Can two cable modems be "shotgunned?"

[G. Morgan]

I think I recall it the thread somewhere someone gave you a
model number for a rtr that does load balancing on two WAN
ports.

I did, in this thread.

 

[Seth]

I did, in this thread.

Yeah, I provided the same model. I actually use that puppy and have a bunch
in use elsewhere to take advantage of the built in VPN endpoint. I
originally got it for load-balancing between my cable and DSL lines.

 

[Paul]

Paul,

Thanks... but way over my haid...

Anyway, speed is not the issue or I'd just up my service level.

We have two cable modems here, which, like, most, are used way under
capacity. So... If brother-in-law's modem is not being used, I'd like
to plug his connection into my main desktop for movie and newsgroup
downloads at much higher spees than I get now.

I get the idea it may not be possible.

Thjank you again for the great reply!

Then it's possible you could try one of the approaches in here.
The registry entries at the beginning for example, which are one
way to load balance across two links. Load balancing isn't as good
as a scheme that bonded the channels together in some way, but it
might be a better metric than just stuffing all the traffic onto
one interface.

http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-network-load.html

I've been experimenting with my network cards and switch the last
couple of days, and modified so much stuff, I used a separate OS
install, just to make it easier to back out. You can try experimenting,
and use backup/restore methods to put things back if it doesn't work out.
That is how I'm keeping my experiments here, under control.

Paul

 

[Char Jackson]

Will Win7 work with 2 cable modems simultaneously? In our house, we
have two cable modems & two accounts, one for office and one for home.

The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that the devil is in the
details. It depends on where you're downloading from, what you're
downloading, what kind of application(s) you're using, and your
specific home network configuration.

Note that your choice of operating system is largely irrelevant. The
short answer is still yes.

My motherboard has two active functioning Ethernet cards.

Will Win7 work with both simultaneously to achieve "double download
speed?"

At one time I was using as many as 7 cable modems simultaneously and
achieved over 100 Megabits/second, but your results will depend
heavily on your own situation, the amount of effort you're willing to
put into it, and your expectations.

An easy way might be to use something like pfSense, (specifically it's
load balancing features), but again, I don't know your specifics so I
can't tell you how well it would meet your needs. It worked fairly
well for me, but I ended up doing my load balancing manually in order
to get more control.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PfSense
http://www.pfsense.org/

 

[Char Jackson]

So a related question:

As it is now, one modem handles 99.5% of the traffic(for example 100s
of megs), the other just a few megs.

Is there any way to get one modem/connection to download one large
file or any other 'Net downloads, while the other modem is used for
other download apps?

If your large downloads always come from the same place, then just
create an entry in your routing table to direct that traffic through
the second modem, leaving the default route on the first modem.

If your large downloads are coming from all over the place, something
like pfSense will work pretty well. Links previously provided.

 

[Char Jackson]

Do the two sit happily together on one DSL line?

Minor point: cable modems don't use DSL lines.

Can you switch between the two in Win7?

If these two points work ok then I'd think your idea would work too. In
fact, if I understand correctly what you've said about the "99.5% and
the other few megs" above, then it is already working to some extent.
And now it's just a matter of adjusting the work-load parameters.

I'm still catching up on the thread, but so far I haven't seen him
explain how he separates business traffic from non-business traffic.
It might be something like one computer connects to one modem and
another computer connects to the other modem, and in that case the
first step would be to network everything so that his primary computer
(at least) can see (and use, after some additional configuration) both
modems.

 

[G. Morgan]

Yeah, I provided the same model. I actually use that puppy and have a bunch
in use elsewhere to take advantage of the built in VPN endpoint. I
originally got it for load-balancing between my cable and DSL lines.

Oh good, an actual review. So have you ever had problems with any that
needed to be replaced?

 

[Char Jackson]

Theoretically, you could come up with a means to shotgun two cable
modems, but I fail to see the point of doing so if both modems are
actively connected to the same cable segment.

There are at least two things to take into consideration. Yes, two
cable modems on the same premises will be physically connected to the
same cable segment, but there is typically far more bandwidth
available on the coax than allowed by the modem, and secondly, most
areas where I've lived have enabled multiple channels for data. That
second point is the key. If the two modems negotiate different data
channels, there will not be any bandwidth contention between them.

If you need more
bandwidth than what one modem currently provides, talk to your local
cableco about an upgraded bandwidth account - much simpler, and less
expensive than paying for two cable modem accounts which still have to
reside on/share bandwith on the samew cable segment.

1. Not necessarily sharing the same bandwidth.
2. There may be other reasons to keep both modem accounts, like
business or tax reasons.

 

[Char Jackson]

Use a Cisco\Linksys RV042 router. It can use 2 WAN connections for either
load balancing or fail-over.

With a bit of configuration, many dozens of popular COTS routers can
do the same thing after installing 3rd party firmware such as dd-wrt.

 

[Char Jackson]

I suspect you meant "No, they're on two separate DSL lines" ;-)

I suspect he meant they are both connected to the coax network, right?
If so, it has nothing to do with DSL.

 

[Char Jackson]

While some manufacturer might have used the term Shotgunned at some point,
the actual term is "bonding."

Here's a search link with lots of information about bonding cable modems. I
haven't looked too deeply but there lots of stuff to look at here:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=bonding+cable+modems&form=OSDSRC

I didn't see anything there that applied to consumers wanting to roll
their own. I think most or all of those links refer to DOCSIS3 and its
channel bonding features.

Fortunately, there are things a person can do on their own...

 

[Char Jackson]

"Load balancing" is the correct term you are looking for as
someone else pointed out.

But, depending on how you want the traffic split up, there's a
possibility it could be done just with setting up some routing.

You say your PC has 2 NICs. Does each cable modem connect
to/through a router? They should. A PC should never be connected
directly to a cable modem.

This most likely can't be done just through routing if the
traffic is always random web-based.

However, let's say for instance, you do day-trading and always
run some s/w package and are connected to their servers 24/7 to
get stock updates and such. Since this is using the same server
all the time, you can easily set up a route so the connection is
made through the cable modem of your choice.

You would set the default gateway of a PC to use one modem for
constantly dynamic connections, like web browsing, and then set
routes for any static servers to use the other modem.

That's the only way you can do it w/o having to either use
another server w/load balancing, or use a rtr that has 2 WAN
connections and does it's own load-balancing.

I think I recall it the thread somewhere someone gave you a
model number for a rtr that does load balancing on two WAN
ports.

Manipulating the routing table is exactly how I did it and how I still
do it when I need to. It's fast, simple, and doesn't require any new
hardware. I'd bet the OP already has everything he needs to implement
it.

 

[Char Jackson]

The problem with the set-up you've got is that it's all coming down one
DSL line.
The two limiting factors with bb speed are 1; ISP delivery speed, and 2;
line max speed.
The modem is very seldom the limiting factor; most are capable of
handling far more than what's actually coming down the line.

In my experience, the modem is most often the limiting factor, or if
you prefer, the modem's config file is the limiting factor. The OP
mentioned downloading from Usenet, so the cable modem is almost
certainly going to be the limiting factor in his case.

Most people would not benefit one iota from having two modems, let alone
two separate accounts. I suspect that the only reason you get any usage
at all logged against the second modem is the account has to be checked
now and again.

I believe he said one is a business account and the other is a
personal account, which explains the different usage levels. I agree
that most people wouldn't benefit from having a second modem, but the
capability is certainly there if they wanted to take advantage of it.

I'd ditch the second account and remove the modem. They're doing more
harm than good, apparently.

What if you had business or tax reasons to keep it?

 

[Char Jackson]

Anyway, speed is not the issue or I'd just up my service level.

We have two cable modems here, which, like, most, are used way under
capacity. So... If brother-in-law's modem is not being used, I'd like
to plug his connection into my main desktop for movie and newsgroup
downloads at much higher spees than I get now.

I get the idea it may not be possible.

Definitely possible! And easy, too, now that you mentioned where
you're downloading from. See the post from DanS. No need for
additional hardware.

 

[Seth]

Oh good, an actual review. So have you ever had problems with any that
needed to be replaced?

Some, but the failure rate hasn't seemed any higher than any other
networking router. Some go for years. Some were blown out and needed
replacing but it could be attributed to a power surge or other that would
have broken any device.

I'm quite happy with them. My only gripe is a few years ago they lowered the
number of VPN tunnels from 50 to 30. I haven't hit either limit but just
wasn't happy to have my options reduced. But that corresponded I believe to
when Cisco took over which I imagine is because if you really are doing that
much they would rather push you to some of their higher priced enterprise
level gear.

I continue to be happy with the RV042 and still continue to buy and
recommend them.

 

[Seth]

With a bit of configuration, many dozens of popular COTS routers can
do the same thing after installing 3rd party firmware such as dd-wrt.

Well this is easier, cost effective and when a distant person has an issue
they can get a new one, put it online and flash a pre-set configuration file
onto it with minimal fuss thus being up in a few hours without me coming
onsite.

I really don't see anything else as having an equivalent ROI to put into
place.

 

[Leon Manfredi]

Minor point: cable modems don't use DSL lines.


I'm still catching up on the thread, but so far I haven't seen him
explain how he separates business traffic from non-business traffic.
It might be something like one computer connects to one modem and
another computer connects to the other modem, and in that case the
first step would be to network everything so that his primary computer
(at least) can see (and use, after some additional configuration) both
modems.

Could it be that one is wireless, and the other regular.
The notebook i have, has two cards, each of which can be controlled,
on or off, by a special keyboard key.. Could it be that his is an
internal wireless job as well?

 

[Char Jackson]

Could it be that one is wireless, and the other regular.
The notebook i have, has two cards, each of which can be controlled,
on or off, by a special keyboard key.. Could it be that his is an
internal wireless job as well?

It wouldn't matter. Either way, he can still do what he's wanting to
do.

 

[G. Morgan]

Some, but the failure rate hasn't seemed any higher than any other
networking router. Some go for years. Some were blown out and needed
replacing but it could be attributed to a power surge or other that would
have broken any device.

I'm quite happy with them. My only gripe is a few years ago they lowered the
number of VPN tunnels from 50 to 30. I haven't hit either limit but just
wasn't happy to have my options reduced. But that corresponded I believe to
when Cisco took over which I imagine is because if you really are doing that
much they would rather push you to some of their higher priced enterprise
level gear.

I continue to be happy with the RV042 and still continue to buy and
recommend them.

Thanks for the review, very helpful!

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Will Win7 work with 2 cable modems simultaneously? In our house, we
have two cable modems& two accounts, one for office and one for home.

My motherboard has two active functioning Ethernet cards.

Will Win7 work with both simultaneously to achieve "double download
speed?" I remember back in the days of dial-up, if people had two
phone lines and two modems they could "shotgun" their connection to
double speed.

Any ideas?

I found the following information about load balancing/bonding modems. I
have not tried it, but you can:

Multiple Internet Connections in Windows 7, NLB - Microsoft Answers
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...ws-7-nlb/ffd5cb00-7330-452c-8f72-bb05fef7dbc5

Yousuf Khan