Bonding multiple VPN connections?

[buckaroo]

Here's my situation. We have a Corporate Office and 22 branch offices. Most are connected with MPLS T1s at the branch end and a 20mbps Ethernet-over-copper circuit at the Corporate office. We also have an Adtran 3448 at our Corporate Office that we use for VPN Concentration to connect some of our various smaller sites with DSL or cable modem connections. They each have a 3120 and create a VPN tunnel to our 3448, and that all works perfectly.

We're about to change network providers, and the new provider doesn't service one of our existing T1 branches. They're in a very remote area, and the only real (affordable) possibility is incredibly slow (1.5m/512k) DSL. They currently have two DSL circuits hooked into a PC running either pfSense or Smoothwall and providing the combined bandwidth to their customer WiFi network. I'm interested in getting them another pair of DSL circuits, plugging them into a 3200 or 3448, and having them bond those two VPN-over-DSL connections to our Corporate 3448, which would give them better downstream speed (although slightly worse upstream speed) than the T1 they have now, for far less per month. For the life of me, though, I can't seem to figure out how to bond two VPN circuits.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm not sure I'm even looking in the right direction. I was originally thinking something like MLPPP, but this is all just a hair beyond my experience level with these boxes.

[Anonymous]

- If I understand your question correctly, you are wanting to have the NetVanta terminate 2 physical internet connections and bond that connection to create more throughput at the site. Without VPN in place, this could work if you plan on load balancing across both circuits. Unfortunately, there is no way to "bond" the DSL connections on the NetVanta though. Below is a link that provides some information on load balancing:

As far as the VPN connection goes, this will only be able to go across one of the DSL connections since we are unable to bond VPN connections together and there is no option to bond the DSL connections together under a logical interface. You do have options in how you split the traffic over the 2 internet connections that may allow you to free up some bandwidth for one application or another. For example, you could have one internet connection simply for internet traffic while the other internet connection is dedicated for VPN traffic.

Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any further questions or if I misunderstood your application.

Thanks,

Noor

[buckaroo]

Let''s drop the VPN, then - would it be possible to take a couple of switchports out of the main VLAN, assign them their own IP, then establish PPP connections to the corporate firewall, and use Multilink to bond the ppp sessions?

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

- I'm afraid I don't think that will work. The NetVanta can only do MLPPP over a bonded T1 connection. Also,you won't be able to terminate a PPP connection over the internet to the corporate firewall. If you would like the NetVanta to bond a circuit, the only option you have is multiple T1 connections.

As I mentioned in my last post, you can always load share across 2 internet connections. However, the VPN you build will only be able to go over one of those internet connections back to Corporate.

:Let us know if you have any further questions.

Thanks,

Noor

[Anonymous]

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I went ahead and flagged this post as “Assumed Answered.”  If any of the responses on this thread assisted you, please mark them as either Correct or Helpful answers with the applicable buttons.  This will make them visible and help other members of the community find solutions more easily.  If you still need assistance, I would be more than happy to continue working with you on this - just let me know in a reply.

Thanks,

Noor

[Anonymous]

I went ahead and flagged the "Correct Answer" on this post to make it more visible and help other members of the community find solutions more easily. If you don't feel like the answer I marked was correct, feel free to come back to this post and unmark it and select another in its place with the applicable buttons.  If you still need assistance, we would be more than happy to continue working with you on this - just let us know in a reply.

Thanks,

Noor