Want 100Mbps always-on broadband? Here’s a little-known device that can help deliver itMumbai, Feb 19(AZINS) Across the country, we’re surely but surely getting a taste of what true broadband really is. I’m not talking about the paltry 512Kbps minimum broadband speed that the TRAI has drafted for Internet service providers--in most cities today it isn’t hard to find offerings from the likes of both government run ISPs like MTNL and BSNL to private operators like Hathway and You Broadband that promise Internet connectivity of 10Mbps speeds and beyond, some even topping out at 100Mbps. And many of these top-end speeds can be had for monthly rentals in the region of Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,800.

But there’s another factor even more critical than Internet connection speed, and that’s Internet connection reliability. For me personally, that’s the bigger pain point: given the incessant road work within the area I live, it’s not surprising that my phone line based MTNL DSL connection was more offline it was on over the last several months. And the frustration of having no connectivity is only exacerbated by the massive cellular phone bills that result from resorting to 3G when WiFi-based Internet is down.

Which is why I decided to fix this persistent issue by adding a second Internet connection to my home. While this may sound like an unnecessary indulgence, it’s actually quite practical these days--by selecting two plans from different service providers, your Internet connection now has redundancy. This duplication is key to drastically lowering the possibility of a connectivity blackout.

Redundancy is a strategy frequently used by IT managers to keep their businesses up and running, but has understandably not been that popular among general consumers given the cost and complexity implications. But that isn’t the case today with falling prices of both broadband services and the hardware to implement this setup.

Which brings me to a device called a ‘load balancing router’. While the name may sound intimidating enough, it’s really a simple piece of hardware: it’s a piece of networking gear (much like the wireless access point in your home,) but with the ability to simultaneously run two Internet connections. What’s more, they can bond the effective bandwidth of the connected broadband lines delivering an immediately upsized Web experience for users. The device is also able to automatically switch connectivity from failed connections to active lines. The result? An always-on, bandwidth-enhanced experience.

The device I selected to implement this setup was a TP-Link TL-R470T+ load balancing router, an innocuous-looking box that resembles a regular networking switch (the device typically used to connect computers in a LAN.) After a quick 5-minute initial configuration (if you’ve set up your home WiFi network, this should be child’s play,) I had my two Internet connections piped into this router and the router connected to the WiFi access point that delivers Internet connectivity to the devices in my home.

The box consists of five Ethernet ports at the back: one pure LAN (for connecting to your computer or WiFi router,) one pure WAN (for connecting one of the Internet lines,) and three that can be configured for either LAN or WAN. So if you want to go the whole hog, you could practically have up to four broadband connections coming into this box. Each port of this box supports speeds of up to 100Mbps and comes with several security features that defend against many types of web-based attacks.

Shown here is a typical Speed Test of the resulting network connection, which in this case happens to the sum of a 100Mbps (effectively about 82Mbps) fibre-backed You Broadband connection and a 4Mbps (effectively about 3.5Mbps) MTNL Triband DSL connection.

With with the device’s failover capability (switching to an active line in case the other goes down,) I could literally unplug one of the Internet lines and still be connected to the Internet via the other. Then plugging it back in promptly adds back the speed.

Priced at Rs 3,630, this load balancing router is a clear must-have for any Internet user who doesn’t mind shelling out a bit extra and is open to exercising some configuration elbow grease. The resulting Internet access speed and reliability is game-changing.