I currently have a Draytek Vigor 2820n router which allows load
balancing between its ADSL port and a WAN ethernet port so I run it
with a second ADSL modem on my second phone line to give me more
bandwidth and backup if one ADSL connection fails.

However the set up for balancing between the two ports is a bit messy
and it would also be a lot easier if everything was in one box.

Are there any sanely priced ADSL routers with two ADSL ports which
will load balance the two connections?

-- 
Chris Green

On 26 Jan 2009 17:57:11 GMT
tinnews@isbd.co.uk wrote:

> I currently have a Draytek Vigor 2820n router which allows load
> balancing between its ADSL port and a WAN ethernet port so I run it
> with a second ADSL modem on my second phone line to give me more
> bandwidth and backup if one ADSL connection fails.
> 
> However the set up for balancing between the two ports is a bit messy
> and it would also be a lot easier if everything was in one box.
> 
> Are there any sanely priced ADSL routers with two ADSL ports which
> will load balance the two connections?
> 
Dare I suggest a low powered Linux/BSD box with a couple of internal
modems?

Rob Morley  wrote:
> On 26 Jan 2009 17:57:11 GMT
> tinnews@isbd.co.uk wrote:
> 
> > I currently have a Draytek Vigor 2820n router which allows load
> > balancing between its ADSL port and a WAN ethernet port so I run it
> > with a second ADSL modem on my second phone line to give me more
> > bandwidth and backup if one ADSL connection fails.
> > 
> > However the set up for balancing between the two ports is a bit messy
> > and it would also be a lot easier if everything was in one box.
> > 
> > Are there any sanely priced ADSL routers with two ADSL ports which
> > will load balance the two connections?
> > 
> Dare I suggest a low powered Linux/BSD box with a couple of internal
> modems?
> 
You can dare that but my experience so far with trying to set up such
a device as a disk server is not all that positive.  :-)

I.e. I had an MSI Titan 700 system that died after a few months and
I've yet to see a reasonably priced really low power (i.e. <20 watts)
box yet.

Not to mention that I *still* think setting up a dedicated router as
firewall, DHCP, etc. is simpler than doing it on a Linux system (and
I'm running three Linux boxes on the home WAN and have done so for
several years).

-- 
Chris Green

On Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:57:11 +0000, tinnews faxed us with....

> I currently have a Draytek Vigor 2820n router which allows load
> balancing between its ADSL port and a WAN ethernet port so I run it with
> a second ADSL modem on my second phone line to give me more bandwidth
> and backup if one ADSL connection fails.
> 
> However the set up for balancing between the two ports is a bit messy
> and it would also be a lot easier if everything was in one box.
> 
> Are there any sanely priced ADSL routers with two ADSL ports which will
> load balance the two connections?

Link balancing: Linksys RT042 and above

Or really expensive (Barracuda Link Balancer)

-- 
Replica Watches - TRY LIDL - Cheap meds? Visit your GP

On 26 Jan 2009 18:47:22 GMT
tinnews@isbd.co.uk wrote:

> Rob Morley  wrote:

> > Dare I suggest a low powered Linux/BSD box with a couple of internal
> > modems?
> > 
> You can dare that but my experience so far with trying to set up such
> a device as a disk server is not all that positive.  :-)
> 
> I.e. I had an MSI Titan 700 system that died after a few months and
> I've yet to see a reasonably priced really low power (i.e. <20 watts)
> box yet.

That's a low target.  I wonder what sort of average consumption a VIA
Eden based system would manage for your application using strict power
management.
> 
> Not to mention that I *still* think setting up a dedicated router as
> firewall, DHCP, etc. is simpler than doing it on a Linux system

I guess you never tried Smoothwall.

> (and
> I'm running three Linux boxes on the home WAN and have done so for
> several years).
> 
I used to run a 486SX25 (with I think 8MB RAM) as a dialup gateway.
That's a very different sort of Linuxing to the stuff I run on desktop
machines these days (though not so different from a regular Slackware
installation way back when).

Rob Morley  wrote:
> On 26 Jan 2009 18:47:22 GMT
> tinnews@isbd.co.uk wrote:
> 
> > Rob Morley  wrote:
> 
> > > Dare I suggest a low powered Linux/BSD box with a couple of internal
> > > modems?
> > > 
> > You can dare that but my experience so far with trying to set up such
> > a device as a disk server is not all that positive.  :-)
> > 
> > I.e. I had an MSI Titan 700 system that died after a few months and
> > I've yet to see a reasonably priced really low power (i.e. <20 watts)
> > box yet.
> 
> That's a low target.  I wonder what sort of average consumption a VIA
> Eden based system would manage for your application using strict power
> management.

Yes, but it's still probably more than a typical 'off the shelf'
router will use.

> > 
> > Not to mention that I *still* think setting up a dedicated router as
> > firewall, DHCP, etc. is simpler than doing it on a Linux system
> 
> I guess you never tried Smoothwall.
> 
Hmm, well if the web site is anything to go by I'm not convinced.


> > (and
> > I'm running three Linux boxes on the home WAN and have done so for
> > several years).
> > 
> I used to run a 486SX25 (with I think 8MB RAM) as a dialup gateway.
> That's a very different sort of Linuxing to the stuff I run on desktop
> machines these days (though not so different from a regular Slackware
> installation way back when).
> 
I started with Slackware too, only left it a year or so ago.

-- 
Chris Green

On 26 Jan 2009 20:35:59 GMT
tinnews@isbd.co.uk wrote:

> Rob Morley  wrote:

> > I guess you never tried Smoothwall.
> > 
> Hmm, well if the web site is anything to go by I'm not convinced.
> 
In what way?  (It looks a lot slicker than when I used it.)

> I started with Slackware too, only left it a year or so ago.
> 
I got lazy and went with Ubuntu.  There are certain aspects of the
Slackware experience that I miss, but I'm not sure I'd have dumped
Windows if I hadn't started to use Ubuntu.  Having said that, if I
clean up some space on this disk or get a bigger one I'll probably give
the new Slackware a go.

Rob Morley  wrote:
> On 26 Jan 2009 20:35:59 GMT
> tinnews@isbd.co.uk wrote:
> 
> > Rob Morley  wrote:
> 
> > > I guess you never tried Smoothwall.
> > > 
> > Hmm, well if the web site is anything to go by I'm not convinced.
> > 
> In what way?  (It looks a lot slicker than when I used it.)
> 
Slicker maybe but very little actual information.  Where is
information about installing, running, etc.  How do I find out
anything much about it without downloading it?

There's nothing that seems to lead you anywhere, for example if you go
to http://www.smoothwall.org/about/index.php it gives a potted history
and overview of the GPL project - fine and useful but there are no
links from there to take you deeper into either its design or how to
install it.

I'm still not clear (after hunting around a second time) how one
actually installs Smoothwall.  There's a page about building ISOs
(http://www.smoothwall.org/get/release/build.php) but, again, I'm not
sure if this is the normal way of installing it or whether this is
only if you want something special.  Whatever, it hardly strikes me as
the first aim - Be simple enough to be installed by home users with no
knowledge of Linux.

> > I started with Slackware too, only left it a year or so ago.
> > 
> I got lazy and went with Ubuntu.  There are certain aspects of the
> Slackware experience that I miss, but I'm not sure I'd have dumped
> Windows if I hadn't started to use Ubuntu.  Having said that, if I
> clean up some space on this disk or get a bigger one I'll probably give
> the new Slackware a go.
> 
Yes, I'm using Ubuntu too (well xubuntu actually) after a short foray
into Fedora.


-- 
Chris Green