pda net and isp merging

[rob19841]

is there a way to connect my pdanet modem through my phone (tether) and my regular isp to combine internet connections?

 

[Solandri]

There are two ways to combine multiple Internet connections (well, three but one is not very interesting for personal use).

- Fallback. This is the not interesting one. You use only one connection, and if it ever goes down your Internet automatically switches to the other connection. Usually it's companies which need reliable Internet that do this.

- Load balancing. Internet requests get sent over both connections. But any one request can only go over one connection. So if you're playing an online game while download a file, the download could come over one connection while the game's traffic could go over the other connection. But the download can't go over both connections (two downloads could go over both connections - one per connection). This is fairly simple to set up - there are dedicated routers you can buy which do it.

- Bonding. The two connections get combined into one. Unlike with load balancing, a single request can go over both connections. So if you're downloading a file, it can be downloaded at the speed of connection 1 + connection 2. This one is a lot harder to set up.

• 
  ■ The easiest way is if both connections are provided by the same ISP. The ISP can then install hardware at both your end and their end which will bond the two connections into one. DSL companies do this all the time for businesses who need speeds faster than a single DSL line. Unfortunately this tends to be rather expensive.
  ■ The other way is DIY. You need to set up a server on your end, and you need a server at the other end (a VPS usually works). The two servers communicate with each other over both Internet connections simultaneously. The remote server acts as a VPN, and your local server sends all your Internet traffic through that remote server. If you're downloading a file, it gets sent to your remote server, which breaks it up into two data streams over your two Internet connections, your local server gets both streams and pieces them back together into a single data stream, which gets sent to your computer as a download. Unfortunately, this too is expensive. You need to pay for the remote server (VPS) which is usually fairly cheap. But you also have to pay for 3x the bandwidth (once from your local server to the remote server, twice at the remote server - one incoming, one outgoing).

So yeah you can do this. But be prepared to pay extra, and do a lot of work setting it up. Unless you desperately need the extra bandwidth or you love tinkering with Linux and VPNs, or you're made of money and can pay someone to set it up for you (there are companies which sell equipment that does bonding - Mushroom Networks is the big one), I would suggest giving up on the idea and just living with a single connection at a time.