back to article Win7 hotspot hackers kick-funded - now they're network bondage pros

Having raised more than $100,000 on Kickstarter, the Windows network bonding application has gone professional, with a professional price which will only appeal to those desperate to combine internet connections. Connectify raised the cash on the back of a pretty video and prototype code, which the company started selling to …

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  1. Steve the Cynic

    "with HTTP using multiple connections these days"????

    Um, have I missed something? (Answers on a postcard, but I'm expecting an overwhelming flood of "yes, you idiot, of course you have")

    Back when I first used Netscape Navigator version 1.0, back in 1995, it had options to set how many parallel HTTP connections to allow.

    I suppose that I've missed something about using some feature of HTTP/1.1 to have multiple connections fetching different parts of the same large object if the server supports partial fetches.

    God, that makes me feel old. I used Netscape 1.0. On Slackware 3.1.

    But I also remember being unable to use IE3.0 to download IE4+ from Microsoft's site in 2000 or so because Bill's boys had disabled the use of HTTP/0.9...

    1. Cronus

      Re: "with HTTP using multiple connections these days"????

      Said browser would (I'm pretty sure) try and use the same network interface for all of those multiple connections. The connectify program seems to just make those connections happen over a range of NICs so you effectively get more bandwidth.

    2. Steve Knox
      Meh

      Re: "with HTTP using multiple connections these days"????

      Not to mention SPDY, which aims to get rid of most of those multiple connections, anyway.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/03/google_spdy_included_in_http_2_draft/

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "with HTTP using multiple connections these days"????

      As far as I remember. HTTP originally had multiple parallel connections for separate HTML object requests - usually defaulted to a maximum four. Each connection closed when its single object had completed. The next objects each had to incur the handshake delay of opening a new connection.

      Later versions of HTTP kept all the TCP connections open and re-used them for subsequent object requests. Any connection was closed when either end decided to do so - with a backstop of an idle timer. of a couple of minutes.

      A further HTTP feature allowed several object requests to be pipelined in sequence on any one TCP connection - without waiting for the completion of each returned object. Luckily that never seemed to be used in the real world - analysing who did what to whom and when would get quite complicated.

      In a complex load-sharing network the multiple connections didn't necessarily follow the same path. It was not unusual to see the outward leg of a TCP connection using a different network path from the return. In some cases even the packets didn't necessarily follow the same paths. Obviously there were confluence points like firewalls which needed to correlate higher protocol layers.

      Not sure about parallel TCP connections' HTTP requests specifying different start/end points in the object. Sounds technically feasible as a restart facility - but could be used to overcome ACK latency on wide, but long, paths.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So I can steal the neighbours Wi Fi to make my own connection faster? Win.

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Holmes

      Really

      Why not just connect to their wireless rather than stealing their phone line and router.

      1. I sound like Peter Griffin!!
        Megaphone

        Re: Really

        Coz he wants BOTH!

        Gawwwwwwd

  3. AndyS

    I'm not sure how many places this will work - mobile (3G etc) connections are rarely a fraction of the speed of a fixed connection, but all other network access in a single location (whether house or office) normally comes in via one line - eg I can either plug my computer in or use the office wireless, but both end up going to the same server. Same at my house.

    Unless, of course, you use your neighbour's wifi, as the AC above suggested.

  4. Ru
    Paris Hilton

    Seems daft that Windows networking is so hard

    OpenBSD did this sort of thing years back, and I'd be frankly startled to learn that Linux hasn't had similar facilities for a while. So what is actually wrong with the Windows networking system that has made it so hard?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Linux version

    mv /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-bond0

    echo -e "DEVICE=eth0\nUSERCTL=no\nONBOOT=yes\nMASTER=bond0\nSLAVE=yes\nBOOTPROTO=none" >/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

    echo -e "DEVICE=eth1\nUSERCTL=no\nONBOOT=yes\nMASTER=bond0\nSLAVE=yes\nBOOTPROTO=none" >/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth01

    echo -e "alias bond0 bonding\noptions bonding mode=0 miimon=100" >>/etc/modprobe.conf

    $100,000, please.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Linux version

      What fanboi mneans is "you can do it in linux too", but such people are unable to communicate in the real world.

      1. Fatman
        FAIL

        Re: Linux version

        AC opines: What fanboi mneans (sic) is "you can do it in linux too", but such people are unable to communicate in the real world

        NO ID10T!!!!, what he means is that with one simple config change, you can get this accomplished in Linux, and not have to spend a dime for an unnecessary program.

        <sarcasm>

        But, you are probably either:

        1) SWAGged [1], or

        2) someone with money to burn. (Perhaps a fanboi of the fruity persuasion.)

        </sarcasm>

        [1] Has several meanings, the one I am referring to is

        Screwed

        Without

        A

        GUI

  6. InfoSecuriytMaster
    Mushroom

    Connectificationtivity

    Hurrray! But it seems most are missing the point. OF COURSE you 'could' bind your wireline with your cellphone to really move - by why? simpler to upgrade. But how about you are sitting at a bus stop between a Hooters, Staples, a MacDonalds and a Starbucks? Now THATS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!! gather them together and smoke the internet!!!

    1. Mako

      Re: Connectificationtivity

      "smoke the internet!!!"

      I'm thinking we're going to need much bigger Rizlas...

  7. Fuzz

    very niche

    Routers that can perform this kind of function with 2 or 3 net connections are widely available on the market and would allow all the devices in your building to share the Internet connections.

    Or if you don't want to pay for a router you can use an old PC running some sort of *nix which will do the job for you.

    1. Fatman

      Re: very niche

      A poster below points out that this functionality is not "built in" to WindblowZE, while is can be created in a *nix environment.

      I agree, that routers are available that can take advantage of multiple ISP connections, I believe that they are often referred to have "fallback" capability. But, I suspect that the main market for this is MOBILE DEVICES (e.g.laptops). If they can use a 3G or 4G connection in addition to local WiFi, you "up the ante".

  8. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Bonding

    "Said browser would (I'm pretty sure) try and use the same network interface for all of those multiple connections. The connectify program seems to just make those connections happen over a range of NICs so you effectively get more bandwidth."

    Yup, and in Linux at least (see the AC's comment above), the browser WILL see a single interface. bond0 in the case of this example the AC has. bond0 just happens to spread out connections among multiple physical interfaces. I'm sure the OpenBSD solution (per Ru) also presents a single interface.

    Anyway... AFAIK Windows *doesn't* do this on it's own, so good on them for having a 3rd-party app to do something like this.

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