Double GPRS/EDGE speed with two mobile phones at once?

I'm using my mobile phone to connect to the internet in an area where only GPRS/EDGE is available. To increase the connection speed I would like to use a technique called connection teaming. E.g. I would use two mobile phones / usb sticks to go online with different providers at the same time and let the software distribute requests over both connections.

My questions are:

is there a software available to do connection teaming? It sounds like Midpoint was able to do it but it's over 7 years old and is unlikely to run on Windows 7
has anybody tried this?

Patrick Wolf

Posted 2009-12-21T16:58:05.870

Reputation: 219

Just found a good explation of connecting teaming http://www.vicomsoft.com/knowledge/reference/bondteam.html#conteam_1 This software might be doing what I'm after. Still need to try it first though.

– Patrick Wolf – 2009-12-21T17:47:49.873

Answers

This really depends.

Technically, there is nothing to stop you from getting a Failover or dual wan port router... You then simply need to get 2x USB router/modem that you can plug your 3g connections in to - then wire up each to each port in the failover router.

The down side is, if each connection is 7Mb, you will only be able to connect to two sites independently at 7Mb, but not 14Mb... Multi connection download managers may help at this, however, this is really down to the router and the features it provides.

If you really just want 1x 14MB connection as in the example above, you need to talk to your ISP as this sort of thing actually requires separate technology enabled at their end (Port/Connection Bonding etc.) However, without any additional technical features at your ISP (and cost, other than routers and 2x connections) you should be able to achieve what you want by the above.

William Hilsum

Posted 2009-12-21T16:58:05.870

Reputation: 111 572

I would love to have 7MB... I currently have 230 kbps :) – Patrick Wolf – 2009-12-21T17:34:49.570

The main thing is that the requests will need to be distributed over both connections.... so as much as I understand not failover as you described but connection teaming... So it would need some software or clever router to do this. – Patrick Wolf – 2009-12-21T17:38:13.993

Such a thing just doesn't really exist without the help or support of your ISP. It is possible using a smart router to split the connections in a round-robin fashion, however, you can't team or bond as the ISP will see each connection independently... for what you want, would be a massive security hole if everyone could see everyone else's connection at the ISP. ISP bonding/teaming is a very specialised feature that few ISPs offer. – William Hilsum – 2009-12-21T18:38:55.230

Perhaps a 3G modem would be better? However, as written by Wil, there should be no technical problems using two connections. I believe it would be worth most when downloading larger files, many servers supports downloading partial files, thus you would be able to download the first half from one modem, and the second half from another simultaneously.

zpon

Posted 2009-12-21T16:58:05.870

Reputation: 832

Thanks and yes there is no technical problem to have two concurrent connections. The question was more how I can join / team them together to surf with both simultaneously and enjoy double bandwidth. Going online with two devices wouldn't necessarily use both but would just use one and switch only once that one fails. – Patrick Wolf – 2009-12-21T18:43:46.640