Multiple WAN connections all through one router with load balancing?

[ian.gardocki]

I am setting up a network in my dormatory for myself and about 20 friends. about half of us have DSL connections at the moment. Is there a way to have all the DSL connections (possibly run through cheap home DSL routers) all connect into a cisco router that then acts as the gateway for our entire network? woudl it be possible for each internet request to go out over the connection that has the least load AND also be able to use some sort of load balancing, so one user cant use all of the outgoing/incoming bandwidth?

If you have any ideas please let me know

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello Ian,

per-user bandwidth limiting would not be a problem, you could use e.g. CBWFQ and assign a class to each user. The problem is to get all your 20 DSL routers terminated in one single device, for that you would need something like a DSL concentrator, which is usually carrier-class stuff, and definitely not cheap...

I guess if your goal is to limit bandwidth per user, one would have to have a look at the DSL router(s) you are using. Cisco is pretty good with QoS (and bandwidth limiting), I don't know about other brands. Which routers are your users using ?

Regards,

GP

[mark.mcsherry]

Hi Ian,

To get this working, you would either need to use something like PPP to bundle your links together or use a dynamic protocol.

In bundling the links, you could make them appear as one link, with a single IP address each end and the router takes care of distributing the load. To implement this though, you would need control of both sides of the link, or be terminating with one carrier who is happy to implement this for you.

The second is to use a dynamic protocol (such as eigrp, ospf, etc), which can build up a map of the network to router from point a to point b. For this you also need control of the link.

I can't think of another method, unless you can control the link from both sides. Your other option it to pool your money and buy a larger link or a leased line. If you bought a leased line or two, your carrier would be more than happy to talk to you about routing over that, but generally you're looking at mega bucks for that.

HTH,

Mark