Double Your Dial-Up Speed

Home Office Computing, May, 1999 by Claude J. Bauer

Sick of sluggish access? Take two modems and call us in the morning

INTERNET BANDWIDTH--WE JUST CAN'T SEEM TO GET enough of it. Home office workers looking for faster access have been turning to ISDN, ADSL, cable modems, and satellite services. All are effective solutions, but they can be limited in availability and expensive to implement. But another option, modem bonding (also known as modem teaming, channel bonding, and dual analog), lets you create a dial-up connection that delivers Internet content at near-ISDN speeds--theoretically as fast as 112Kbps, though real-world data transfer rates of a still impressive 75Kbps to 100Kbps are more common.

How can you perform this magic on your PC? For starters, you'll need two modems. Digicom Systems' Modem Blaster 112K (408-262-1277, www.digicomsys.com; $100) and Diamond Multimedia's SupraSonic II (800-468-5846, www.diamondmm.com; $150) each consists of two 56Kbps modems on a single board

You'll also need two phone lines, modem teaming software, and either one or two Internet service provider (ISP) accounts, depending on the software you choose. For example, MidPoint Teamer (MidCore Software, 800-673-6274, www. midcore.com; $49) requires two accounts. To use MidPoint Teamer--also available bundled with Boca Research's 56Kbps Tidalwave modem (561-997-6227, www.bocaresearch.com; $80)--you configure a Windows Dial-Up Networking connection for each modem and then connect to the Internet. Once both modems are online, you open a Web browser, and the software splits the browser's workload between the two connections. A "download doubler" boosts file transfer speeds and a load-balancing algorithm lets you team modems operating at different speeds.

"MidPoint Teamer works with any ISP, anywhere," claims MidCore president David Wilson. (The same isn't necessarily true of online services; America Online does not support modem bonding, but it's possible to set up a bonded channel over CompuServe's network.) Because most ISPs offer unlimited-use accounts, you can remain online as long as you like using this method. The downside is that you have to pay for two accounts.

In contrast, Diamond's Shotgun channel bonding software requires only a single account, but your ISP must support the Multilink PPP protocol. After setting up the modems with Windows' Dial-Up Networking, you connect to the ISP, where the channels are bonded into a single connection to the Internet.

"Channel bonding builds a bigger pipe to the Internet," explains Brian Robison, technical marketing engineer for Diamond Multimedia. The Shotgun software includes features not available with basic Multilink PPP, such as connecting the second modem only when it's needed and voice priority, which allows voice calls to interrupt one of the connections without interfering with downloads.

According to Diamond, 2,400 access points of presence (POPs) in the United States and Canada now support Shotgun. National ISPs offering Shotgun-based, dual-analog, unlimited-use service include Netcom OnLine Communications Services Inc. (800-638-2661, www.netcom.com; $29.95 per month) and A Net (888-301-2516, www.apls.net; $29.95 per month). Additionally, EarthLink Network (800-395-8425, www.earthlink. com) plans to offer dual-analog service in the future; pricing was not set at press time. Check the Shotgun Web site (www.supra.com/shotgun) for a list of providers and POPs in your area.

Expect that list to grow: According to Yuric Hannart, product marketing manager for Netcom, dual analog is one of the company's "major offerings." Backing up that claim, Netcom is upgrading all 236 of its POPs for dual-analog service, covering 700 cities nationwide.