[Pc_Support] Re: Bonding 2xADSL or ADSL+cable?

[Jesse Goerz]

On Tue, 2005-05-10 at 12:44, Damien McKenna wrote:
> Out of interest, do you know if either Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 can
> do round robin, or are there any simple routers able to do this?

http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Reviews-145-ProdID-RV082.php

At my last job we used a Linksys RV082 to do this.  It has some load
balancing features that we were able to use.  We had a 384/1.5 (up/down)
ADSL and a 768 SDSL line.  Here are some of the gotchas I ran into with
it:

1.  Don't use any symbols in the password.  You won't have access to the
firewall tabs but everything else will mysteriously work just fine.

2.  If your remote applications pay attention to IP addresses for
security purposes you'll have to force some of the applications to stick
to one outgoing connection.  There is a tab with this feature.  

3.  The traffic shaping features did not work well in any of the
applications I worked with and the latest firmware seems to change the
behavior that is documented in the manual.  I think they couldn't get it
to work like they thought.

4.  The support they offer is run by overseas "technicians".  I have
mixed feelings about this because I feel the communication barrier is
significant.  It took me two 4 hour phone calls, a new replacement unit
shipped to me through the vendor, and finally getting them to put a
"lab" technician on the phone before _I_ discovered the password bug
through my own troubleshooting after I got off the phone.

We basically served about 30-40 remote clients accessing a web
application that served out resources needed by our remote workers. 
Most of the access was batch oriented type connections
(downloading/uploading files to work with other local applications).  If
you're familiar with IPCOP then the interface will feel very familiar
;-).  I would recommend you explore all your options though and don't
let saving a few bucks make all your decisions for you.  One thing I
found out that was kind of neat: you can trade it in for a "real" cicso
router upgrade when you are ready.  You'll want to confirm this of
course.

hth,
Jesse