How to bond Ethernet and Airport Mac Pro

Question

I have two internet services. I have a Verizon DSL 1.5m/768k and a Time Warner Cable 30m/384k. My Time Warner is coming in through an Airport Extreme which is wired via ethernet directly to my Mac Pro. The DSL service is connected to a Linksys Wireless router. Is there a way to BOND these two connections so I can get an effective 31.5m/1m connection?

In other words, I want to connect my mac pro to Time Warner via Ethernet, and Verizon via Airport, and bridge/bond these two connections to achieve greater bandwidth.

Answer 1

No. You cannot bond disparate technologies like that. What you can do is load balance them, or setup a fail-over. In either case, you need a router with multiple WAN ports to configure this. When you load balance, you can use each link up to the maximum, but once something on your LAN initiates a connection and is sent over one of the links, it is limited to the max bandwidth of that particular WAN port it is going out of (ie, one computer goes through the cable WAN connection and uses the full allotted bandwidth, the router puts the next connection to the ADSL circuit to balance it out, that connection can only get 1.5 max). In a fail-over model, you have a primary and secondary. The primary is always used unless it goes down and then the router switches all connections over to the secondary.

EDIT: I should mention why you can't bond like that. In the case of bonded technologies (like T1, EoC or BDSL), the bonding is done either at the DSLAM, Hatteras or at the ATM. This means it is done by your ISP, so connections across two ISPs cannot be bonded in that fashion.

Answer 2

By using a router that supports bonding of more than one WAN connection it is possible. You must keep in mind that this is typically a business type of device and the price is such. One device that can do this is made by Mushroom Networks

2+ WAN Connections --- Bonding Router ---- Wireless Router ---- Devices

Doing it in this manner will achieve the theoretical connection you wish to make.

Answer 3

A quick and easy, semi useful thing to do with all this bandwidth, while you research better ways, is to connect both to your MP and adjust your route table.

Pick which connection you want to be the default(the one with more bandwidth?)

    sudo route add -default IPGatewayFasterConnection

Then pick which hosts you wish to use the other connection for and add then. There may or may not be something already out there that does this for you or makes it easier. I have not done any further research. Maybe google some source routing?

    sudo route add -host someserver.com IPGatewayOtherConnection

It's not bonding or even load balancing, but it will let you use both connections at the same time and offload large downloads to the other connection.