concatenate two wireless connections?

[nenl]

My neighbor and I both have wireless and we can both see each other's signal. We want to see if we can combine our bandwidth so we have faster connections and in case one connection goes down - we're on two different providers, different routers, different everything if that matters.

Anyway, is is possible to combine our connections? I read a few posts that didn't seem to give a definite answer other than yes it's possible, but I couldn't find a clear solution. From what I read, seems like if we each had two wireless network cards is the place to start, but not sure what's needed as far as configuring Windows (vista for both) to deal with the dual signals...And yes, we're both in agreement, so there's no wrong doing going on...

thanks all

[jdeb]

From Leo Notenboom: http://ask-leo.com/c000229.html

Here's what it takes: money.

There are devices, specialty routers, that can take two internet connections. They're typically called 'load balancing' routers, since their goal isn't so much to provide higher bandwidth, but rather "spread the load" between two (or sometimes more) connections. Quite often large sites will use routers to both load balance between multiple connections, or provide redundancy in case one of the internet connections goes down.

The problem for us more "normal people" is that load balancing routers are typically expensive, and not that easy to setup and configure properly.
"...there's no real consumer-accessible solution for this at this time."

And even when set up, they don't do exactly what you're asking.

The 'problem' is that a single connection from your computer to another can happen across only one connection at a time. So if you're downloading a large file, for example, it will download at the speed of only one of your connections. You won't be able to combine the bandwidth for these types of downloads.


The good news is that the other connection would be available for other things, so instead of the download hogging all your bandwidth, it'd be limited to hogging only one of your multiple connections.

The other good news is that typically downloading things off the internet actually involve multiple downloads, which can happen across both connections. For example, while you might consider viewing this page as a single operation, in fact there are several different items being downloaded. The page itself consisting of the text you're reading and for formatting information is only one. Each graphic image, such as the site logo, is a separate download. Each such separate download can happen on a separate connection, thus increasing the apparent download speed of the entire page.

But as I said, there's no real consumer-accessible solution for this at this time. Given the "need for speed" we're all increasingly feeling, it wouldn't surprise me if one came along at some point - hopefully from one of the major consumer networking equipment manufacturers.