Windows XP - 2 internet connections - combine?

Random

So, I have Windows XP.

I have recently got Irish Broadband. I have 2 months to run on my Netsource contract so I obviously wanna get the best out of it.

I have 2 network cards in my PC.

Is there a way I can connect both internet connections into my PC and get the combined speed of the two? (i.e. 2Mbit Netsource + 2Mbit IBB download, 128Kbit Netsource + 2Mbit IBB upload == 4Mbit/3.xxMbit) ?

I hear this can be done on some versions of linux, if I setup another PC as a network gateway or if I buy a special router... but this doesn't suit unfortunitly.


Any ideas ?

Tazzle

Short answer. No, you cannot combine. With the right stuff you might be able to have them run in parallel. But you will not be able to download one single file at 4mbit. You might be able to set it up so you can download one at 2mb and another at 2mb. But it'd be complicated and time wasting.

AdMMM

Im not too learned on this, but I think you would have to go about setting up a proxy server or a webserver. You can direct certain traffic to a certain connection. Handy for seperating games traffic from downloads!

Random

That would be useful if I could even separate them so that I could have one for downloads and one for games.

Any ideas how I'd go about this ?

bounty

use another pc

jm2k

It is possible to do this. The term used is "connection teaming".

There are two options. Either buy a router which accepts two net connections (take a look on ebay)

OR

Use some software to do this for you. The difficult part in all this is load balancing (managing the bandwidth of the two connections) Linux has some scope for this in the 2.6 kernel if you want to make a linuxbox router ...but I'm uncertain if there is any software available which has this functionality.

There was a piece of windows software available for free a few years ago which I tried (can't think of the name off the top of my head), it worked for browsing but would crash when downloading a file.

Basically unless you are going to go and buy a new router its more hassle than its worth.

Mutant_Fruit

Sygate Office Network.

I'm resonably sure that does exactly what you want.

vibe666

indeed it does. give the pineapplyturtlethingy a a gold star!

I've been looking for something just like that myself.

thanks MF you're a star, just when I needed it too!

Mutant_Fruit

vibe666 wrote:

indeed it does. give the pineapplyturtlethingy a a gold star!

Turtle + Pineapple = Turple. I call him bob, bob the turple

Glad i could be of assistance. I just wish i knew as much about physics Got a feckin test tomorrow. Why the hell do UCD insist on having saturday exams in the morning, why can't it be an evening exam! :mad:

vibe666

yeah that would be much better.

nice evning exam. you could take your pipe and slippers and have a few scoops after.