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Not really sure where to post this...it's 'kinda' networking :S
I have a problem, it's just i'd really like to know if it's possible or not ,but this would help if somebody knew more.
A company(Nildram) offers bonded adsl connections ,which give a significant boost to speed, but to utilise this an expensive router is needed (way to expensive). I was wondering if it was possible ,say to crack open 2 modems and with a bit of work come out with ur own router? Is this a viable solution? If it worked it'd save some big £££'s

Will they even sell the service without the router, or do you have to buy them as a package deal?

I seriously doubt you'd be able to do this by modding the modem firmware. Something needs to intelligently interleave the IP traffic evenly between the two DSL lines... AFAIK this means you either need a modem with 2 DSL ports on it, or an external device that connects to both modems simultaneously (i.e. a router). Even if it is doable in theory, you'll probably need some fairly sophisticated embedded development tools, and detailed design specs on the modem hardware, since this is likely to be a non-trivial modification.

If you're really determined, your best bet would probably be to get a pair of DSL modems and a Linux box with 3 NICs, obtain the technical specs for how the ISP does this "bonding", and start hacking away...

Looking at their web site I would guess they are using either some sort of link aggregation, similar to 802.3ad but for adsl. Or and equal cost multipath ospf to do it.

DrDoomed wrote:

I was wondering if it was possible ,say to crack open 2 modems and with a bit of work come out with ur own router?

Nope. Not at all. What would be possible would be to convert a computer with 3 NICs to do something similar via load balancing.

The other thing I was thinking about today is that this may require seperate phone lines as well. I'm no expert on ADSL but I would think that two DSL modems on the same line would interfere with each other.

redeye wrote:

The other thing I was thinking about today is that this may require seperate phone lines as well. I'm no expert on ADSL but I would think that two DSL modems on the same line would interfere with each other.

Definitely. The whole point of a "bonded" connection is that you have two (or more) modems, and a phone line for each. It is essentially RAID-0 for your Internet connection.

just brew it! wrote:

It is essentially RAID-0 for your Internet connection.

SMP would actually provide a better metaphor, at least for pseudo-bonded DIY solutions. A single connection isn't going to increase speed unless you have specialized hardware at both ends (which their bonded service probably provides, unless they are misusing the name). However, multiple connections at once can fill both pipes regardless of how they are connected at the other end.