Dual Internet Connection Load Balancing on a Budget

Recently my internet connection from Comcast has been down. To their credit and my utter disbelief they bent over backwards to come out and fix things. I've had three technicians since I scheduled the first call. The first tech replaced a few connectors and scheduled two additional techs. One to replace an old thinner cable and another one to fix something on the utility pole across the street. My connection now is fantastic and the problems I experienced with HD and my internet have disappeared. Thanks Comcast! (seriously thanks)

So before all of that was fixed I had about 10 days of intermittent internet connectivity which REALLY sucks if you rely on having access to your remote servers, a vpn, stackoverflow ;-), and the internet in general. It was getting very frustrating. Luckily it worked for most of the day and only went down at night, the cause was never fully diagnosed.

So now I have TWO internet connections; one from Comcast (Cable) and one from Bellsouth (DSL). I did a speed test and the cable connection is absolutely faster than dsl. Download speeds for cable were from 4-12mb with uploads up to 2.5mb. DSL was 2-6mb download and maxed out at 400kb for uploads. You can test your own internet connection by visiting www.SpeedTest.net


I originally planned to just switch from Cable to DSL. However after the Comcast guys came out and fixed things. I decided to try and keep them both. Lucky for me there is a low cost and EXCELLENT solution for home or small businesses who need to have two internet connections. The Syswan SW24 VPN I purchased mine from NewEgg.com.


Setting up the SW24 VPN was very easy and I had no issues with it on either the cable or dsl connections. Currently it is setup to just load balance between the two connections but it can be setup to use one or the other as a backup. It also has a ton of administrative functions to help control who goes where and in general to manage all of your LAN connections. All in all it's been the best $189 I've spent on network hardware. I've also had very quick and helpful emails from Sysway support.

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