How to Get Multiple DSL Modems in One House

Most households and businesses have a single Digital Subscriber Line, or DSL, connection to the Internet. Traditional ADSL has a maximum download speed of 6 megabits per second, which 2 -- 3 megabits being a more common practical speed. Newer DSL technologies, such as VHDSL, dramatically improve the download speed. However, it may be useful to have multiple DSL connections in your household for redundancy or load balancing purposes. You can get multiple DSL modems in one house with multiple phone lines and a multi-port WAN router.

Things You'll Need

• Multi-WAN router
• One phone line for each DSL modem
• Ethernet cables

Instructions

1. Contact your local DSL Internet provider to have one phone line installed for each DSL modem connection. DSL modems are unable to share the same phone line in the same way that multiple telephones can exist on the same line.

2. Insert Ethernet cables into the "LAN" port of each DSL modem.

3. Insert the other end of the Ethernet cables into the "WAN" ports on the multi-WAN router.

4. Power on each DSL modem and wait approximately 60 seconds for the signal to synchronize.

5. Power on the multi-WAN router and wait 30 seconds for it to initialize.

6. Connect the rest of the devices on the network to the "LAN" ports of the multi-WAN router, or wirelessly if the router supports wireless functionality. The multiple DSL connections are automatically load-balanced between each other with the router.