Connecting two internet connections to one computer?

[JakeThomas]

Forgive me if this question has a simple answer, I couldn't think of it. I was actually asked this question by a family member of mine (who has not idea how to use computers and I help her our when she gets stuck, aka type her question into Google).

Is it possible to have two internet connections on the one PC to download data? EG: 2 x internet connections of 10mb/s = 20mb/s on the one computer?

If it's not, can you explain why?

Thanks!

[v2Media]

Not possible on the workstation, i.e. two NICs strapping two network connections together. TCP/IP standards dictate the OS should interact via one NIC port at a time.

But it is possible at the router level. This would avail the combined bandwidth of both connections to all computers connected to the router. Ask google, router combine bandwidth 2 connections.

[JakeThomas]

I did Google it - most of it came back with high end solutions though and no mention of the speed.

I think you answered my questions anyway, thanks.

- Jake

[AdeptSmallBusinessIT]

This is not.. exactly.. true.. you can have multiple NICs, and you can communicate across both at the same time, using TCP.
However - what you can't do is have a "default gateway" on both. You also can't do multilink, or bonding, at the computer level. At least, not without it being handled by a device upstream, which yes, you've already pointed out.

The best solution for you in this situation would be iinet's "Bonded ADSL2" solution. basically, they provide you with two ADSL lines (at an appropriate cost for each) and a special modem. They do some configuration on their side, and then their modem and your modem talk together, and combine the two links into one logical link.

you would then plug your computer into that router.