Lance Linder wrote:
> Hello,
> 
>  
> 
> I am going to try this again? for some reason the last post I made never 
> showed up so here is another round.
> 
>  
> 
> First off I am new to the list and relatively new to Linux so I am sorry 
> if my questions don?t make sense.  But what better way to learn than ask 
> a bunch of stupid questions  ;)
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> In my situation phone lines and dial up connections are relatively cheap 
> but broadband connections of any kind are either non existent or 
> ridiculously expensive.  What I am hoping to be able to do is set up a 
> Linux server/router/firewall for a small LAN of say 4+ desktops.  I 
> would like to have 2+ modems connected to the Linux box and run some 
> software on this box that will balance a load across multiple modems.
> 

yes this is possible using mp (or mppp) protocol, but your isp needs to 
support it.  sometimes it's referred to as shotgun.  I believe that pppd 
has support for mpp directly now.  If not a guy in germany has a patch 
to support (this can be found via google pretty easily).  This solution 
increases total bandwidth.

There was a hardware solution that did load balancing across multiple 
modems and went to multiple accounts (not mpp) which didn't require isp 
support (just mulitple accounts).  This was put out by the company that 
makes webramps (don't remember name of the company) and it actually 
might be in the newer webramps.  This one allocates a max of 56k per 
connection stream.  I believe this same box could also do mp (mppp).

I would also look at the linux documentation project 
(http://www.linuxdoc.org).  I'd bet they'd have information on mp (mppp) 
setup under linux.


Hope this helps,

Eric