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    Cable Modem Ethernet Cable Bonding

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
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    • chpalmerC
      chpalmer
      last edited by

      Has anybody made use of their "bondable" ethernet ports on their so equipped cable modem to a LAGG'd pair on their pfSense box?

      What flavor a LAGG did you use?    My Motorola MB8600 is supposed to arrive tomorrow and Im just getting ready.

      http://motorolacable.com/documents/MB8600-DataSheet-09517.pdf

      http://www.arris.com/surfboard/products/cable-modems/sb8200/

      Triggering snowflakes one by one..
      Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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      • johnpozJ
        johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
        last edited by

        So your internet connection is over a gig?  You have multiple devices to use this 1 and 1 pipe to your more than 1 connection?

        Or are you worried about port/cable failure and need a redundant connection?

        An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
        If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
        Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
        SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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        • MikeV7896M
          MikeV7896
          last edited by

          I believe that, like the Arris SB8200, the link aggregation functionality will need to be enabled by the ISP. In Arris' case, I don't even think the functionality exists in their firmware yet. But like johnpoz mentioned, there's no real need for it yet since most cable ISPs using DOCSIS 3.1 are only offering 1 Gbps down (about 940-960 Mbps down after overhead).

          If from a redundancy standpoint, that's something else that would need to be enabled by the ISP… two different MAC Addresses connected to the modem (most ISPs only limit the modem to allowing one connected device, by MAC address). Of course, that would also allow two different IP addresses (or IP address blocks in the case of IPv6).

          So either way here, you're at the mercy of your ISP and when they decide to roll out such features, if they ever do.

          The S in IOT stands for Security

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          • chpalmerC
            chpalmer
            last edited by

            Thanks for the replies!  :)

            Truthfully its more about testing the modem and reporting how well things go.  Im not quite up to the GIG club yet but much closer than in 2001 when I first signed up.  ;D

            Triggering snowflakes one by one..
            Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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            • johnpozJ
              johnpoz LAYER 8 Global Moderator
              last edited by

              I really do not see the point of lagg on a cable modem.. If your over 1gig then the local side should be 10ge, or the up coming 802.3bz (2.5 and 5ge)

              Lagg would just be kind of pointless..  Its not 1+1=2, its 1 and 1 for a total of 2 combined across all sessions.  No single client would ever go above 1 gig.  And there is no real promise that even 2 clients would load share.. You need lots of clients talking to lots of different devices to spread the load across the lagged connections.

              With a cable "modem" and not a router even - means for example your pfense is going to be behind it.  So now you have a different layer 2 between the router and the clients so really only mac being seen is the pfsense mac - so when would you leverage the lagg?

              An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools
              If you get confused: Listen to the Music Play
              Please don't Chat/PM me for help, unless mod related
              SG-4860 24.11 | Lab VMs 2.7.2, 24.11

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