Bonded Broadband / Bonded DSL

Escape Online provides the option to bond or join multiple access services together. This could be 2 or more ADSL services or even a combination of others such as ADSL and Ethernet services.

There are several benefits to bonding:

Speed - The bandwidth from all services are combined together to provide a single facing connection to the network with just one network cable and a single public IP address.

With a single broadband connection when a file is sent it is broken up and sent out in small packets of information; one after the other is sent over the line. With bonding, each of these packets are sent out on different lines simultaneously. So with 4 bonded connections each connection is only dealing with 25% of the file. This is what gives you a faster connection. In addition to bonding multiple connections together data compression is also applied to all packets that pass through the bonding system, giving even more speed and stability to your connections. The system then assembles the pieces back together and sends it out into the public internet at the speed close to the sum of all the connections.

Reliability - The other big benefit from having a bonded service is that the network is much more reliable. By virtue of having multiple services, in the event that any one service goes down, the connection will simply failover to the remaining active links which will make any outages barely noticeable.

Q: What is the difference between Bonding and Load Balancing ?

A: A bonded solution is done at 'packet level'. This means that regardless of how many connections you are “Bonding” your network only sees one virtual connection. If you had a “file” that was 100mb in size and you had a bonded solution that was giving you a 4mbps uplink connection made up of 4 x 1mbps services then this would mean that the 100MB file would leave on a 4mbps connection and all the packets of that single file will flood all the available services at the same time. A load balanced solution would send the file out on the least used 1mbps connection. So the fastest connection for that file will be 1mbps.

Q: What is the bonding appliance?

A: The bonding appliance is a sophisticated device that comes with a number of ports, depending on the amount of services that you want to bond. The appliance is an inline device installed in your premises between your broadband modems and your LAN router or switch. If you have a firewall appliance, our bonding CPE sits on the outside interface (ISP) side of the firewall.

Q: Will someone come in to install the appliance?

A: It is very easy to install the appliance. You don’t need to be an IT professional and we have setup the installation as a matter of plugging it in and turning it on. You will receive a customer specific installation sheet showing easy step by step instructions. However if you still require assistance, we will be available via phone or email to assist. On site professional installation services are also available if required.

Q: How much bandwidth can I get through bonding?

A: Quite a lot. Our appliance will bond up to 6 connections. With ADSL2+ the system can provide up to 120Mbps downlink and 6Mbps uplink.

Q: What real data rates can I expect to see?

A: As most DSL based technologies are dependent on how far you are from the exchange and the quality of the line, it's very hard to say for sure. But with bonding, you can calculate a realistic number quite easily. If you currently have an ADSL connection, test the network speed, multiply it by 4 and that will be approximately what you will see with a 4 port bonded system. You can expect to see a little overhead from the bonding process but this is usually less than 10%.

Q: Is VPN traffic supported?

A: Yes. All traffic is bonded.

Q: Do all of the services have to be with Escape Online?

A: Yes. All services must be provided by Escape Online however you are able to mix and match any of the available access services, ie DSL, Ethernet and Wireless, to create your unique bonded requirements.

Q: How much data can I bond?

A: The service will generally aggregate data from all available links and will use them in roughly equal proportion depending on their uptime and quality. The bonding plans cater for varying needs and include downloads up to a set quota. Usage in excess of these amounts will be charged at $0.005/MB.

Q: I want several DSL services bonded but how can I minimise downtime if there is an outage and all of the services are with Escape?

A: If you are only looking at bonding DSL services then we have an option to diversify your services so they are running across different upstream suppliers. We have three completely different networks that we can provide DSL services over.