Hi I recently got 1.5 gigabit internet, but my old router can only do 1 gigabit. I have a spare PC that I can turn into router, but 10 gigabit hardware is so expensive even when buying used. (ISP’s router has a single 10 gigabit port)
Is there any way to bond two 1 gigabit links from the modem that my ISP provides? SFP+ nic is not an option for me as the router that was provided to me doesn’t have a removable SFP+ module, it’s integrated into modem itself.
Basically I don’t care that I will not be able to use 1.5 as a single stream as my entire home network is 1 gigabit anyway, but I want to have 1.5 gigabit download in total without using ISP’s modem as my router.
There’s 2.5 gigabit NICs and routers and stuff around now also. Might want to check that out if 10 doesn’t fit in the budget, because yeah a 10 gigabit router isn’t something you’re likely to find very often at home.
Will 10 gigabit port be able to communicate with 2.5 NIC thought? I think I read that especially older 10 nics cannot do 2.5. ISP’s modem only has 10 gigabit port and 4 1 gigabit.
Depends on how old, I guess, but I think 2.5 goes back several years now, so it’d have to be pretty old to predate that. You could ask them if you wanted to be sure.
That’s why you get your networking future-proof if you buy. 10Gbit on-board is like 100€ more and half of modern boards have a 2.5Gbit NIC. Some older 10Gbit NICs can’t downgrade to 2.5 or 5 on their side…2.5Gbit Switches are rather cheap nowadays, but that doesn’t help with 5Gbit WAN in a couple of years.
You can get USB NICs with 2.5Gbit for like 30-40€, no need to get overpriced cards if you have an USB port left.
Honestly I don’t see myself getting internet faster than 2 gigabit in the future. (or even 1-1.5 gigabit after this promotion expires). So I am not sure it makes sense for me to future proof it. Right now I just wanted to unlock that remaining 0.5 gigabit in a cheapest way possible.
I am thinking of maybe connecting the second port of my nas to the ISP’s router and set that nic as the main gateway. And then maybe set legal torrents or IPFS to seed all the time just to make use of that extra speed.
Btw if anyone has a file they wanna seed etc. Give me the magnet/.torrent file. I have around 1 TB of spare space on the old hardware I can sacrifice for this. Just nothing illegal please.
What about balance-rr? Or was that only for transmitting at higher speed ? (assuming it’s only setup on one side)
By bonding I also meant loose “bonding”. Just to bring in that extra capacity into my own router somehow and then let it handle routing. I am fine with not being able to reach full speed in a single stream.
[Edit]
Oh what if I do a round robin dual wan load balancing but with the same public wan ip. it should work in theory right? I believe pfsense had that feature.
My ISP provides 1.2G service. With 4x1G and 1x2.5G ports router I can utilise full speed. I use rr load balancing on ecach computer from 2 1G ports - either 1+3 or 2+4 on the router (it is not providing 1.2G with rr load blalancing in other combinations eg 1+2 or 3+4 which would result in 1G only - even with rr lb; not sure why). I have 8 port managed switch divided to 2 VLANs with 3 pairs of 2 ports available that connect with 2 cables each into other computers. Speedtest results in 1.3-1.4G speed when each computer speed is tested individually or when adding - combined - results together when all 3 computers are tested together in the same time with Speedtest - each one chosen from a different server.
I believe rrlb can only upload at combined speed but download packets come to one or the other port at a time for single stream unless the other side also does rrlb, so download would still be capped at 1g for single stream.
I agree with you. 2 ports aggregation in rr mode divides the orriginal speed in to 2 halves of the orriginal speed. 1 Gb/s = 2 x 500Mb/s. My ISP provides 1.2Gb/s downstreem, that is divided into 2x 600Mb/s - I believe that the router does exactly that - 2 VLANs in rr mode with 2 ports each providing 1Gb/s speed individually or 600Mb/s in rr mode. I am gessing that this is the reason why I have to use ports 1+3 or 2+4 to have 2 x 600Mb/s = 1.2Gb/s result. If I use 1+2 or 3+4 ports, that results in 2x500Mb/s =1Gb/s speed. My 8 port switch has 2 VLANs each with own acess port with 1Gb/s speed - possibly providing max of 2Gb/s speed in rr mode aggregation. I just use my farmer’s brain for this, I admit I might be wrong. But it works for me as the results from Speedtest show more than 1.2 - mostly 1.3Gb/s + speed. I think that 802.1Q VLAN capable switch or 2 separate swithes for each cable are the key.
I probably should add that I use 2 eth cards in each computer utilizing 1 port from each card only to create rr lb for the individual computer. if I connect in 1 card with 2 ports it results in 1Gb/s speed, or I use 4 port eth card (most I have tried) where I use 1+2 OR 3+4 combination, speed is 1Gb/s. Utilising 1+3 or 2+4 ports combination results in 1.2Gb/s+ speed.
Ended up going with OPNsense router and 3 1 gigabit nics and wan load balancing config. It seems to work well. Traffic is randomly going through one or the other nic, but also stays on the same nic until the end of the session(sticky connection).
So now I just need a multiport NIC so that I can actually make use of the combined speed, but at least load-balancing is working.
[Edit] Ended up going with used BCM5719 x4 1 gigabit ports. They are dirt cheap on ebay, I got mine for 20 bucks.
I ended up going hypervisor route as dedicating a brand new 11th gen 6 core intel for just router seems like a waste. Still thinking of what other VMs to run there. Don’t really want to have a NAS on the same machine as my main router.
Speed test. It randomly chose second nic when it was testing upload.
