Help! Setting up a wireless network for ICS.

[worshond]

Sawubona ("Hallo" - in native Swazi, RSA)

I'm setting up a wireless network to cover a 300 square foot apartment block with internet connectivity (initially 18 users). The connection is a shared broadband connection consisting of several SEPERATE ADSL lines. Each ADSL line is 512Kbps max and completely seperate from the other lines. Our only national telecommunications company, Telkom, limits each line to 3gig of traffic per month. After this cap is reached international connection speed is reduced to that of an analog modem, local connections stay uncapped at 512Kbps, but contribute to the initial 3gig limit.

Please advise me in layman's terms on the following:

1. What software is available to set up seperate user accounts in order to monitor the users' internet usage (megabyte sent / received). The software should also manage which users on the network have access to the internet connection.

2. Is it possible to route national and international traffic through seperate lines? This would manage the monthly cap more effectively.

3. Both ADSL lines should connect to one server. How can the lines be set up to work together?

4. It is not possible to use PPPoE to connect nodes to the internet (only 4 concurrent sessions are allowed per ADSL line). All access must therefore be routed through the server which establishes the only connection to the internet. What ICS software could manage this?

5. What hardware would you reccommend to set up the above network?

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

 

[folken]

WOW! That is one complex network you are proposing
Lets see if I can help you at all.

1. I know there are software packages and hardware apliances that will do that. Google will be your helper for that one. Do a google search for per user internet usage management, that will give you quite a few things to choose from.
2. Is this possible? Probably. How do you do it? I'm not 100% sure but any way to do it is more than likely going to be very complicated. It would have to be some sort of routing script that would send requests for certain domain names down different paths. Most national sites are going to have a corresponding domain name to the country, like .de for germany and .uk for united kingdom. You would have to make some sort of script that send requests for your countries domain name on a different connection.
3. You could load balance those connections. Windows doesn't do true load balancing, it will either assign different protocols to different connections or spill traffic overflow from one connection to the other. Only fancy scripts in linux or a router with load balancing will do true load balancing. I believe only cisco routers are capable of that. They cost way to much for any user besides a large buisness to consider getting them.
4. That will probably tie in with what ever internet management solution your find.
5. Hard to say. If you get a software internet management solution you will likely need a windows machine for it. You could then use that machine as a gateway router for what ever internet connections you use. If you get an appliance management solution you could use a windows or a more secure linux machine as a gateway.
Any hardware you need will pretty much be based on what you find in the way of internet management. That seems to be the focus of this endevor so everything should probably be based off of it.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[worshond]

Thanks a lot for the advice! Yeah, it's quite a mind bogler. I have to get this set up in the next two weeks (holding both thumbs).

Will research all your proposals and post some feedback when I'm all done.

Cheers