[lug] Anyone with PPP multilink experience?

[Harris, James]

> Multilink is poor man's ISDN;^)  There is about 0.3% loss in 
> the binding to a single session.  Using two Lucent chipset 
> modems together is not recommended.  USR chipsets work very 
> well together.  No comment on Rockwell, one way or the other. 

Glad to hear.  My existing modems are USR Sportster V.90's (good old
faithful ISA)...  So I assume that by the .3% loss you're mentioning, I
can't expect exactly 2 x connect speed?  Well, if it's only .3%, or even 3%,
I can cope.  :-)

 
>  Another expensive option is a 3COM multilink LAN modem, 
> which is priced about the same as their ISDN LAN modem at 
> $340. Webramp also has a LAN modem which can accept a second 
> external modem.  It will likely net for a little less.
<...snip>

Hmmm, interesting.  Since it sounds as though my existing modems will
probably work the best, I think I'll avoid the purchase of equipment unless
there's a hidden benefit.

> A few more comments for someone considering this.  The larger 
> problem is your Qwest service.  Adding lines has pitfalls, in 
> that to bring you an additional dial tone, Qwest may install 
> a UDC to split your existing copper into two (or more) 
> numbers but trash your connect speeds.  That's CM's issue, as 
> he was getting 40K+ on a single line before he added the 
> second number.  The UDC uses DSL signaling to accomplish 
> this.  Though the equipment is capable of 64K per channel, 
> it's detuned by Qwest at the C.O. or SLC.  Depending on the 
> era when you dwelling was built, it may only have two or 
> three pairs from the cable head.  The UDC's may be installed 
> on the dwelling or remotely on a pole.

Ick!  Sometimes I wanna reach out and smooch Qwest.  Errr... Thanks for the
heads up.  Maybe I'll see if I can get a competent Qwest tech out to tell me
if they've done anything like that.  (They do exist... Once upon a time a
tech really spent some extra time helping me out...  I almost had that old
fashioned feeling that a company CARED about their customer.)

> If you have two or more lines capable of 40K+, then you'll 
> get 80K+ plus compression.  Two 50K+ analog connections may 
> burst faster than 128K ISDN. Expect 2x the slower connection 
> WRT binding.  At 100K, multilink rocks and rolls.

This is what I'm hoping for.  I sort of get the feeling that my neighborhood
is old enough, was built well enough, and has not become dense enough, to
suffer from extreme saturation, and thus, maybe I can avoid Qwest tricks.
Well, at least, that's just the gut feeling -- but I can tell you this; our
service is 200% better than it was when I was living in Superior, so I have
hope.  Superior, as a tech described to me once upon a time, is a density
nightmare that causes them to do all kinds of nasty splitting, sharing etc.
So I'll hope.  Having 2 at 40k+ would definitely be cool.

Thanks a bunch for the comments.  I especially appreciate the heads up on
the splitting.  I don't see any point of trying to go multilink if my lines
have been split that way.  I'll see if I can find out beforehand.  Over-all,
it sounds like a pretty cool answer to the problem if all is in order.  (Now
I'll do a little bandwidth rain-dance.)  :)

Thanks!
Jim Harris