multiple internet connections into a single switch

[happy57110]

so i was just wondering that if i just use on ethernet cable for input of internet into my switch eill plugging in too many computers into the switch max out the bandwidth off the cable? if so can i combine two ethernet cables into the switch and double the bandwidth of my internet connection to the switch so that i can use the connection over more devices without maxing out the bandwidith of the cable? is not how do i increase the bandwidith of the internet connection that is coming out of my switch so that i can use the switch to split the internet connection to more devices?

[tt2468]

So you gave us no details whatsoever about your setup, that is almost always necessary on a tech forum, so we can't help you much right now. You cannot speed up your connection by plugging in multiple cables. You would probably break your network due to loops.

[FullBoat]

If I get what you're talking about, you're talking about bonding your WAN connection. A switch won't do that very easily. Best bet is to get a router that has more than 1 WAN port, and bond them together. Most cheaper routers only have 1 port. But, some Cisco's have dual WAN ports, and then the LAN ports. And, you should be able to get them cheapish on eBay.

[mariushm]

It's easily done with a computer as a router (one network card for each incoming internet connection) and one network card going into a switch.

The software on the computer then acts as a gateway/router and sends requests from the switch to various internet connections as desired (or in round-robin fashion, or where the connection is  less loaded like in a load balancer scenario)

This still wouldn't allow you to transfer a file through two internet connections at the same time, you'd have one connection per one internet link.

Also, normally it's a wise idea for the computer to "remember" that a connection was made from an IP connected to the switch to a particular remote IP through one of the internet connections, and then future connections for some time should reuse that internet connections instead of others.

For example, think of you logging to this forum and you're authenticated as connection from one IP and one ISP and when you write something and hit submit reply, the router creates your connection through another ISP you connected to your router ... the forum may think they message is posted by an anonymous user (not logged in) because it doesn't remember anyone previously logging in from that 2nd ISP IP address, and therefore refuse to accept the message.