Two Internet Connections

marcphisto

Wondering if anyone has done something like this.

The internet at work is cripplingly slow and in a discussion with the boss we wondered about the possibility of getting a second internet connection in to the building, another line and another router etc.

My guess is that this will have massive implications for the internal network and I'm not quite sure how it would work to be honest.

We have a pretty ad hoc internal network which is a mixture of Mac's and PC's. It just has a patch panel and the dns and dhcp is controlled by the netopia router.

If anyone can point me towards what might be required to check this out or have any experience in trying this I would appreciate hearing how they got on.

FruitLover

http://www.pfsense.com/

Load-balancing proxy.

You should also look at why your internet connection is so slow. Are people browsing Youtube or downloading torrents all day?

sicruise

You could get a router with 2 WAN ports and as the previous user said use load balancing on connections. Also QoS is useful to make sure everyone gets their fair share of bandwidth

BaconZombie

+1 for pfSense

I'm running it on a site hosting ~350 users, mainly for filtering, logging and analysis.

For your setup all you'll need is a entry-range Server with a min. of 3 network cards {4 or more would be better}.

It's a nicely stripped-down and hardened BSD system so secure and stable.

FruitLover wrote: »

http://www.pfsense.com/

Load-balancing proxy.

You should also look at why your internet connection is so slow. Are people browsing Youtube or downloading torrents all day?

SeanW

If you're using ADSL broadband and getting piss poor performance, there is the added possibility that you are suffering from excessive contention. That is, for each given line, it must be shared with a number of subscribers, 48:1 in the case of Eircom (and reseller) 1MB and 3MB lines, while in the case of 7MB subscribers, it's 24:1.

A better plan of action therefore might be to step up your service to either fibre or cable if its available.

If your problem is being caused by abuse of bandwidth, then check out one of the filtering options. If it's caused by contention, getting a second line would be like doubling-down on a lousy hand in 21.

marcphisto

We are using adsl with a 7MB line. My guess is that it's a mixture of high contention and a crappy line.

It's not a case of people youtubing or torrenting. We are a fairly small company (9 people) so the speed issues are a real annoyance.

This is our best option for broadband here, there are no real alternatives at the moment. :mad:

Just as a matter of interest, would the internal network traffic also have to go through the router?

accensi0n

marcphisto wrote: »

Just as a matter of interest, would the internal network traffic also have to go through the router?

Nah, why? Are there issues using internal servers etc as well?

And how do you know that people aren't youtubing, torrenting etc?

marcphisto

accensi0n wrote: »

Nah, why? Are there issues using internal servers etc as well?

No issues internally but we had a survey done and the expert told us that all internal network traffic was going through the router and it was interfering with our internet speeds. I doubted this so I was wondering if it was or not.

fiacha

marcphisto wrote: »

No issues internally but we had a survey done and the expert told us that all internal network traffic was going through the router and it was interfering with our internet speeds. I doubted this so I was wondering if it was or not.

Unless you are using a separate switch to connect your hosts to the ADSL router, it will be handling all of the network traffic. The internal stuff being switched and the external routed out to the Internet.

I've never worked with the Netopia boxes, but I'd imagine that they are capable of handling both within reason. What kind of applications are hosted internally ?

FruitLover

marcphisto wrote: »

the expert told us that all internal network traffic was going through the router and it was interfering with our internet speeds

It may impact internal throughput to some extent (if the network is heavily used), but I doubt it would have a significant effect on internet connectivity.

marcphisto

FruitLover wrote: »

It may impact internal throughput to some extent (if the network is heavily used), but I doubt it would have a significant effect on internet connectivity.

thanks, that's what I would have thought but we're getting someone else to look at it to see if we can improve things.

Dardania

It could be problem with your telephone line eg the copper is old, or the distance to the exchange is long. Would you be able to have a look at your DSL connection statistic - it should be accessible at:

http://192.168.1.254/indexExptStatRES.htm?adslRES.htm

MunsterCycling

Also if possible get a second WAN connection using a different technology to the first, gives you failover

johnmd

Zywall USG 200 series,pfsense if you have a spare machine and three network cards and loads of other firewalls (sonic,linksys,fortigate,cisco etc) are available with dual/muiltiple WAN/LAN ports.
Netopias are just entry level devices you have no way of controlling the QOS of traffic entering or leaving your lan,also check for an infected machine on the lan sending out junk etc,or as the folks above have said youtube,internet radio etc.
You can purchase firewall devices for a few hundred euro online and they are not overly complex to configure if you have some networking knowledge.
Also a second contention free pipe or wireless (wimax is apparently available in certain areas from imagine).
At least with a proper device you can see what is going on in terms of network traffic leaving the LAN.
Also get yourself a seperate switch,if your firewall is also acting as the switch for the entire network,otherwise you will find yourself without internet and an internal network access if this device fails.
10/100 MB switch 24 port are very cheap.

marcphisto

Dardania wrote: »

It could be problem with your telephone line eg the copper is old, or the distance to the exchange is long. Would you be able to have a look at your DSL connection statistic - it should be accessible at:

http://192.168.1.254/indexExptStatRES.htm?adslRES.htm

Line State Up
Modulation DMT
Data Path Interleave


Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 7616 672
SN Margin (dB) 15.80 12.00
Line Attenuation (dB) 7.50 4.50
CRC Errors 0 0

Dardania

marcphisto wrote: »

Line State Up
Modulation DMT
Data Path Interleave


Downstream Upstream
Max Allowed Speed (kbps) 7616 672
SN Margin (dB) 15.80 12.00
Line Attenuation (dB) 7.50 4.50
CRC Errors 0 0

Looking at your stats above, it seems that there's no real problem with your DSL line as such.

To be honest, provided your ISP at the far end is okay (I'm guessing eircom, and they should be fairly alright) the problem probably originates within your own network.

Unless people are knowingly browsing youtue / downloading bittorrents all day as Fruitlover suggested, it's possible that some computer is hogging all the bandwidth from everyone else, perhaps as a virus/malware bot - like johnmcd said. Do all your PCs have their antivirus up to date / windows defender installed etc.?

Regarding internal traffic across your LAN affecting the internet connection - I wouldn't say it would have a huge impact, similar to fruitlover...have you noticed any slowdown in internal traffic?

Perhaps a way for you to iteratively test what PC could be causing the slowdown would be to switch on only one computer (I'd suggest one of them macs) and run speedtest.net. then introduce each PC, one at a time afterwards, and see if the speedtest is being affected. If it is, it means one of the PCs is part of a botnet. If the speedtest doesn't slow down, users are hoging your bandwidth.

Another thing that's occurred to me - you say 9 computers, hanging off a Netopia, and you don't appear to have a network switch, so you must be using a combination of the built in switch in the netopia, and wi-fi? If you're using wi-fi, maybe it's not properly secured, and someone is piggy backing... the way to check: go to:

http://192.168.1.254/indexExptStatRES.htm?lanstatRES.htm

and make sure there aren't any computers there you don't recognise...