True load balancing?

[martin42]

Hi,

If I buy a second ADSL line and run the pfSense load-balancer, will a big file download twice as fast?  Or does the load-balancer keep state, using a fixed route for each UDP & TCP session?

To give the background to this question… My ISP offers true channel bonding ( http://aaisp.net/kb-broadband-bonding.html ).  At the ISP end, each individual packet to or from my public IP addresses is balanced across several ADSL lines.  Can pfSense can take full advantage of this?  In other words, is "true load balancing" ( http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,16923.0.html ) possible?

I am also trying to understand the best way to connect two ADSL lines to pfSense.  With two ADSL modems (or routers in bridge mode), pfSense would run PPPoA or PPPoE itself, so it would know immediately if a line failed.  With two ADSL routers, pfSense would be have to rely on pinging two different boxes at the ISP end.  Is one approach better, or do both approaches work equally well in practice?

Thanks for any thoughts!

• Martin.

[GruensFroeschli]

The loadbalancer in the 1.2.x versions is connection based.

AFAIK 2.0_ALPHA will/does offer link aggregation.

[TimDows]

@martin42:

Or does the load-balancer keep state, using a fixed route for each UDP & TCP session?

yes, but if you connect a second web page or what so ever, this could then connect over the other line.

[martin42]

Both approaches sound promising.  Even with a single web page on 1.2.x, I guess images can be fetched across both links if the web browser uses several TCP connections.

Thanks for getting back to me.

• Martin.