers at busy times...its cable)
Download: peak 8 mbps

Considering the DSL is very static it seems like the best choice for the server, but occasionally it disconnects.

The Cable seems to stay connected nearly all the time, its speeds can be insane but not always predictable. My guess is that the upload speeds will always be at least about 400kbps...I'll wait and check.

The concept of some kind of load balancing interests me...any ideas?

So, what kind of configuration? It can be complicated or simple as long is it might work well.

Edit: A test during what I would think is a busy time, I still get those peak speeds. The cable might be better than I thought.
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AbyssUnderground
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Joined: 31 Dec 2004
Posts: 3855

PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Load balancing is hard, especially between two different types of connection. If you can get them both into Ethernet, you can buy load balancing hardware units that will load balance anything coming through them, but they're pretty expensive. For what you want you'd be better off having two routers and then having two NIC's in your computer, so you can switch between them, but even that can be complicated.

I guess there is no real solution to it.
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aprelium
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Joined: 22 Mar 2002
Posts: 6800

PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:37 pm    Post subject: Re: 2 internet connections - what to do? Reply with quote

rrinc,

Do you want to use both connections for outgoing connections (surfing/email) or for incoming connections (for a server)?
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rrinc
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Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 725
Location: Arkansas, USA

PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:06 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well I guess both. I need internet to both my server and my computer.

I would like to use both somehow in the most efficient way. The nice cable download speeds would be nice to have for downloading things, but the upload would be nice on my server...I could hook up a router and use both, but then the DSL would be unused. I don't want to get rid of either internet connection and just use one though, its a very nice prospect of having a backup connection for some kind of fault tolerance.

Maybe I could hook the cable up to the router and use it for both my computer and my server and also stick an extra NIC in the server and hook it up to the DSL. I could have a game server listen in on the cable's IP (though there's an issue with that...it changes, so how do I make it use one or the other without having to update the server's IP binding parameter. Because I would only want it to listen on the cable IP.

Then I could setup Abyss and the DNS stuff with the DSL connection.
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