load balancing

[rickyleung]

is it possible to do a load balancing on 2 wifi connection on win 7 pro?
thankyou

 

[torrentg]

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT\Parameters]
Value Name: RandomAdapter
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Vale Data: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)

Create that.

There are 3rd party software solutions too.

 

[H2SO4]

Possible? Yes.
Practical? Not really.

It only becomes viable if your machine frequently communicates with one or more specific servers. For example, you could rig it so that all communication with FTP.SOMEDOMAIN.COM goes via NIC1, and everything else goes via NIC2. However, since most users' patterns are far more random, it becomes challenging to come up with the specific set of rules for breaking up the traffic into two separate groups.

Another way to think about it is this: if you can think of a way to describe, in technical terms, exactly what traffic should go via which interface, then it's possible (for you).

@torrentg: I'm afraid that won't work. It doesn't do what many people think it does. If you're interested in the specifics:

http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/27858-load-balancing.html#post298608

 

[torrentg]

@torrentg: I'm afraid that won't work. It doesn't do what many people think it does. If you're interested in the specifics:

I learn something new each day. Thanks a lot for clear explanation.

 

[pparks1]

What H2SO4 says is spot on. In order to effectively use 2 different connections, you have build in routes on your machine to funnel traffic over 1 nic versus the other.

It might be possible to bind 1 NIC to a particular application, thus this application would always use 1 card and everything else could use the other.

However, I find most people are simply trying to double their bandwidth and instead of getting 15MB/s to the Internet, they are looking to get 30MB/s...and having 2 connections like this just isn't going to do that as people hope.

 

[kegobeer]

What H2SO4 says is spot on. In order to effectively use 2 different connections, you have build in routes on your machine to funnel traffic over 1 nic versus the other.

It might be possible to bind 1 NIC to a particular application, thus this application would always use 1 card and everything else could use the other.

However, I find most people are simply trying to double their bandwidth and instead of getting 15MB/s to the Internet, they are looking to get 30MB/s...and having 2 connections like this just isn't going to do that as people hope.

I say - get a T1 or T3 line! That extra bandwidth and speed is certainly worth the $1K to $3K per month, right?

 

[pparks1]

I say - get a T1 or T3 line! That extra bandwidth and speed is certainly worth the $1K to $3K per month, right?

You would need to get something more than a T1. A T1 is only 1.544Mb/s. Most home users with broadband have considerably more speed than this. The only real advantage here is that you get full speeds in both directions.

 

[kegobeer]

Direct line, no "garden hose" effect, much lower ping (network delay) and packet loss compared to cable/DSL... that all adds up to a faster connection in real-life tests. There's a reason why data centers don't use cable/DSL. Of course, for the typical home user, the benefits of T1/T3 don't outweigh the costs. For mission essential applications, T1 and T3 are the way to go.

Of course, you realize this was all in jest - hence the winking smiley, right? And I did misrepresent the facts - I should not have said bandwidth, since cable has a much higher bandwidth than a T1 or T3. And in today's tech savvy world, a T1 is basically a waste (except for slow cable internet subscribers like me) - but hey, I live in the past! Token-ring all the way, baby!

 

[rickyleung]

so software load balancing is kind of impossible

 

[induguy04]

Hey, I've been looking for a way to load balance two WAN connections for weeks. I finally found a solution here:
Multi WAN Load Balancing under Windows with PfSense | Bora's Place
Basically you have to run a virtual machine loaded with a UNIX based router operating system. You allow it to access both NIC's, while preventing windows from using either. Then set up a virtual NIC which is served by the VM, and configure windows to route all traffic through it.
I know it seems like more trouble than it's worth, but it really does work. My Bittorent speed has increased from a maximum of 13.6Mbps to at least 21.6Mbps. You can test if it is working by going to a website that tells you your IP. If you hit refresh a few times, the listed IP will change between the two WAN IP's in your setup.

 

[pparks1]

Direct line, no "garden hose" effect, much lower ping (network delay) and packet loss compared to cable/DSL... that all adds up to a faster connection in real-life tests. There's a reason why data centers don't use cable/DSL. Of course, for the typical home user, the benefits of T1/T3 don't outweigh the costs. For mission essential applications, T1 and T3 are the way to go.

Generally speaking, datacenters use the T1/T3/DS3/OC12's because they get full bandwidth in both directions and SLA'S (service level agreements) from the providers.

Generally speaking, just because it's a T1/T3 doesn't mean it will have lower pings....and cable models/DSL should NOT be seeing packet loss. I've been on a 2 way cable modem for about 12 years now and when I experience packet loss...it's a call to the ISP to get it fixed.

With the exception of nice upload...I don't think hardly any home user would be happy with a T1 over a cable modem that provides 10+mbps bandwidth.

 

[induguy04]

Another note...
Windows 7 will in fact use to two separate WAN connections. It doesn't, however, do any active load balancing (as far as i can tell). I think it routes traffic through one connection or the other based on the IP it's connecting to. For example, if I visit whatismyip.com, it will always show the same IP address. But if i go to a different site like ip-adress.com, it will display my other IP.

Also, online bandwidth tests will not show the results of load balancing. When you start a test, it establishes a connection with only one of your internet connections, and uses that for the entire test. To truly see the result of load balancing WAN's, you have to use something like Bittorrent, which establishes hundreds of connections. This will allow your load balancing setup to distribute the connections between your two internet connections.
Finally... Whether you want to set up active load balancing with a VM, or simply let windows manage the two connections, you will need to make sure each connection is on a different subnet. So if you have two routers, configure one to operate on 192.168.1.XXX and the other 192.168.0.XXX. Configure both NIC's manually. If you rely on DHCP, they will both connect to the same network.

 

[BalosX]

I'm also looking for a solution on how to load balance several connection. Only problem is that my setup is somehow unique to the look of it.
I got one Fiber connection 20/20Mbit. But it runs with PPPOE. Even to start with this, its really rare for such connection. Now on the top of it. I can call out as many PPPOE sessions I like but only to a total speed of 100/100MBit. 20Mbit x 5 if I want to stretch out the usefulness. However I can call out even more sessions but the combined speed can never go over 100Mbit for what its worth. I just 1 NIC thats why I cant do any specified NIC routing per app. Well I could use routers, but then I had to use 4-5 routers for each connection so gonna stay away from that options.

I could never figure out PFSnese and Vmware routing either.

Anyway. Right now I'm simple using some PS2 script to call out pppoe sessions. The script find out my newly assigned IP addresses automatically and binds/routes to specified IP address. This is extremely useful when downloading from Newsgrups which allow more IPs to be connected at the same time. Getting speeds of about 10500kB/s maximum here.
It does work with local country torrenting also when I bind specific ISPs to a selected PPPOE connection. Ofcourse I can not do this worldwide so here is where it stops with torrenting.
For worldwide torrenting I use Vmware and 3 Virtual XP machines.

 

[atmosfear]

Network Load Balance Script

Meni's Blog: Network load balancing using Windows 7

A small Vscript for Network Balance. I have tried and it's pretty cool.
You may need to do little modifications to adjust according to your needs.
The video explains the basic principle.

Have Fun