Can I use these two connections simultaneously?

Hi,

I live in an area which is covered by an unsecured wi-fi network which
I'm allowed to use. Incidentally, I also have a private internet
connection (I hope you got the concept). Now I want to use both of
these connections for browsing and/or downloading.

My private connection can be accessed through LAN wire. I was told
that I cannot utilize both of these connections and that only one of
them will be active at a time. What I wanted to know was whether can
I, through virtualization, run another OS which might connect to this
wired connection (while my primary OS connects to the wireless) (or
vice-versa) so that I could download on my wired connection, while
browsing on the wireless one?

If there is any other way to kind-of "combine" these connections or
anything, any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Rahul

Rahul <rahuldj@gmail.com> hath wroth:

>I live in an area which is covered by an unsecured wi-fi network which
>I'm allowed to use. Incidentally, I also have a private internet
>connection (I hope you got the concept). Now I want to use both of
>these connections for browsing and/or downloading.
>
>My private connection can be accessed through LAN wire. I was told
>that I cannot utilize both of these connections and that only one of
>them will be active at a time. What I wanted to know was whether can
>I, through virtualization, run another OS which might connect to this
>wired connection (while my primary OS connects to the wireless) (or
>vice-versa) so that I could download on my wired connection, while
>browsing on the wireless one?
>
>If there is any other way to kind-of "combine" these connections or
>anything, any suggestions are welcome.

Yes, sorta:
<http://www.edimax.com/en/produce_list.php?pl1_id=3&pl2_id=9>
See the "Multi-Homing & Multi-WAN Broadband Router (USA only)" at
bottom of page. These allow you to connect one or more LAN's to two
or more WAN (broadband) connections. The router will dynamically
balance the load between the various WAN connections.

However, there's a catch. It will balance the load but not combine or
split the load. For example, if you're furiously downloading a file
from a single web site, the router will only connect one of the WAN
ports to this web site, and you'll be going no faster than one WAN
connection can handle. It will NOT divide the download between the
two (or more ports).

The same applies to outgoing bandwidth. If you're uploading a file,
it will only go via one of the WAN ports.

However, if you're downloading multiple files, from multiple sites, at
the same time, the router will split the load between the multiple
sites. Same if you have multiple computers or users on the LAN side.
Each will get whatever bandwidth is available on the least used WAN
port.

Worse, some load balancing routers are rather crude. Instead of
dynamically and continuously balancing the traffic based on usage,
they just assign a give user an unused WAN port per session, and leave
it like that until they disconnect. Check the theory of operation
before buying.

So, a load balancing router is not a perfect way to "combine" multiple
WAN ports, but it might be good enough for whatever you're doing. If
you want to really combine the two WAN connections so they act as a
single IP address, they will need to come from the same ISP, and you
will need to arrange for "channel bonding" from the ISP. That's
probably not going to happen.


--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Rahul <rahuldj@gmail.com> wrote:
> I live in an area which is covered by an unsecured wi-fi network which
> I'm allowed to use. Incidentally, I also have a private internet
> connection (I hope you got the concept). Now I want to use both of
> these connections for browsing and/or downloading.

> My private connection can be accessed through LAN wire. I was told
> that I cannot utilize both of these connections and that only one of
> them will be active at a time.

How "private" is the private connection? I don't get the concept.
What, exactly, were you told about simultaneous connections?

One Wifi and one LAN connection can both be active simultaneously.
Which one is used for a particular connection is determined by the route
table. If this is Windows, "route /print" will show some route
information.

If your "private" network is one set of addresses, or provides access to a
certain set of addresses, and the WiFi is a generic internet connection,
you should be able to reach sites via both networks.

If they both have access to the same addresses, the LAN will be preferred
by default. Have a look at the route /print output for more clues.

Is there a VPN on the "private" network? If there is, enabling the VPN
might block access to the other network.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5