load balance ordinary traffic

[Barney Wolff]

On Thu, May 15, 2003 at 04:18:17PM -0400, Justin C. Sherrill wrote:
> I have a FreeBSD 4.8-stable machine with multiple network interfaces.  One
> goes to a local network (192.168.*) and the other goes to the Internet via
> cable modem.  This machine does NAT for the 192.168.* network.
> 
> I'd like to add more Ethernet cards to this computer and connect them to
> other cable modems, thereby providing more bandwidth to the 192.168.*
> network.  Where can I look for more information on how to do this? 
> Specifically, the software changes (with ipfw?) to "concatenate" the
> connection.

This is unlikely to work with cable modems.  You're already competing
with your immendiate neighbors for a fixed pie of cable bandwidth.

You have a better shot with DSL, if you pay for multiple DSL lines.
In that case, you can set it up so some of your local hosts go to each
DSL link, by ipfw and natd rules.  However, what you can't do is have
a single TCP connection on a single local host use both external lines.
That would require at a minimum cooperation from your ISP which they
are most unlikely to provide.

-- 
Barney Wolff         http://www.databus.com/bwresume.pdf
I'm available by contract or FT, in the NYC metro area or via the 'Net.