Linux for T1 bonding ???

[Bill Davidsen]

jack craig wrote:
> 
> On 05/25/2010 11:39 AM, Bruno Wolff III wrote:
>> On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 09:31:35 -0700,
>>    jack craig<jcraig at extraview.com>  wrote:
>>    
>>> Any open source references to recommend? I have not been finding a lot
>>> of options...
>>>      
>> When I was looking at getting a T1, bonded T1s sold by the provider were
>> fairly common. Unless you are looking at doing something cheaper, that
>> may be your best bet.
>>
>> If you are using two different providers, I don't think you can atcually do
>> what is typically referred to as "bonding". Normally that is handled with
>> routing.
>>
>>    
> I've hit a couple bumps in this investigation.
> 
> the boss first said check into comcast cable (static ip's available),
> but then he was assuming it was a t1 serve that could be bonded
> with our current t1.
> 
> so far, t1 & cable modem are separate, discreet options.
> 
> i found mushroom networks and they offer a bonding appliance that says 
> its smart about load
> balancing, e.g. using all bonded lines.
> 
> mark pointed out vyatta, that looks interesting too.
> 
> The cable connection rates are real low compared to our t1, i am not 
> thinking
> we ought to get the cable connection and if its as fast as advertised, 
> ditch the t1 we have now.
> 
> interesting quest! :)

My experience with cable has been that it is highly variable in bandwidth. In 
upstate NY you can get DSL up to 7Mbit and FIOS at 15Mbit and you get the speed 
you pay for. Depending on your usage you might even have the T1 for incoming 
connections to your servers and use a DHCP connection on another ISP like cable 
for things which don't need static IP on outbound connections, like browsing, 
VPN depending on your setup, etc, etc.

Having done bonded lines "back when" I became aware that total bandwidth goes up 
but the speed doesn't, so ping and anything depending on response time won't 
change. And you want to advertise larger TCP window sizes so that you will back 
up some packets and actually use the bonding. Some bonding methods don't put 
packets for a given connection on the "other" wire until they have a few packets 
waiting.


-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot