Merging two Routers

[thebilalfakhouri]

I have two internet sources, every source have its own router, how I can merge the two routers together by maybe a third router or a networking device (not by using a software on Windows or etc..)?
I am looking for a higher internet connection yeah, I want the two routers to act like one, any tips/help ?

Recently our ISP enabled internet packages system per month, from Unlimited data @ 8Mbps (in my case) to 175GB per month @ 8Mbps , if the 175GB run out , the speed drops to 1Mbps until the new month, a pain in the a** 

So merging two 4Mbps gives total of 280 GB, I know my ISP is stupid enough to do this very limited data packages in 2020, this the case now, some help will help

[WereCatf]

19 minutes ago, thebilalfakhouri said:

I have two internet sources, every source have its own router, how I can merge the two routers together by maybe a third router or a networking device (not by using a software on Windows or etc..)?
I am looking for a higher internet connection yeah, I want the two routers to act like one, any tips/help ?

You'd need a router capable of doing load-balancing, like e.g. by building one yourself and installing pfSense on it and then reading the documentation at https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/routing/index.html

[mtz_federico]

As @WereCatf said, you need a router (I would use pfsense) but you cant join two 4Mbps connections to make 8Mbps, you can only balance stuff between them (e.g.you could set certain clients to use different networks and/or different services or ports use different networks)

[Windows7ge]

LTT has a 3+ year old video on a piece of equipment they used to bond two Internet connections into 1 pipe. It might be an option for you if pfSense is a bust.

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

10 hours ago, Windows7ge said:

LTT has a 3+ year old video on a piece of equipment they used to bond two Internet connections into 1 pipe. It might be an option for you if pfSense is a bust.

 

That's the proper way to do it, also the expensive way as they are effectively a third ISP.

[Windows7ge]

20 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

That's the proper way to do it, also the expensive way as they are effectively a third ISP.

I don't understand why so many people have 2 ISPs to begin with. I love the concept of redundancy/fail-over but trying to bond them to get higher speeds I think could be prone to complications IMO.

[Alex Atkin UK]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

I don't understand why so many people have 2 ISPs to begin with. I love the concept of redundancy/fail-over but trying to bond them to get higher speeds I think could be prone to complications IMO.

I have plain load balancing with pfSense, had zero issues with it.   Even my bank doesn't seem to care that my IP switches, although apparently some do.

I believe its bad practice to build websites that depend on your IP not changing because some ISPs in the past would actually switch IPs periodically.

[Windows7ge]

5 minutes ago, Alex Atkin UK said:

I have plain load balancing with pfSense, had zero issues with it.   Even my bank doesn't seem to care that my IP switches, although apparently some do.

I believe its bad practice to build websites that depend on your IP not changing because some ISPs in the past would actually switch IPs periodically.

I've been told Cloudflare has a tendency to not like this so it's more than just banks but if you've had no trouble with just load balancing that's good to hear.

 

To my knowledge a home users IP can change several times a day. It's up to the whim of the ISP's network. Since IPv4 has been fully saturated though from my experience I've maintained the same IPv4 address for years now. IPv6 is always changing though.

[Alex Atkin UK]

39 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

I've been told Cloudflare has a tendency to not like this so it's more than just banks but if you've had no trouble with just load balancing that's good to hear.

 

To my knowledge a home users IP can change several times a day. It's up to the whim of the ISP's network. Since IPv4 has been fully saturated though from my experience I've maintained the same IPv4 address for years now. IPv6 is always changing though.

I've used a few Cloudflare proxied sites and its never complained.  I have more problems with VPNs where sites tell you to get lost.

 

The biggest drawback is you can't combine uploads, they just hit a random WAN, but both ISPs are more-or-less equal on upload speed so it doesn't matter too much - just would be nice for the one time I upload a video to get double the speed.  Although there's always a chance if I upload two things at once I would have one on each connection.   Its a fun lottery.

 

The important thing is it works superb for Steam, Windows and Xbox downloads.  PSN tends to have shitty servers that don't always hit the speed of one connection as it is though.

Now actual gaming, that's another issue.  I think it trips up GTA Online sometimes, but I don't spend long sessions on it because everyones a sniping asshole.  Don't really care for online gaming these days anyway, I don't find playing games with strangers fun like the old days of Burnout 3 when you could choose a lobby with civilised human beings in it.

[thebilalfakhouri]

Thanks all!
a Router with multi-WAN support and Load Balancing support is a cool solution 

[beersykins]

On 2/28/2020 at 10:29 PM, Alex Atkin UK said:

I have plain load balancing with pfSense, had zero issues with it.   Even my bank doesn't seem to care that my IP switches, although apparently some do.

It might depend on how the router keeps track of your flow.  I’ve seen a lot of behavior like in a Cisco environment where you might change the default gateway route mid flight but the connection is the same in CEF/kernel until your session naturally expires, using the previous path.  

[Spyder1384]

There are a number of routers with DUAL/Multi-WAN capabilities. I personally have an ASUS GT-AC5300. The configuration allows me to enable and specify the DUAL-LAN type and port(s).

 

Try to keep in mind though that this will not increase your throughput. You can specify it for load-balancing or fail-over. I'm not sure how this would react in the event of running out of your monthly allotted data as far as trying to use your secondary WAN as the primary due to speed limitations. This would still definitely help though if you have enough devices using the connectivity at once on a regular basis.