Question : Internet load balancing between two ISPs

Hi All,

I am currently running with the following setup

1500/256 ADSL Business Internet (I know, Australian internet is a joke)
serving out web server, mail server, 3 remote users and our lan users

it is a moderate setup, and normally works well.  however, if someone wants to download a large file, as happened today with a 20mb image, it causes all manner of timeouts for remote and web users.

my idea is to run a second ADSL or SHDSL line in from another provider and then split the services that way

maybe have, exchange and web going through current service - and remote users/lan users go through the other one

i can't see this as being too hard to set up, it will just take a bit of juggling.

what i was wondering is, is there a better way to do this.  cost is obviously important, but for reliability and speed, it will be flexible.  i have seen a few dedicated boxes (cant think of them, they are red (helpful aint i)) that do this in a much more structured way (take both internet lines in and then split them out) - but this seems too complicated (and expensive) for what we need.

any information you can provide will be much appreciated

Thanks

-red

Answer : Internet load balancing between two ISPs

I would consider Bonded ADSL if I were you - provided you can find an ISP over there who will support it, you can basically bond two or four ADSL lines, which if you use your 1500/256 would give you up to 6Mb down, 1Mb up - I know of this working in action effectively and it's pretty cheap (It's £10 per month plus the cost of the standard ADSL lines)

Take a look here: http://www.nildram.net/pdf/bondedbroadband.pdf for a quick intro, it also has a link to a Free solution for bonding the connection (A linux-based solution to be installed at your end into which you plug you ADSL lines)

Since this would give you considerable bandwidth it would negate the problem of large downloads (20MB would be over in a matter of seconds) and gives you plenty of headroom for spikes in your web/email activity..