Ok, I want to be able to share 4 internet connections.

First, my own cable connection. (5M)
Second, my own DSL connection. (3M)
Third, friends wireless cable connection. (5M, closest, 50 - 85% wireless signal)
5th, another friends wireless cable connection. (3M, furthest, 30 - 50% wireless signal)

What I will have.

Two Linksys WRT54G wireless routers, setup in bridge mode to connect to the wireless APs.

Desktop with 5 NICs, 4 for WAN and 1 to power the LAN.

I do have a Nexland Pro800Turbo router too that has Dual WAN Port, load balancing built in. I don't think I'd need to use this though, since I plan to use the load balancing with the linux router/server I plan to make.

The linux router/server, will serve as a file server(http probably, with FTP server for uploading) for my LAN as well as the two wireless APs (if possible) so we can all share files easier.

I will also be updating/modding there current routers with some Linksys routers as well, so I can get a better signal to the setup.

Then on my LAN side I plan to have another linksys router setup, that'll be behind the load balanced router, so they can connect to it wireless as well.

I don't think I left anything out.

I just need to know which distro of linux would be able to do what I want, the easiest and most effective way.

Although I was planning to do something like this earlier, but had to drop it...blabla.
What my research showed me was the best distro for something like this would be FreeBSD. It has dummynet feature, with which you can manage your bandwidth. I am not sure how you will manage the wireless connections though.
It would be nice to hear your progress on this.

The linux box wont even know the connections are coming from a wireless source. I will be using two linksys WRT54G routers with dd-wrt installed on them, in bridge mode. They will connect to the APs for me. So it will be a wired (DHCP) connection from them.

Skillz

You understand that this will NOT increase your browsing speed(single user)? It will also not increase your download speed in single channel mode(most common). Multichannel usenet (pan,klibido) will increase, as long as the server allows multiple connections from multiple ips (giganews does not allow this). I am not sure how p2p will react, but I suspect it will get mad too.

Good Luck
Lazlow

Yes I know this will not increase my speed with connections where I can only connect to it once. It will help with torrents, some P2P programs, web browsing will increase, I'll just have to tweak FF to use multiple connections. File downloads would be increased, only like you said, with servers that allow multiple connections, using some kind of accelerator program. Not sure if FF can do this just yet.

This is mostly to accommodate the LANs that I host quiet frequently. Even the neighbors I'll be sharing a connection with come over for them, and if I can get this setup the way I want, they can stay at home and still play as if they are here with us.

OT:
Been doing some research on directional wireless antennas.

Skillz

There is a difference between multiple connections (normal) and multiple connections from multiple IPs(unusual). I think that you are going to find that most things will not work (increase speed) on the latter. Most web servers will not allow multiple connections to the same app across multiple ips (multiple connections yes, multiple ips yes, multiple connections and ips no).

I've done this before, so unless things have changed in 5 years; then I don't see there being that much of a difference.


I have a Nexland Pro800 Turbo router that has dual WAN ports, I used to run with two ISPs (first two DSL connections, then one DSL connection and one Cable) and most things did see an "accelerated" speed, especially on things I used a download accelerator on, torrents weren't that big back then, atleast I didn't use them. However, Limewire was (wasn't lime wire, but same network, forgot the name of the older version) and I would see the much faster speeds on the downloads through that. I had my web browser setup for multiple connections to the internet, and it worked fine.

I don't see this being much of a difference between the Pro800 Turbo Router with Dual WAN ports and my custom made version with 4 WAN ports.

After re-reading what you typed, I think you misunderstand my goal here.

I plan to have 4 connections going to one router(linux box), load balancing those connections on the LAN port, that will be connected to another regular router(prolly a linksys) that will be connected to the end nodes (using one IP)

So...

(4 connections connected to WAN ports ) --> (one linux box, 5 NICs; 4 WAN, 1 LAN) --> (one router connected to the previous 1 LAN NIC) --> DHCP for the end nodes to connect to the router via wireless or wired.

So I want the linux box to load balance the 4 connections with that 1 LAN port.

Hope that makes things a little more clear. I don't plan to surf the internet, or even get on the box, that has the multiple connections directly connected to it. It will just serve as a router, hidden somewhere.

what distro did u use?