Call your broker and find out what the address is where their server is located. The reason I ask this is so you can explore a PTP T-1 connection direct into your broker's servers. This will provide the most secure data delivery and will bypass the internet completely. I seriously doubt that 1 DSL connection will do it for you. You need to diversify and go as TriPack suggested with 1 Cable and 1 DSL connection. If you PM the address of the office location, I can see what is available in your area and how far you are from the CO. If you are much farther than 18,000 ft from the CO, then your DSL will not run at full speed depending on whether or not there are coils and old DSLAMS between you and them. Good luck.
FuturesTrader71, in this kind of configuration (P2P directly to broker), does the broker typically charge any setup or recurring monthly fees for the hardware on their end (presumably this will tie up a router WAN interface on their side unless we are talking about a PVC into a frame relay connection) or are they willing to eat it for the sake of "locking" in a solid customer with this type of connection? Just to be clear, I'm not talking about the T1 line cost itself. Thanks.
You should be able to still use it, but you may need to switch the D-Link router to gateway mode from routing mode to get it to work with the hawking router, and of course the D-Link IP address will need to be in the same zone as the hawking router. FYI: The hawking router uses 192.168.2.1 as its default IP address but of course you can set it at whatever you wish. You will have to choose which router you want to have run the DHCP server, and turn the other DHCP server off. Also make sure you don't have IP# conflicts between the two routers, your modems and your computers.
No. Your cost should be from the T-1 provider. You will have to buy a router (eg Cisco 1721) for each end. The broker would put that in their server room and plug you into a port on their switch as if you were sitting right there. There is no cost to them and you will not use any of their bandwidth to trade. The routers cost about $400 each on eBay. The cost for a PTP T-1 is about $150 per 100 miles or so and gets cheaper per unit as the distance increases. If the broker has local presence, then the local loop may only be $250 per month for a direct connection, this is why I asked. This would be the best solution for the OP.
Oh ok, where I work (which isnt financial related), we maintain the routers and 3rd parties have to terminate their P2P T1's directly into our routers so we dont end up with banks of small single-interface routers to deal-with/maintain. In the situation you describe, who troubleshoots a connection problem or failure, the T1 provider or the broker (or you)? In my experience if the T1 provider is responsible for managing/maintaining equipment (a router) then they usually provide it which doesnt sound like what you are describing (if you can buy it on ebay)
I use DSL to trade. It is definitely not fool proof. It is sluggish at times, goes down, etc. My cost for a T1 is too high for a solo trader @ home. I'm thinking about a combined Cable/DSL solution. Anybody here who can critique this solution? Tripack does the router you suggested load balance real-time. What kind of throughput do you see? Thanks Duard
Because I'm clearing through a direct futures clearing firm with a full staff of tech support, the problems are handled initially by that staff. They can see into the routers on both ends and can determine where the problem lies. If they can't see the router on my end, then the issue is referred to the T-1 provider. They communicate with each other directly unless I need to reset a router on my end or something. You have the option to have the T-1 provider get the routers for you, but you end up paying retail for them and there is no advantage. I can tell you that once the line is up and burned in for 24 hrs and comes up good, I have not had a single issue with the routers, provider or the other end. I'm plugged into the Cisco switch at the clearing firm as if I was sitting in my office in Chicago. The line is extremely stable (overnight ping test shows a 2 ms deviation and no dropped packets). Depending on how much the OP trades and how serious a business trading is to his group, I can't see a better solution than a dedicated private T-1 line.
I like the combined speed - it is noticably faster, but much of that is just because cable is faster than DSL. I just ran a speed test and got 3.8 megabits per second. This is with the cable IP#. The DSL will be much slower. But I don't think that is too important. The way this router works is that it does a load balancing calculation every 8 seconds. Only new connections are affected by the balancing - either assigned to WAN1 or WAN2. So if you have it set to 50% / 50% WAN1/WAN2 load balancing, and you have a broker connection up and running and are at the 50% WAN1 threshold, and then you start downloading a file (or any new connection), the new request will go to WAN2. The default is always WAN1 if it is not over the threshold. I did a trace route and have analyzed the ping times to my broker and found that although there are 3 more hops with cable, it is about 10-20 ms faster than DSL, so I have cable set as WAN1 (the default connection) and DSL as WAN2 (the backup / load balancing connection). One of my fears with load balancing was that I was going to be constantly disconnected and reconnected. This doesn't happen as only new connections are balanced, existing connections continue through the WAN port where they originated. If WAN1 goes out (the router checks every 8 seconds), it should switch over to WAN2 automatically and vice versa. You can read more about the hawking router here and here: http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Reviews-20-ProdID-FR24-3.php http://www.tomsnetworking.com/FAQ-13-Hawking+FR24-12.php#122 The only negative I've seen is that as some users complain, the web interface in connecting to the router to check the settings is a bit slow. It was even slower after I inadvertantly turned off all web browsing in the firewall section, and then tried to log into the router! Can you say *reset button*?
A note on heat: I have burned out routers and modems in 3-6 months, and have had others run for years with no problems and the culprit seems to come down to overheating. I have my routers, and modems well ventilated underneath, and with a fan blowing on them to keep them cool. The same is true with computers and heat but I haven't had as many problems with computers as with routers burning out.