Suppose I have two ISPs (Broadband) with two routers (DSL). Now I have one switch of say four ports.
Is it possible to connect to both ISPs to one PC and combine the two to achieve faster speeds?
Example:
Can I connect to both the ISPs at once to get a total speed of 3Mbps?
Is this possible, or will it show me some type of error? I suspect it will say that the default gateway can't be the same.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/20290-42-simultaneous-multiple-internet-connections has a good discussion on the matter.
In practice, it's an exotic and expensive configuration.
You can put more than one address on an interface or use more than one interface and be multihomed.
However, this is much more likely to be effective for a big server cluster in a data center.
Expensive routers capable of running routing protocols will be needed and then it still would not help you with a single given TCP connection.
If you try this as a single user of two retail ISPs, then you will have two different IP addresses, so incoming traffic will use the one you made the outbound connection on, and it's unlikely that any equipment you have can be configured with more than one gateway.
A large site with a /24 or shorter prefix and their own ASN can actually announce a single IP address over multiple networks, but that won't work without being further upstream than a retail ISP line.
The easiest way to configure this would be to use a Multi-WAN router such as the Linksys RV042.
A simple switch / network hub will not suffice ...
So you have two independent legal Broadband accounts (can be two DSL two Cable or one of each.)
There are two terms that might be associated with using two independent Internet connections.
Combining Bandwidth.
Load Balancing two connections.
Let assume that you have two 3Mb/sec. connections each capable to download at 300KB/sec.
With Combined Bandwidth you should be able to download one file at 600KB/sec.
With Load Balancing one single file will not exceed download speed of 300KB/sec. However you can download 2 files at 300KB/sec. or 4 files at 150KB/sec. etc.
Unfortunately Combining Bandwidth can not be done without the ISP providing such a specific service.
Computers are Not mind readers. If the two connections are not synchronized at the source your computer would know how to combine it to a coherent page.
Any if and but about it is just Wishful thinking.
The price of such a service (if available) is usually much more expensive than upgrading your connection from the basic service to a faster business or corporate service.
If you do have two independent services you can achieve Load Balancing by using a Dual WAN Router.
This type of Cable/DSL Routers have two WAN connections for two Broadband Modems and they would mange the Internet traffic to the LAN to be used in the most efficient way.
The ZyXEL P-663H-51 is souch a router.
