 chd176
join:2003-01-10
Winfield, AL
 ·CenturyLink
2 edits | Dual DSL Lines I know many people (myself included) are limited to 10/768 (or even lower in some cases). CenturyLink doesn't offer bonding here however they'll gladly sell you another DSL line if there's room in the DSLAM. If you happen to be in an area with no congestion and can afford a second line you can use a load balancing router and in certain circumstances double your speed as if the connection was bonded by CTL.
Keep in mind not all applications will give you the full throughput of both lines, if you want to do a singular download you need a download manager that can accept multiple connections. Some speed tests will use multiple connections and you'll get your full bandwidth combined on both lines (speedtest.net is one) however others will only show your WAN 1 (or whichever is your main WAN connection) line speed (testmy.net is an example).
I am using a TP-Link TL-R480T+ load balancing router. I have two TP-Link TD8616 Modems (I'm on ADSL2+) I plugged the modems in and they just worked. I then went in and configured the PPPoE connection in the router for both WANs. I turned off "Enable Application Optimized Routing" in the load balancing option of the TP-Link router and from there everything was basically plug and play into my switch.
Here's a speedtest from speedtest.net,
as you can see I get my full 20/1 with speedtest.net.
However, with testmy.net I only get the result of one line.
When using a download manager with a single file since it uses multiple connections I can get the full throughput from both lines.
This setup isn't ideal, it'd be nice if CTL offered bonded connections in their entire footprint. Until then this is a nice alternative given you can afford the secondary connection, have no competition like I do to move to higher speeds with cable, and if your DSLAM has the bandwidth and room for a secondary line. I just thought I would share this since when I was researching I wasn't sure if any applications would give me the throughput of the lines combined. I was glad to see that under certain conditions I can and when that's not available I can still load balance so I don't notice any slow downs.
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10,000/768 CenturyTel PPPoE DSL line (for real this time) |
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 tobyTroy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA | Can't see those images, too small to read the text.
You need to switch to another ISP in your area that offers MLPPP, then the lines will be combined, until then you've got two separate lines. |
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watmore
join:2007-07-27
La Pointe, WI | reply to chd176
Hey, thanks for sharing! |
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If you are not served by any ISP that supports bonding, it's best to have different carriers for your lines, instead of putting all eggs in one basket. In my case I have CenturyLink (VDSL2) and Comcast (DOCSIS 3). Compared to Comcast, CenturyLink is a bit overpriced for what they have to offer, but I have both for redundancy.
The TL-R480T+ seems quite affordable, but its features are also quite limited for a quad-WAN router. On its website, TP-Link calls it a VPN router, which most would take to mean it can act as a VPN endpoint, but there is no mention of that in the user guide. |
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chd176
join:2003-01-10
Winfield, AL Reviews:
·CenturyLink
1 edit | reply to toby
Both WAN connections active. | 
WAN 1 connected with the router handling the PPPoE connection. | 
The second WAN connected also router handling PPPoE. | 
With a download manager I can use the throughput of both lines. |
said by toby:Can't see those images, too small to read the text.
You need to switch to another ISP in your area that offers MLPPP, then the lines will be combined, until then you've got two separate lines.
Perhaps that'll work I've had a time with formatting lol. I would but in my area I'm limited to CenturyLink, no cable, can't do a local WISP unless I want to invest in a 100' tower, or I could go Verizon HomeFusion (which given their caps no thanks). This is simply a last resort. I of course would prefer if CTL supported MLPPP other than in select locations where they offer bonding. I'm not sure if they use MLPPP in that case or not.
said by broccoli:If you are not served by any ISP that supports bonding, it's best to have different carriers for your lines, instead of putting all eggs in one basket. In my case I have CenturyLink (VDSL2) and Comcast (DOCSIS 3). Compared to Comcast, CenturyLink is a bit overpriced for what they have to offer, but I have both for redundancy.
The TL-R480T+ seems quite affordable, but its features are also quite limited for a quad-WAN router. On its website, TP-Link calls it a VPN router, which most would take to mean it can act as a VPN endpoint, but there is no mention of that in the user guide.
As stated before I would love to have another carrier, sadly limited to CenturyLink though. I am planning on adding a 3G link for the 3rd WAN as a manual failover if I absolutely need to get online for a short time. The TL-R480T+ isn't the best in the world but I'm only using it for the load balancing, so for my need it fits the bill. I believe the Port-VLAN under the Network-Switch setting is where you can setup the VPN endpoint but I'm not really familiar with VPNs so I could be mistaken. I do eventually plan to upgrade to the TL-ER5120 which would give me GB ports, as of now I just have it straight to my switch for the rest of my network.
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10,000/768 CenturyTel PPPoE DSL line (for real this time) |
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tobyTroy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA | reply to chd176
You can keep CenturyLink as the DSL provider, but change the ISP portion of the connection to one that supports MLPPP.
This is what I do with my two DSL lines. |
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Reviews:
·CenturyLink
| Doesn't CenturyLink support that with Business accounts? I know Qwest used to do that here on even residential lines, as back in 2009 i had two 5/896 lines paired together for 10/1.6 and Qwest was more than happy to let me use the same PPoE login on each Q100. |
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chd176
join:2003-01-10
Winfield, AL Reviews:
·CenturyLink
1 edit | reply to toby
said by toby:You can keep CenturyLink as the DSL provider, but change the ISP portion of the connection to one that supports MLPPP.
This is what I do with my two DSL lines.
Wouldn't this be the equivalent of paying for 4 lines? Paying everything for CTL then adding the ISP on top of it. Or would this work like it used to with ISPs like DSL Extreme and how TekSavvy operates in where I'd cancel my lines with CTL and order directly from the ISP and let them fire back up the lines with CTL? Also whom would provide MLPPP bonding over the CTL lines?
said by brad152:Doesn't CenturyLink support that with Business accounts? I know Qwest used to do that here on even residential lines, as back in 2009 i had two 5/896 lines paired together for 10/1.6 and Qwest was more than happy to let me use the same PPoE login on each Q100.
I think former Qwest areas are more prone to allow bonding than former GTE areas. I spoke with business CS before I ordered the second line and they said bonding was unavailable and the max connection I could get on DSL before going to a dedicated solution was 10 MB.
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Dual 10/768 CTL DSL |
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tobyTroy Mcclure
join:2001-11-13
Seattle, WA Reviews:
·OlyPen, Inc.
·CenturyLink
| said by chd176:Wouldn't this be the equivalent of paying for 4 lines? Paying everything for CTL then adding the ISP on top of it. Or would this work like it used to with ISPs like DSL Extreme and how TekSavvy operates in where I'd cancel my lines with CTL and order directly from the ISP and let them fire back up the lines with CTL? Also whom would provide MLPPP bonding over the CTL lines? There are two parts to a DSL internet connection, the phone ATM connection and the connection to the internet.
Yep, it would be like Teksavvy DSL, as the phone lines are the Bell companies in Canada, but the internet connection is controlled by Teksavvy. But you'd have two DSL lines.
Teksavvy offers MLPPP over many DSL lines too.
Your use a router that offer MLPPP, I use pfsense, but another option is a router from Mikrotik. ( »routerboard.com/RB750UP )
»wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:ML···le_links
The ISP has the support MLPPP, CenturyLink doesn't need to know it is even being used. |
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chd176
join:2003-01-10
Winfield, AL Reviews:
·CenturyLink
| said by toby:said by chd176:Wouldn't this be the equivalent of paying for 4 lines? Paying everything for CTL then adding the ISP on top of it. Or would this work like it used to with ISPs like DSL Extreme and how TekSavvy operates in where I'd cancel my lines with CTL and order directly from the ISP and let them fire back up the lines with CTL? Also whom would provide MLPPP bonding over the CTL lines? There are two parts to a DSL internet connection, the phone ATM connection and the connection to the internet. Yep, it would be like Teksavvy DSL, as the phone lines are the Bell companies in Canada, but the internet connection is controlled by Teksavvy. But you'd have two DSL lines. Teksavvy offers MLPPP over many DSL lines too. Your use a router that offer MLPPP, I use pfsense, but another option is a router from Mikrotik. ( » routerboard.com/RB750UP ) » wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Manual:ML···le_linksThe ISP has the support MLPPP, CenturyLink doesn't need to know it is even being used. Ah, yes I thought so. Currently in my one year contract with my first line for the promo price so that's out of the picture, at least for now.
I'm not even sure where to look for an ISP that would offer service over CTL lines as it seems like it's region/state based. What I have now isn't perfect but it actually works for me, might re-evaluate it later. With a download manager other than streaming services it's pretty much like one pipe anyway.
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Dual 10/768 CTL DSL |
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Reviews:
·CenturyLink
| reply to chd176
I should call and ask about my parents place in Ohio (it's a former United Telephone/Sprint/Embarq area that CenturyLink ended up with)
I've never asked about pair-bonded anything before moving to phoenix, as i was happy with my 8Mbps ADSL connection in Ohio. |
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