Hi

please excuse the non-technical talk.

Is it possible to combine two ADSL lines to provide a single 'super-fast' broadband connection on my network. I currently have a Draytek 2820 on a Zen connection- due to our proximity from the exchange we only get 1 meg at best. I have a spare line and wondered if I could use it to double up the speed. I realise this means paying for another ADSL connection. Zen tech support tell me it can be done, but it's a case of setting up my hardware correctly rather than any settings at their end.

Any help gladly received!
Cheers, Andy.

The Draytek routers do load balancing - doing actual bonding would require two connections to the same ISP and some arrangement with them. With load balancing you don't get double the download speed but you get double the bandwidth so if you're sharing the connection over several users, it should handle that a lot better.
Having said that, if your lines are that bad, maybe check when BT's FTTC / Infinity service comes to you? If it's available where you are that'd usually give you 20-40Mb download speed instead of 2Mb.

Be* Internet do a line bonding service.

Using the two lines for computers on your network is Load Balancing, and the Draytek routers support it natively.
You can tell it to balance the load out evenly, or you could force all torrents down one line and all gaming down the other line, etc.
This however won't give a single computer double its current speed and a single operation will only be able to (subject to QoS) be able to max out one of the lines. But it'll massively help if you've got more than one piece of internet activity happening at once as it'll simply go "Oh, line 1 is being heavily used by Bob right now. Let's send Jim's traffic down line 2 as that's quiet right now".

Using the two lines as one (and thus allowing a single operation to reach double the current speed) is Line Bonding. This is more complicated and requires special kit at both your end and the ISPs end.

Thanks for the answers - all good stuff.

I may be missing something herem, but my Vigor 2820n only has provision for one ADSL connection - ie a cable from it to the phone socket. How do I get a second line fed in?

I have a 3G usb dongle - can I use that instead of a wired broadband number 2 line?

Many thanks!!

arhoward wrote: Thanks for the answers - all good stuff.

I may be missing something here, but my Vigor 2820n only has provision for one ADSL connection - ie a cable from it to the phone socket. How do I get a second line fed in?

I have a 3G usb dongle - can I use that instead of a wired broadband number 2 line?

Many thanks!!

The second connection would be from the WAN2 ethernet port or the USB port.
For WAN2 you'd either plug in an ADSL modem ( Draytek Vigor 120 ) or a cable modem (if you're lucky enough to have cable in your area!). The ADSL modem would then have a cable from it to the second phone socket (whereas your 2820n has a built in ADSL modem).
For the USB port you'd plug in a USB 3G Modem.

See http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2820.html and http://www.draytek.co.uk/failover/.