PPP Multilink

MLPPP will not give you multiples of the slowest link, it will load balance between the unequal links. The slowest link will of course however handle the least traffic.

Thanks for the reply, what your saying suggests that MLPPP will use all the available bandwidth.

Is this just the IOS implementation of MLPPP though as the Linux based Tomato/MLPPP firmware suggests you will achieve double the speed of the slowest link when bonding two links?

http://fixppp.org/index.php?p=documentation

Can you post the part of the document that you are referrring to. I don't want to read through the entire thing.

Bonding two DSL lines for double the speed

This will also circumvent Bell's throttling. It will behave as if you only have one single DSL line with one single IP address. You should contact your ISP to enquire about any differences this may cause with your billing or accounts. With TekSavvy, they will give you one single account with double the normal monthly transfer cap for use with your MLPPP setup.

1) Install Tomato/MLPPP on your router just as you would install the normal Tomato firmware (refer to the Tomato documentation).

2) On the Administration/Configuration page, reset your router to factory default settings, including NVRAM

3) Set up your router just as you would with the normal Tomato firmware. Plug one modem into your router's "WAN" port, and the other modem into any of your router's switch ports.

4) On the Basic/Network page, set the "MultiLink PPP" option to "Multiple Links"

Your router should now provide you with roughly double the performance of the slowest of the two links. It may take a minute or two to establish the second link.

Also see the bottom of the page here (bullet points)

http://www.firebrick.co.uk/fb6000/bonding.php

Everywhere I look online suggests the same.

Hmmm, yes that must be a linux specific negotiation. I know with Cisco, it uses the sum of the bandwidth of the interfaces for its multilink interface. It doesn't throttle down based on the slowest link. So if I have a 512k Link and a 256 link, the multilink total bandwidth is 512+256, not 256 + 256.

Thanks I thought that was the case. I just need to know how MLPPP in linux detects the link speed / adapts to changes.

I sounds like as you stated that it occurs during negotiation. Once the bandwidth of the link is negotiated, that is more like the cap/maximum the link can handle, that doesn't mean the the data will be reaching that amount at all times.

Does LCP re-negotiate at given intervals or can it be forced to?

Thanks