Can you combine network connections to increase bandwidth?

kryptobs2000 · 2010-07-26 02:19:10

I'm not planning to do it, at least not currently, but the idea crossed my mind. I did a bit of research and it seemed possible, though largely the responses seemed very mix. Based on my knowledge of tcp/ip, though I haven't put much thought into it either, it doesn't seem too feasible, but I haven't investigated it too much either. If I did do it I'd create a dedicated box for it which would essentially replace a router.

Whether this is possible or not I will likely do that anyways when I can afford to do so, both for the experience and enjoyment of it, as well as being able to offload other services to it. I don't care if someone can tell me how to do it, mostly just wondering if it's at all possible. If it would require programming even that's fine, just another project to add to the list; obviously I don't want to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to though.

edit: Pretty much I'd only want to do this with file downloads via browser and bittorrent. I'm sure creating a custom bittorrent client I could do it easy enough since the files are downloaded in pieces and from different peers, but I'd like a lower level than that, which would be more general. With a file download I'm a bit more questionable though, is it possible to request to download the last half of a file for instance?

Last edited by kryptobs2000 (2010-07-26 02:22:15)

fukawi2 · 2010-07-26 04:17:06

You can do it with local LAN connectioned just fine -- it's called Bonding. There's a kernel module for it, and lots of info on Google.

Bonding internet connections is a whole different kettle of fish. You can load balance TCP/UDP *connections*, but not individual packets.

Last edited by fukawi2 (2010-07-26 04:17:29)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-07-26 02:19:10

Can you combine network connections to increase bandwidth?

#2 2010-07-26 04:17:06

Re: Can you combine network connections to increase bandwidth?

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