s about NIC teaming and load balancing on your PC
s about NIC teaming and load balancing on your PC
I don't experience the highest internet performance at home, and sometimes it becomes an issue. However, I see more frequently that my family is also using the network while I'm downloading big files. The concern is that our connection speeds aren't significantly affected; I usually get around 23-27 Mbps for downloads and 9-13 Mbps for uploads. I'm connected via a long-range Wi-Fi adapter, and my Ethernet link matches those speeds (routers are only in the next room). I tested my laptop and desktop and found similar results on both devices at once. My question is whether anyone knows a better method outside of virtual machines and Hyper-V to let my PC use both connections at the same time, kind of like load balancing. I understand bridging isn't what I'm after since I had to set that up with Pi before, and its not suitable here. I think the issue is that the PC would need to handle requests efficiently between two links, each with its own IP address, creating a virtual device to communicate directly. I suspect there might be latency problems on the network side, especially at higher bandwidths. I checked NIC teaming but it seems limited to virtual machines and Windows Server; I'm trying Windows 10 Pro. Any advice would be appreciated—please don't search the forum unless you can help me find the right path. Thanks!
Using firewall rules or third-party tools lets apps employ specific interfaces, and services like SMB3 enable file transfers over aggregated links. However, for internet-bound traffic you’d likely need a complex setup—such as an app that splits VPN traffic across multiple ports while masking all data within the VPN. This concept is uncertain in practice. If a wired connection already offers gigabit speeds, aggregating it for wide area networks would be unnecessary. With Wi-Fi, if your channel provides more bandwidth than your ISP plan, further aggregation won’t help.
think of a different approach to see if it’s feasible at the moment. using your phone’s hotspot together with the home Ethernet connection could give you two internet sources, but finding a way for your PC to handle both at once isn’t straightforward. I recall a video where someone set up a bridge for two connections, which needed special hardware—Linus did it with a lot of effort. It seems software can’t easily manage two links like that on a regular machine. My PC already works with one or the other, and while a VM helps, it’s not practical for everyday use. I get similar speeds from both providers because the home router acts like a router with a wireless SIM on the ATT network, just like my phone. It would feel like having two separate connections, similar to a bridge setup but without the extra gear. This might not be possible right now, though it was an idea I considered when downloading large files or setting up a new PC. Ideally, this could double your speed while using the hotspot on your desktop, especially during long downloads. A clearer diagram might help clarify the concept.