A slow internet connection can be tortuous. But if you're limited by your internet service provider's speed, what options do you have for a better browsing experience? Channel bonding may be the answer.

Can You Use Multiple Internet Connections?

Your internet speed is typically limited by your area. Therefore, your service provider will need to deploy the necessary infrastructure to where your home or business is. This is why providers offer a coverage map to let you know what service they're able to provide.

If you absolutely require more bandwidth than your provider offers on a single connection, you will need an additional internet connection. This could be from the same provider using the same technology or a different provider with different technology.

Many companies offer this, and it does have its uses. If one provider's connection fails, there is a backup connection to which all internet traffic will be routed. The term for this is "failover."

Failover, however, won't help to increase your internet speeds. For that, you need load balancing or channel bonding.

Both load balancing and channel bonding have different use cases, costs, and caveats attached to them. Ultimately it comes down to how internet traffic is routed on your network.

How Is Data Routed Around the Internet?

Let's take a look at a high-level overview of an internet request. Your computer and browser connect to a server that delivers the necessary files for the web page you're currently reading to be loaded. For this analogy, try to imagine your internet connection like a set of pipes.

socket pipeline image

The various components of the web page, like text and images, are delivered (as a packet of data) over a socket. Think of the socket as a pipe for information that extends from the server to you. If the socket is a pipe, the packets are the liquid flowing through it.

For example, the image you see above was first broken into many individual packets and delivered through a socket. It was then reassembled by your web browser.

What Is Load Balancing?

Load balancing is how internet traffic is split among two or more internet providers. You need a router capable of multiple WAN connections to implement load balancing.

An example of one of these implementations is the Ubiquiti USG and the UniFi Controller.

how load balancing works

Each internet connection could be from a different provider or even different technology. For example, you could have the router connected to a fiber network and an LTE network simultaneously. Other than the costs, a client device is still limited to a single network connection at a time.

In the diagram above, the network has access to two 5Mbps internet connections. If a single user wanted to stream a movie that required 8Mbps per second, load balancing will not help. This is because a movie stream requires a large single-socket transfer or pipe to deliver a movie from a server to you.

What Is Channel Bonding?

So, if that's how loading balancing works, what is channel bonding?

Channel bonding splits your web traffic at the packet level among multiple internet connections. This means that channel bonding will be effective even for the user trying to stream a large movie because traffic is split at a low level.

While load balancing splits your network traffic, channel bonding effectively combines many different internet connections into one.

channel bonding example image

To make this happen, your internet traffic needs to be split and stitched back together again. There are both hardware and software options for channel bonding. Hardware options are required if you'd like your entire network to take advantage of channel bonding.

A company like Shareband will provide you with a device to plug in multiple internet connections. Then, your data is securely sent to this company over your multiple internet connections, where it is processed and sent back to you.

Hardware channel bonding options still require a subscription as the company is using its servers to split and stitch your internet traffic for you.

One of the use cases here is that a fiber connection to your home may cost a significant amount of money. To get around this, you could use two cheaper ADSL connections to your home and channel bond them together.

The cost of a channel bonding subscription plus two ADSL connections might still be less than a single leased fiber line, but your mileage may vary.

Channel Bonding Software

Fortunately, you may already have a device capable of using multiple simultaneous internet connections, in the form of a smartphone. You can channel bond your Wi-Fi and LTE connections using channel bonding software.

One such app is Speedify. Speedify is essentially a VPN, but as its name suggests, it can help speed up your internet experience using channel bonding. Speedify has apps available for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

It lets you use Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, and wired connections simultaneously to speed up your internet speed through channel bonding.

To get an idea of how effective said solution may be, you can run three speed tests: One using Wi-Fi only, one using LTE only, and one using Speedify's channel bonding, which will combine both.

The speed test results above show a great improvement when the connections are bonded together. This simple test shows how beneficial channel bonding can be for a faster browsing experience. Speedify also offers a free tier where they will optimize the first 2GB free per month, but after that, their channel bonding service starts at $5.99 per month.

Having the Speedify app on your smartphone won't help any other devices on your network. Fortunately, the company that makes Speedify also publish an app called Connectify. Connectify can turn your Windows 10 machine into a virtual router that can share its internet connection.

With a little configuration, you can use a Windows 10 machine (or older Windows machine) to channel bond an Ethernet and a 4G internet connection (using a dongle).

Related: How Fast Should Your Internet Speed Be?

You can then use Connectify to share that bonded connection with the rest of your network. Remember that mobile data can be expensive, so be sure to use the limit feature on Speedify to make sure you don't get handed an extortionate bill.

However, it does come at a cost. If you want to use Connectify for channel bonding between your devices, you'll have to buy a license for one of its two tools, Connectify Hotspot Pro or Connectify Hotspot Max. Connectify Hotspot Max will set you back $83 for a lifetime license and includes Wi-Fi repeater mode, bridging mode, and custom DHCP and IP controls, while the Hotspot Pro lifetime license comes in at $50 and doesn't include those three features. You'll find more information on the Connectify license page.

What to Do If You Can't Channel Bond?

If channel bonding or a faster internet connection isn't available, you still have options. For example, Ubiquiti's UniFi allows you to set download and upload limits on both groups and users. This can help shape your internet connection and provide a better browsing experience for your network.

Other systems such as AmpliFi have a feature called Quality of Service or QoS.

Be sure to check out your router's settings to see if it supports QoS if your network is highly congested. Channel bonding does come with cost implications and requires processing to combine both channels. However, channel bonding can provide you and your network with a much-needed internet speed improvement when other methods won't.