PeterPerfect

Anyone managed to multi-link their ISDN HomeHighway to BTInternet ?

Fosters

Unfortunately for my phone bill, yes.

boh on win98 & winnt

Chris L

Peter

Are you using and ISDN terminal adaptor or and ISDN router? There are differences in the way they establish a multilink connection. Some ISPs cope better with it than others. At my previous firm we always had problems establishing a multilink connection using our ISDN routers with BT Internet. With our TAs there were no problems.

Try it with another ISP and you might find it works OK. Might also be worth checking any settings on your TA/Router to see when the second channel is connected. Normally you either have the choice of permantley connecting both channels or setting a threshold to enable the second channel when utilisation reaches a certain point.

I know for a fact that

firefox

Multilinking does work...

From both a router and TA.

But BT will only give you one line free (if with a free surf package) and the other line/channel at a local call rate

Cunning...

J.

PeterPerfect

Thanks for the info guys.

My TA settings are ok because I've used a mate's VirginNet account on my machine to multi-link.

I'm currently throwing emails to BTInternet support to ask why they claim to support 64 and 128Kbps, yet I can only connect at 64

Looks like I might be moving back to Virgin-Net.....cause BTInternet support is crap....no reply to my 2nd email even after a week

Pete

ChrisB

I've played with HH Multilink to BTi.

You can often get both channels connected to BTi but very little data is transfered. I once managed multilink on the 0800 number.

The 0845 number is meant to support Multilink - I'll try it out later on today.

Chris.

dsmith

The Surf time number (0808..) doesn't support 128K apprently (despite various statements to the contary) I've been looking at various other BBs whilst I look for an ISP. Currently I've ordered HH and will be using Lee's Dial-in (simply Web-Design

BarryK

Sorry if I'm teaching granny to suck eggs here, but you have to set it up on your dial in on your PC so it can multilink. From what you say I gather you know that already, but thought it best to mention it.?

The BT 0800 number only supports ISDN 64k. You need a connection to 0845 7128000, it charges you 2 calls whether it is using the bandwith or not. The crafty ba5tard5.

kryten

BT's 'Surfport' surftime offering that most ISPs use does not support bonded connections.

The only Surftime ISP that allows bonded connections is Demon, but you need their business account which costs £60/month (plus the BT £20/month) so it aint cheap!

There is no technical reason for the 0845/0800 offerings not to support it, but the reasons are that of economics. If you use two lines and (possibly) twice the bandwidth then someone else can't be using it.

Red Hot Ant used to allow bonded connections and look what happened to them!

If you want 128k, I'm afraid you're going to have to pay for it - either in higher subscription or the call charges!

Probably of more significance is whether you have compression working on the ISDN channel. This is more problematic than modem compression and many people find that they're not getting compression due to incompatibilites between their equipment/OS and the ISP's.

Try downloading a big text file - if you get more than 10k/second then its fine. If not then spend some time enabling compression - 64k is all very well, but web pages are a lot of text so it can be slower than on a modem!

The other thing with bonded connections is that they are not always faster than a single 64k when transferring highly compressable data. I've been on ISP beta programs and got 120k/sec on the single channel but only 118k/sec for the same transfers at 128k - wierd!!

dsmith

Bear in mind with 128k there are two entirely separate calls being made. Whilst these both terminate on a physical router (or TA) at your end, they could be (almost certainly will be..) on entirely different routers at the other end. The packets that you send have to be re-assembled across these two boxes before they can carry on across the i'net. This process can be quite processor intensive, especially in very large Dial-in pools where lots of calls are teminating across many servers. Hence the somewhat variable nature of the exact benefit seen.

Somewhat easier to predict in a nice private dial-in setup where central control is kept over all the remote devices. A little trickier if you have to design a dial-in platform to support every conceivable ISDN adaptor from Joe Bloggs Hardware inc....

Dean

Chris L

Dean

Valid points it can be quite complex at the ISP end - but the fact remains that some ISPs manage to cope with no problems and others (BT comes to mind) can't. Up until very recently, BT completely failed to get it working with ISDN routers. As mentioned before - if you want an ISP that knows what they are doing and can handle multilink with no problems - goto Freedom2Surf.

Chris

ChrisB

Back onto the original topic for a moment...

BarryK

Which I told you yesterday.

PeterPerfect

Good tech info in the responses.
I was hoping to get multi-link on a 0800 number...not by using an 0845 x2 calls

So...who thinks HomeHighway is good value at £40 per month then

Pete

ChrisB

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by BarryK:
<B>Which I told you yesterday. [/quote]

Doh! I'll get me coat.

You get a much better ping playing UT on ISDN / HH over modem users - ask the guys who play on a Wednesday.

The BT Internet ISDN only service is also a lot, lot better...

We've changed our call plan to the £27 a month service as we don't make many calls.

Chris.

[This message has been edited by ChrisB (edited 27 March 2001).]