FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Reseller FAQs below.

Customer FAQs

  1. What equipment do I need? Do I have to purchase it?
    2. We supply you with a bonding appliance and one modem for each Internet connection. You don’t need to buy the appliance; it is provided as part of your subscription.
  2. Do I have to pay for upgrades?
    3. No. We are constantly improving our software to bring you greater performance and reliability. You will receive these updates at no cost.
  3. What speeds can I expect?
    4. For a bond with only DSL connections, you will get almost the full combined speed of each connection. For example, a site with three 6 Mbps down/1 Mbps up DSL lines will be able to download at nearly 18 Mbps and upload at close to 3 Mbps, with compression disabled.
    For a bond with varied connection types, expect to see 85-90% of the combined speed of the connections. The reduction is due to how TCP’s congestion control algorithm responds to packets arriving on connections with different latencies. Without IDMPQ and FSRE, however, bonding diverse connections like this is impossible- for example, adding a cable Internet connection to a bond of two DSL connections can actually reduce the overall TCP throughput due to the increase in jitter and out-of-order packet delivery.
    Your actual throughput will be higher if data compression is enabled. The effectiveness of compression depends on the nature of the data- for example, text such as web pages is highly compressible, while JPG images and encrypted VPN traffic cannot be compressed very much, if at all.
  4. Will Bonded Internet increase the latency (ping times) of my connection?
    5. Yes, but the increase is insignificant. Traffic that has been split among your bonded connections must be recombined by an aggregation server before sending the original data out to the Internet. This extra trip adds a small amount of latency to your connection, but it is only noticeable for connections from your location to other sites geographically very close to you.
  5. When a connection fails, how much downtime will I have?
    6. You will not experience any downtime when a connection fails. For an example, view the failover demo video. Bonded Internet detects connection failure within 0.3 seconds and automatically removes the failed line from the bond. Even before the failure is detected, you only lose the data sent over the failed line- data sent over working lines is delivered as normal. Bonded Internet begins using the line again within 0.1 seconds when connectivity is restored.
  6. Will I need to reconfigure every device on my network?
    7. No. Bonded Internet is completely transparent to your network as well as to inbound traffic. You will only need to reconfigure your firewall or router.
  7. Do I need to set up any special DNS entries for incoming traffic?
    8. No. Unlike load balancing solutions, our service requires no complicated DNS configuration. Your firewall is assigned a public static IP address. All incoming traffic uses that address regardless of the traffic load or whether any connections in the bond have failed.
  8. Can I add additional lines after the initial setup?
    9. Yes, you can add Internet connections at any time. If you have multiple DSL lines from a single provider, adding a cable, fixed wireless, or DSL connection from another provider is a great way to increase the reliability of your bonded connection by using multiple ISPs.
  9. Can I obtain more IP addresses?
    10. Yes, we can provide as many IP addresses as you need, with justification.
  10. How many connections can I bond together?
    11. There is no technical limit to the number of connections that can be bonded. We know of a site using seven DSL connections with no issues at all.
  11. Will my VPN work over the bonded connection?
    12. Yes. We have many customers using Bonded Internet to increase the speed of their VPNs.
  12. Does VoIP work over Bonded Internet?
    13. Absolutely. Our product includes quality of service (QoS) features to prioritize VoIP and other interactive applications over bulk traffic. This means that protocols such as SIP/RTP, ICMP, and SSH are sent before non-interactive data such as web, mail, and FTP transfers. This prioritization is performed in both the outbound and inbound directions, so your VoIP traffic benefits from reliable speeds and latency even under high loads.
  13. What if my equipment fails?
    14. We will send you a new device. We can also configure redundant devices on your site to enhance your connection reliability even more.

Contact us today.