Simultaneous use of multiple internet connections.

I do this but only in a corporate environment where I have money to purchase the appropriate software, etc.

NLB = Network Load Balancing.

What you can do it is get a 3rd party piece of software or I believe it comes with Windows 2k/2k3 server, install this and assign certain traffic or X amount of bandwidth for certain apps to each connection.

P2P uses this line, web surfing that connection, etc.

Doing a simple Windows XP Network Load Balancing search will find you plenty of informatin. If you have 2k or 2k3 server, finding information and How Tos should be a breeze.

Thanks, but I'm not talking about multiple logins with the same account. I have 2 seperate accounts with two seperate companies. I want to be able to use those connections simaltaneously.

Thanks for the input though.

CrunchyFerrett

* Windows XP and most operating systems with TCP/IP have what is called a Default Route or Default Gateway. You can see this with "ipconfig" from a CMD shell window.

You can also see this with "netstat -r" where it will be the first route and is recognized by being all zeros "0.0.0.0" netmask 0.0.0.0.

I have seen a similar problem get created where someone has a network with a DHCP Server that gives out IP Address settings as well as Default Gateway to network clients on an Ethernet (or Wireless) LAN. Let's say for example that a client is a Laptop computer. This laptop gets settings from the DHCP Server and Windows XP writes the route 0.0.0.0 netmask 0.0.0.0 gateway 192.168.0.1 (This is very common with Windows Internet Connection Sharing, but similar would happen with most broadband routers doing the sharing)

If you bring up another connection, in my example they plugged in a GPRS Cellular Card into the Laptop, then Windows dutifully writes another "0.0.0.0" route now pointing to the Gateway given by the GPRS provider (probably via PPP/LCP or similar).

Now you've got two default routes (again shown by "netstat -r" in Windows XP or "route print" ). How does Windows decide which one to use? The first one or is it some other "metric" by which it is chosen?

I think it is the "metric" and therein might be an answer of how to accomplish your feat. (Obviously I haven't tested any such thing myself, but it does sound *interesting*). Check out:

http://www.microsoft.com/resources [...] route.mspx

* which says interestingly in part...

metric Metric : Specifies an integer cost metric (ranging from 1 to 9999) for the route, which is used when choosing among multiple routes in the routing table that most closely match the destination address of a packet being forwarded. The route with the lowest metric is chosen. The metric can reflect the number of hops, the speed of the path, path reliability, path throughput, or administrative properties.

* and...

Remarks
• Large values in the metric column of the routing table are the result of allowing TCP/IP to automatically determine the metric for routes in the routing table based on the configuration of IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway for each LAN interface. Automatic determination of the interface metric, enabled by default, determines the speed of each interface and adjusts the metrics of routes for each interface so that the fastest interface creates the routes with the lowest metric. To remove the large metrics, disable the automatic determination of the interface metric from the advanced properties of the TCP/IP protocol for each LAN connection.

* Hmmm. That sounds interesting. What metrics do you get for the metrics for your two Interfaces that are on broadband connections?

What would happen if you manipulated the routing table and changed the metrics for those two interfaces? e.g. what if they we're equal (if they weren't already?) would Windows XP load balance equal metric gateways? or would it still be broken.

I'm just thinking out loud... Good Luck

Running two separate connections in this way isnt as easy as it first sounds especially if it's for the purpose of speeding upa small number of large downloads....

The problem is that your connection doesnt just 'suck' information off the internet - computers at the other end have to be told to send it, with two connections - these computers have to co-ordinate what they're sending either by talking to each other or by being told by your computer what pieces of information to send and down which connection....

If you are running both of these into a server serving many PC's then you can easily use some NLB software which at the simplest level may just alternate requests down each conncetion in turn - if you want to use two connections to speed up massive file transfers or requests from a single user i.e. P2P it may take a significantly more elegant solution.....

I came across this solution. haven't verified it yet but should work on windows 2000 onwards

Just make this registry change, if you have multiple network adapters:

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT\Parameters]
Value Name: RandomAdapter
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)