Networking – One network adaptor, one network. Two gateways, two internet connections

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  • My network has two modems/gateways, each connected to a different ISP on a different line.

  • My computer has one network adapter.

  • Just to make sure everything is clear, this is all set up on one network, where every device can communicate with all others.

By setting up static routing i can easily chose which internet connection i want to use.
Now, I want to use both internet connections simultaneously, such that each program uses a different connection. I have tried:

  • Creating a virtual adapter with windows loopback adapter, configure it to use a different gateway than the physical adapter and use ForceBindIP to launch each program. But I could not get this to work (probably because there is no connection between the virtual adapter and the network?). I tried to create a network bridge between the two adapters (physical and virtual) but windows forces them to use the same gateway and i want each to use a different gateway.

  • Desperately trying to use virtualbox network adapter to somehow do the trick. But i dont know how to do this. If i create a virtual machine with "bridged connection" i can configure the VM to use one gateway while the host OS uses the other gateway. But i dont want to use VMs, I want the host OS to use both gateways.

How can I use one network adapter to connect to two different gateways and then chose which programs use which gateway?

Thank you very much!

Best Answer

I've mucked around with this. I simply had one system connect to both gateways (with different ip address ranges), and used a load balancing proxy.

Connectify dispatch does this for you VERY simply , has a free version, and a paid version with more features.

An alternative a free open-source alternative called dispatch-proxy that works well enough for me. It lacks most of the bells and whistles, but its free, and will work with any software that allows for a proxy server. I've run this with two wireless connections on different subnets and it seems to work as it should. Its a little complex (needs node.js) and lacks some features dispatch has.

In this case, I'd run one instance per connection profile you want for maximum flexibility. I suppose in theory, if you didn't want very finegrained control and went the proxy route, you could run a small proxy bound to the ip address you want to use, and do the same.

A third alternative might be to simply buy a dual WAN router, and have it as a single gateway.

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