Managing multiple internet connections on a single computer?

[attgig]

simply put, is there a way to maintain two internet connections and have each app choose which connection to go through?


my situation:
I have wireless and I have a phone that I can tether (use as modem). The wireless connection has a bunch or ports blocked, so that I can't use my slingbox. I have to use my phone to get the mets game going. But, I'd like to have all my other apps using the wireless connection cuz it's a lot faster.

any ideas?

[Jeffbx]

You can maintain 2 connections, but you can't specify which one each app uses (that I know of).

When you connect them both up, you should have 2 entries in your routing table with the network destination 0.0.0.0 - this is where interenet traffic is sent. Go to a command prompt and type 'route print' to see what I mean - they should be the 1st 2 entries in the list.

Now, you can specify which IP addresses use which connection, so what you CAN do is if you have one application that you want to sent to one connection, and everything else through the second connection, what you can do is set up a static route for that single application to use connection A, remove the 0.0.0.0 route from that connection & you'll be good.

That's a really high level overview - let me know if it sounds like this would work for you & I can give you more details.

[attgig]

You can maintain 2 connections, but you can't specify which one each app uses (that I know of).

When you connect them both up, you should have 2 entries in your routing table with the network destination 0.0.0.0 - this is where interenet traffic is sent. Go to a command prompt and type 'route print' to see what I mean - they should be the 1st 2 entries in the list.

Now, you can specify which IP addresses use which connection, so what you CAN do is if you have one application that you want to sent to one connection, and everything else through the second connection, what you can do is set up a static route for that single application to use connection A, remove the 0.0.0.0 route from that connection & you'll be good.

That's a really high level overview - let me know if it sounds like this would work for you & I can give you more details.

Hey,

sorry for a slow reply... i do appreciate the help, but if i remember correctly, way back in october, the mets lost early, and i didn't need this. Now, they've blocked more ports and i kinda need this again.



C:\>route print
===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...00 12 f0 cb 8f 1b ...... Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection
- Packet Scheduler Miniport
0x40004 ...00 53 45 00 00 00 ...... WAN (PPP/SLIP) Interface
===========================================================================



Now how do I manually set up the static routes? and if I set that up, will it always be like that (if i go somewhere else that doesn't have the ports blocked...am i still stuck with the same configuration?

[Jeffbx]

When you have an IP address assigned to your machine, your routing table should look like this:


===========================================================================
Interface List
0x1 ........................... MS TCP Loopback interface
0x2 ...00 0c f1 88 03 e4 ...... Intel(R) PRO/1000 MT Network Connection - Packet
Scheduler Miniport
===========================================================================
===========================================================================
Active Routes:
Network Destination Netmask Gateway Interface Metric
0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.251 192.168.1.4 10
127.0.0.0 255.0.0.0 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 1
192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.4 192.168.1.4 10
192.168.1.4 255.255.255.255 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 10
192.168.1.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.4 192.168.1.4 10
224.0.0.0 240.0.0.0 192.168.1.4 192.168.1.4 10
255.255.255.255 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.4 192.168.1.4 1
Default Gateway: 192.168.1.251
===========================================================================
Persistent Routes:
None

You're primarily concerned with the IP table there. What it's showing from left to right is:
Network destination: this is the address you want to get to
Netmask: this is the subnet mask of the address you want to get to
Gateway: the gateway to go through for that connection
Interface: the card to use for the connection

SO - when you attach your phone to your machine, you'll see a big long list of addresses, and the two at the top will both be 0.0.0.0. This (all zeros) means 'anything not specified below goes here' - i.e., internet traffic. You only want ONE connection here (your wireless), so step one is to remove the extra entry. Make note of the existing entry, and then:


route delete 0.0.0.0

Unfortunately, since there are two 0.0.0.0 lines, they both get removed. Step two is to add back the wireless one only - this will send all internet traffic through your wireless connection (assuming your wireless gateway is 192.168.1.251, like mine above):


route add 0.0.0.0 MASK 0.0.0.0 192.168.1.251

Next step is to force the Mets traffic through your phone. This can be a little tricky, as you'll have to track down the server that's hosting the video. Best place to start is to ping the server that you go to to launch the video:


ping www.MetsVideoSite.com

Let's say it replies with 99.99.99.99, and that your phone gateway is 222.222.222.222 (ipconfig /all will give you that address)


route add 99.99.99.99 MASK 255.255.255.0 222.222.222.222

At this point, all internet traffic will be flowing through your wireless, and any server (hopefully including the video server) in the IP range 99.99.99.1 thru 254 will route through your phone connection.

Notes:

- You can put these into a batch file rather than typing them every time you connect the phone
- These are temporary connections - they will go away next time you reboot. You can MAKE them permanent with a '-p' switch at the end of the command.
- WARNING - by setting your machine up like this, you are now dual homed - meaning that if your wireless connection is at, say, work or school, you have just opened up a hole from the internet directly to your internal network. Could be a security concern.

Hope that made sense!

[Thesifer]

Why again don't you just open the ports on the Wireless router? There was a lot of discussion in here that I skipped, as it seems it's mostly about routing different modems. So why?

[stufine]

tho the message doesnt state it.. i get the feeling he doesnt have access to the wireless router. kinda like the free access i give my neighbors (i'm not going to open everything for them) :)

[kame]

this is good stuff.

Thx