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Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

Wir3tap
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎28-12-2015

Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

Recently had a fault, and the team so far have been amazing!  Had openreach out here today to look at my line, looks like it was provisioned wrong or something.  Still not at the 80/20 yet, they said it could be up to 24 hours to get back to my 80 that I am at normally (Crosses fingers), but the 20 is fixed for the most part.
The question I have is, does Plus Net offer Dual Fiber Bonding.  I know I can order another line into my house, I have contacted the sales department and they said they can get it done for me for a 2nd 80/20 into the house,  but is it bonded or Load Managed?  I would prefer bonded if possible and does plus net have the hardware to do such? Or would I have to buy my own load balancing multi wan router?
Thanks for the support!
8 REPLIES 8
Darkfire
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 699
Fixes: 30
Registered: ‎17-10-2015

Re: Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

We dont offer any bonding or load balancing service for our lines however as you mention you can combine multiple lines using your own load balancing router.
I personally use PfSense for this and it works great but any "off the shelf" bonding method should work just as well
Wir3tap
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎28-12-2015

Re: Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

I was reading websites but they were from 2010ish lol, most were saying the only way to get bonded is if you have an ISP that has equipment for it, etc.  I just want to be able to combine 2 connections into 1 connection "Theoretically" at 160/40.
Darkfire
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 699
Fixes: 30
Registered: ‎17-10-2015

Re: Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

To have it done at isp level, it can require specialist equipment. I currently have 2 80/20 FTTC lines that are connected directly to a PfSense router(can install on an old desktop if you want)
That load balances them and i get 150/38 on average
Youtube.com/quanticdarkfire < i have a video on there of a speedtest i ran a few days ago
If you need any help settings things up or want more info let me know

Wir3tap
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Registered: ‎28-12-2015

Re: Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

Thanks Dark! Much appreciated!
jafreer
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 858
Thanks: 41
Registered: ‎13-10-2012

Re: Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

@Darkfire - fascinating stuff. Not that I intend to bond 2 connections, but the 'techie' in me is interested. Are you running your PfSense router on an old desktop PC, or something smaller? I just wondered if there was smaller lighter hardware that could be used to implement it. For example a PC104 based system or a Raspberry Pi. I assume you need 3 network cards in the system to implement it?
Thanks in advance - very interesting stuff.
Darkfire
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 699
Fixes: 30
Registered: ‎17-10-2015

Re: Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

you can run PfSense on a ton of devices, it's a great bit of software and the best bit is it's free, there's a few boxes specifically designed for it that are tiny too, they sell their own or you can build something to fit your needs(Fanless would be a good idea if you can keep it cool)
A lot of people run it in old PC's that can be found cheap online, I've found that HP Microservers are also great for this(the older ones, the newer ones don't have drivers available yet)
I have it running in a small Supermicro 1u server case with a Supermicro motherboard, a quad port Intel NIC installed in a PCI slot on the board for the connections to WAN and LAN.
only requires 1 card with at least 3 ports for the setup, took around 30 minutes to get it all up and running with Load Balancing the first time

jafreer
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 858
Thanks: 41
Registered: ‎13-10-2012

Re: Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

Thanks for that. I need to investigate this a bit further, it looks great. I checked out the load balancing youtube video. I guess you don't need to wait for g.fast Wink
Darkfire
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Plusnet Alumni (retired)
Posts: 699
Fixes: 30
Registered: ‎17-10-2015

Re: Question about Plus Net Fiber Services

why not load balance 2 g.fast enabled lines? Wink
I always want more, I started looking into this kind of thing at my old place where the Fibre speeds dropped from 67Mb when it was first installed down to 20Mb estimates from BTW as the capacity was used up, I do a lot of upload based usage with Plex and a few other web services so getting more than the 6Mb upload I had was quite important
Moved in with my partner and her cab is just round the corner so get pretty much perfect speeds, now it's just a challenge of seeing how fast I can make it go, the neighbours either side have BT Fibre and Virgin, might ask then to let me run a cable through and see what 4 lines can handle XD