Internet over LAN Teaming?

[jim]

I've got myself a Netgear WGR614, working happily to provide me with a subnet underneath the main uni internet connection.

Thing is, they've been very crafty and given us 10MBps ethernet to prevent us from using too much bandwidth. However, I've got two sockets on the wall, both functioning independently, so theoretically I should be able to team them and get 20MBps downstream.

Question is, is it possible? I'm guessing that getting the router to team them would require a new, expensive router, so that's probably not an option.

If that is indeed true, how about my desktop? Could I theoretically use the dual gigabit LAN ports on the back of my PC to good use? One LAN connection would be treated as home, connected to the router, while the other would be treated as public, connected to the wall. The question is A) whether that would cause connectivity issues to 192.168.x.x addresses because of the double networks going on, and B) is my PC capable of using both connections simultaneously for the same data requests.

[Splash]

Short answer: no

Long answer: possibly, but not with the kit that you have. You'd need to be looking at some sort of load balancing (I know that Jay wrote a guide to how he built his own router with pfSense to do this), and even then there's every chance that the Uni might not be too happy with you doing this.

In all honesty though: what do you need more than 10MBps for?

[jim]

Nothing particularly, just thought it might be nice for Steam and the odd big download where I'm maxing out the connection at 1MBps (typo earlier, should've said 10Mbps ethernet). Also video streams seem to be a bit sluggish still, was hoping that a bit of load balancing might speed it up a touch.

If there was an easy way of doing it, like in the drivers or something, then for the sake of 15 seconds plugging a new cable in and 2 minutes reconfiguring the drivers, it would've been worthwhile.

More effort than that, you're probably right

[badass]

Nothing particularly, just thought it might be nice for Steam and the odd big download where I'm maxing out the connection at 1MBps (typo earlier, should've said 10Mbps ethernet). Also video streams seem to be a bit sluggish still, was hoping that a bit of load balancing might speed it up a touch.

If there was an easy way of doing it, like in the drivers or something, then for the sake of 15 seconds plugging a new cable in and 2 minutes reconfiguring the drivers, it would've been worthwhile.

More effort than that, you're probably right

True load balancing across multiple links requires devices at both ends to have the same protocols enabled. You can increase throughput on multiple simultaneous downloads but TBH it's not worth the effort. 10 Mbit internet is plenty for now.

[spoon_]

Without the Netgear in the loop definitely, you can just bridge connections without any problems.

[Kumagoro]

Get another computer

[Georgy291]

the second socket is not ethernet. I had exactly the same thing in my room. The second socket is for the phone. I know it sounds a bit wierd but thats exactly what its used for. Since the uni will have its own switch board etc they run phone line via that socket.

[jim]

It's definitely ethernet, I've used them both simultaneously - just not teamed.