Combine Multiple Internet Connections

Lately, I have been looking to combine multiple internet connection to make a single high speed connection, I spent countless hours finding ways to merge my backup internet connection so I can utilize maximum speed but I could not find any reliable solution except a few. Therefore, I created this guide to help out people who are trying to get good internet speed by combining their 3G/4G or different ISPs. Before starting, I give you an overview of how multiple combination works.

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Load Balancing, how it works:

There are software/hardware out there that can do load leveling between multiple internet (WAN) connections. They can tell computer to use multiple connections (IP addresses) to obtain data from a single source. Strictly speaking it does not combine the bandwidth, it just tricks the computer to use both connections to send/receive packets from multiple connections. This method works ideally with Torrent downloads, Internet Download Manager,Web browsing, Steam Downloads and gives a significant speed boost. However, other type of connections such as VPN or Proxy might not work correctly with it.

Method #1 – TP-Link TL-R480T+ Load balancing Router [Recommended]

TP-Link TL-R480T+ Load balancing Router

TP-Link provides an efficient and economical hardware based load balancing solution. Their TL-R480T+ Router can combine upto 4 WAN connections (PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP, Dynamic IP)  into 1 LAN connection which you can later share it through WiFi Routers, LAN network hubs or directly connect it to your PC. This router is available in market for about $50 bucks, you don’t need to be a network engineer to set it up, just plug your WAN cables into the WAN port(s), run the quick setup wizard and you are good to go!

Important Settings:

Load balancing multi-wan

Prepare/configure your WAN connection first. If you are connecting a LAN cable directly from your previously configured broadband router to your Load balancing router then select Dynamic IP. It will automatically acquire settings through DHCP. If you are directly connecting WAN connections such as PPTP, then you need to do settings accordingly.

TL-R480T+ Load balancing

Un-check both “Application Optimized Routing” and “Balanced Based Bandwidth Routing”. Otherwise you won’t get combined download speeds.

Make sure you set proper MTU (the default is 1500, for some it is 1420, it varies) for all WAN connections, if you don’t, then some websites will not open and give connection timeout error.

The default IP address of Router is 192.168.0.1 – Do not change it. Also keep in mind that your incoming WAN connections default gateway must be not same as the load-balancing router. If WAN connection conflicts with router, it will be stuck at “Connecting…” on Router Status page.

Method #2 – Use Windows 7, 8 based Load Balancing Technique [Free]

If you connect 2 internet connection to Windows at a time, the operating system automatically selects one connection as primary and uses others as as failover connection mode.  You can force Windows 7, 8 to use both connections simultaneously using a simple trick.

Combine Internet connection in Windows 7

Steps:

  • Open Network and Sharing Center > Change Adapter Settings
  • Go to properties of any of your active Internet connection whether it be LAN, WiFi or 3G/4G.
  • Select Internet Protocol TCP/IP Version 4, Open its properties, then go to advanced.
  • Uncheck the Automatic Metric and type “15”.
  • Repeat same steps on other Internet connections you want to combine.
  • Restart your Computer.

Method #3 – Software Based Load Balancing [Unpredictable]

Connectify Dispatch and Speedify

There are several programs available such as Connectify Dispatch Hotspot, Speedify etc. They perform the same function as the method #2 but they have ability to create hotspot using your newly combined connections. I discourage use of 3rd party software based load balancing because it uses a lot of resources and connection quality is not reliable moreover, the app is very expensive once the trial version is expired.

Useful information:

  • The above mentioned method for combining connection only works with applications that support multiple connections.
  • Combining internet connection speed does not improve PING/Latency, online gaming will be the same. Sorry folks.
  • Logging-in your account using multiple connections can put you under suspicion as it uses multiple IP addresses to send same data packets.

Thanks for reading, if you find any mistakes or you have any improvement tips, please do share!

30 COMMENTS

  1. Method #2 is not working, at least it says that the second (LAN) connection does not have internet reception.

  2. Hi, can i connect three dynamic ips to the TP-Link TL-R480T+ Load balancing Router as dynamic ips (Reliance) asks for user id & password everytime i login to internet. If it accepts how it works, will we enter the login details in the setup? please reply i am expecting your reply as early as possible. Thanks in advance

  3. Try this use pdanet+ app on Android and pc, pay the one time fee so it won’t disconnect periodically and the install the old non disconnecting version of connectify on your computer. Finally buy a wireless USB adapter using this method u can use your Android device as a cellular/WiFi receiver that has a better antenna range then a USB wireless adapter to get internet to one computer then use connectify to hotspot out from that computer using the Android as incoming and the USB WiFi as outgoing

  4. Hi, cool article! Just wondering if there is any chance to merge average cable connection and 3G connection (3G USB modem) with METHOD #1?

  5. How can you connect the 3 modems from (ie) example…..
    I have 3 modems ( not routers ) and each modem has 10mb connection
    How do I connect 3 feeds to my cable modems…
    Do I jus use a 3 way splitter and send 3 Ethernet cables into my multiport to link

  6. Hello,

    I have a question.

    Will it be possible to increase the internet speed by combining two connections for a single application? This means that I would like to use a single application for streaming video at high speed and good quality. A single connection is not providing sufficient speed so I wish to combine two connections using a hardware TP Link router to my wireless internet connections and then connect the router to my tv for good streaming quality. Will the hardware solution mentioned above work?

    Thank you for your help.

  7. I have tried and tested aforementioned TP-Link Multi-wan router for this purpose. On PC, I am getting improved download speeds on YouTube. Technically, it should be able to provide high-speed internet on your TV as well. I don’t have internet support on my Smart TV, else I would have answered your questions with facts.

  8. Thank you Justin for your answer. I shall buy the TP router and try it out for the tv. Thank you once again.

  9. I am using TL-R470+ load balance router to bond two connections into one i am getting full speed from both in utorrent and IDM download from websites that allow multiple connections and steam game downloads

  10. I have poor network connect in my area(India). I can get max. 21kbps on mobile data and 60 kbps on broadband. So can I combine both sources using 2nd method by connecting broadband on LAN port and mobile phone on Wi-Fi hotspot?

  11. Method two worked for me. Using wifi connected to a cellphone hotspot and a LAN connected to an ISP. No need to restart the PC after setting both adapters to “15”. Many thanks! I get to speed up my “Steam” downloads

  12. thanks Justin, #2 works for me perfectly but its like only a back-up system, if the main isp (LAN1) will fail over the other isp (LAN2) would connect automatically giving me an uninterruptible internet connection. Great Ideas Justin Many thanks again.

  13. hi, sir.

    i purchased TP-LINK  TL-R480T+ load balancer broadband router. [ ver. 7.0]
    For combined internet speed.

    I have 2 wan connections each connection directly giving me 15 mbps 
    When i connect in load balancer output lan giving only 7 to 10 mbps,  so i am confused.  Any other settings need for that problem. Please help me .
    Thanks.

  14. Suppose I’m having local reliability issues streaming audio up to a streaming server. Would having both my DSL service and my cable service combined in the way you describe mean /both/ would have to fail at once for the destination, the streaming server, to experience dropouts? Or is this two-into-one method only good for my download speed?

  15. Can I assign limits on one connection and no limit on the other ? I am using unlimited package from one provider but speed sucks little, the other provider provide speedy connection but limited data. So can I trick the computer to only asks for data packets from the limited when it is required by the streaming service I use. I watched a 90 minute live match last week and my data expired within an hour because only available sources are very high quality not SD quality. Need suggestions people before the final on Sunday or I will miss it !!!

  16. Hello, i live in a rural area, and i really need help, i had Verizon Wireless for 5 years, but recently their speeds have gone from over 1mb/second to now 50kb/second – for the majority of the day, so much for their commercials of “BETTER MATTERS” they refuse to do anything about it and bluntly told me to drop them as a provider, and insist i live in a “marginal area” its like i’ve been a customer for 5 YEARS without an issue until now… – all equipment has been replaced, i’ve even spent over 1,000 dollars and went from a -102 DB signal to now a -58 DB signal – best signal i’ve had in 5 years but still slow speeds (they insisted the connection was only slow because of my signal to the tower so i improved that GREATLY), one tech ADMITTED that their tower was over-loaded and that it was the cause of the trouble and there was nothing i could do on my end – AFTER i spent all that money and got a good or above excellent connection to the tower – according to RF charts, – However that doesn’t stop them from insisting i am in a marginal area – LOL…

    so that leads me to what i want to do, MANY Cell providers offer unlimited Data includeing verizon now, at a very cheap rate, but they ALL will Throttle after 22 gigs of data (or less depending on some carriers) but their throttle speed according to the fine print is often 250kb/second (which is 3 or 5 times what i’m getting now most of the day)

    so what i want to do, but i’m not sure if it will work, is buy unlimited data plans from AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon – and combine that into 1 internet. (assumeing that they all choose to throttle me at 250KB/second) that is still almost 1mb/second speeds – at a cheaper price then their “HIGH SPEED DATA” plans.

    Speedify is 169/year for unlimited – but i don’t know if this plan will work or not, any suggestions? – I CANNOT GET A HARDLINE from the cable company that is 2.7 miles away from me, they want 187k to run a cable line on existing infrastructure to my house… (Atlantic broadband) – i live in the woods and really need help to get decent internet.

    to be clear i’m not looking to increase ping or latency, just maximum bandwidth ability, as there are some games i’d love to play that require for example 600kb/second bandwidth – which i used to beable to play easily but now its impossible due to 50kb/second speeds on my 1 and only connection to the outside world.

    Again please help <3 suggestions advice anything would be super awesome X_X

  17. hi, i have tplink tlr480t+ V7, i already connect 2 isp in my router, i have two 50mbps with static ip, but my problem is when i try to use speedtest, my speed is only at 47mbps. i want to combine my 2 50mbps, anyone can u help me?

  18. I’ve tried to use the TP-link router to combine two unstabile Internet connections and in this case, it’s only amplifying the error.

    It doesn’t detect if an Internet connection is down, only if it’s disconnected from the nearest switch/router. It will think that if it’s connected to a switch/router and keep communicating with a connection that’s not working.

    If you have stability issues with both connections, your Internet will be down if either connection is down.

    The Link-Backup function doesn’t work for this purpose either.

    Disabling Application Optimized Routing might not be the best advice for all as some kinds of communication might not work properly. In my case it creates a lot of stability issues.

  19. @Frederik Grøn Schack,

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Yes using a TP-Link router for combining internet is an unreliable solution, their hardware is pretty outdated now and firmware is equally bad. This method is only good for downloading. Not for general web-browsing.

    If you want to use Multiple connections for Torrent downloads, you can try a client name Vuze (formerly Azureus). It allows you to use Multiple Interfaces (WIFI/LAN etc.) without needing additional hardware.

    In the connection settings of Vuze, all you have to do is to specify eth0, eth1 in the connection interfaces text box.

    Vuze will then start sending and receiving packets from both connections.

  20. Hi Justin, I have two TL-R480T’s with four 10 Mb ADSL’s connected to the 4 WAN ports on each one which gives me two data streams with almost 40 Mb for each one. Is it possible to connect a LAN from each TL-R480T to a third TL-R480T to combine the bandwidth of the 8 ADSL’s into one datastream to get close to 80 Mb on one LAN?

  21. Hi Justin, it looks like my post disappeared so here it goes again. I am trying to sum bandwidth from 8 WAN sources (ADSLs). I am using two TL-R480T+ Routers so that I now have two LAN outputs with 4 of the ADSLs successfully summed on each router. My question is: can I sum the bandwidth of the two LANs using a third TL-R480T+ Router?

  22. @Diego Luna,

    Sorry for late reply.

    The TPLink-R480T+ router is very old hardware, around 10 years old. The max throughput of these WAN router is 100mbps, the CPU, memory processing is very low.

    If you have ADSL or low speed internet this router is fine. But if we are talking about 40Mbps+ connections. I would suggest you to look for different solutions such as Mikrotik, EdgeRouters and so on.

    Get rid of all the hassle and get a fiber-to-the-home connection that is available in your area.

    The loadbalancing is for fail-safe or fail-over not reliable for combining internet connections as I stated in my article.

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