Connecting Multiple High-Speed Lines

[Groove]

Can someone help me out with this setup...

I've have 2 indepedant 3 meg lines coming into my house and my PC has 2 LAN jacks built directly into the MB. I want to set it up so that I can go online using both connections simultaneously. Basically, I want to be able to download a single file from a server using both of my 3meg lines at the same time.

I've tried connecting both lines in the back and they both work but one of them becomes primary when more than 1 LAN connection is present so everything I do regarding the internet goes only through that 1 line. When I unplug it, it gets rerouted through the other LAN connection. When that happens there is a temporary loss of connection. Programs like MSN will log off since the original line it was connecting through has been terminated. Not sure if that part is relevant but I just want to paint as much of the picture as possible.

I know this has been done with dial-up modems in the past so I figure there has to be something similar for this. I'm assuming I need some kind of network connection managing program that will make both LAN jacks work together.

[chasezcw]

not quite sure that you can use both at same time and i do not think that a software program would keep both alive, where do these lines originate?

have you tried selecting both the connections under network connections and then bridge them together...

what version of windows are we talking about? if xp you can highlight both and bridge them, i do so on my bench machine however i have a router and several switches in office, however i am connected with two nics to a switch of course switch goes to router which is keeping dsl connection alive, if your two lines are not coming from the same serving source then it may be impossible to use both at the same time in a bridged connection.

[brownizs]

In order to use both 3mb lines, you would have to have a Dual-Wan router that would allow for in case one would go down, you would have the other, or even being able to load balance, but as for getting a faster connection with 3mb, it will not happen.


The Dual-WAN router would just balance the information between the two lines, by prioritizing the traffic.

[chasezcw]

never ran across a dual router, ill have to look at such things for future reference. of course there are not too many people who would pay for 2 connections.

i was just thinking both of his lines may infact originate from same source, of course im not too keen about networking outside the states he may be in another country, probably is and of course i do not know how other countries internet providers setup home owners. if you are from outside the states maybe you could contact your provider and get some information to post here on how you can utilize both lines, despite what you could do with a dual wan router. you would of course need two computers to utilize both 3mb connections at same time.

[Groove]

Thanks for the replies. I guess I should have stated this...

My OS is Windows XP 64bit. Both are DSL services, subscribed on different landlines, and so they both have their own modem. From there, I'm connecting both LAN wires from the modems directly to my PC. They are different service providers, one is Bell Sympatico and the other is IGS. I'm doubting either one of them is going to be willing to help out in this situation. We're switching over to the Sympatico connection fully in a while but in the meantime I'd like to take advantage of that unused IGS connection.

Thanks for the bridging advice. It was rather easy to do though i'm not quite sure what it accomplished. I clocked the time it took to download a particular file between the single connection and the bridged one but there wasn't a difference. They both took just as long. I'm assuming it would still say i'm downloading at the max of ~300K/sec but since both NICs would be downloading at roughly the same speed I was expecting a noticeable time difference. Perhaps there's a bit more I need to do after I bridge them??

Now I do have a switch. They don't work backwards can they? By that I mean plug the 2 DSL wires into the PC connections and plug my PC LAN wire where the modem would normally plug into? (Hope that's not confusing :rolleyes: )

Thanks again for the help.