I don't think it matters for web access since web access is stateless. Connections are created and dropped after each request.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Wilkes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2002 11:38 AM Subject: Re: How to aggregate bandwidth from 2 DSL modems? > On Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at 11:24:34AM -0600, Steve Westerhouse wrote: > > > On Thu, Feb 28, 2002 at 10:33:57AM -0600, Steve Westerhouse wrote: > > > > I have two DSL modems (each has same bandwidth) connected to my > > > > RedHat 7.1 Linux gateway. There are 3 NICs in the system (1 LAN, 2 > > > > WAN). How can I combine the bandwidth of both of these modems? I > > > > have a feeling this can be accomplished using iptables in some > > > > way. I understand that any given file transfer will not be able to > > > > exceed the bandwidth of an individual DSL modem. The real > > > > advantage comes in when there are > 1 concurrent connections. > > > > > > What kind of things are you looking to load balance? You have to be > > > aware that most things could break if you suddenly come from a different > > > IP in the middle of a session. For example you're playing Quake and > > > suddenly your IP switches or half your packets are coming from a > > > different IP. > > > > > > I would look into different proxy servers to do this job for you. Looking > > > over the Squid pages you can probably do something with parents/siblings > > > and routing those over different links. > > Thanks for your reply. > > > > I am aware that spreading packets across two ips could mess things up but > > I'd expect that the Linux gateway would avoid this. My expectations are > > that the gateway would keep track of bandwidth in use on both pipes and > > whichever one had the smallest utilization would be chosen for the next > > transfer. This would have to use connection tracking to work properly. I > > don't think it would matter for UDP based apps but I suppose it's really up > > to the app. > > How does iptables know what the "next transfer" is? If you're pulling > down a web page each grabbing of an image looks like a new transfer, > there is no easily seen (to iptables) glue that connects them together. > It might matter to a website who is connecting to it. > > I think you would have to do this on an application by application > basis. Is there a particular one you had in mind? > > An FTP proxy that initiated new connections over different links would > be very handy especially when pulling down multiple RPMs that you need > to upgrade KDE for example. > > Chris > >
