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There has been questions regarding this for internet connections.
As you know, as traders, we cannot live without an internet connection. The worse to happen is a trader to have an entry and the internet goes down. Almost like driving blindfolded. We don't even know what's happening. We can't exit and we will have to call the broker on the phone.
Brings to me two terms in internet connections
Load Balancing
High Availability
Load balancing is two connected internet connections serving one LAN. The most ideal load balancing is using two difference providers with two different mediums.
For example. One cable carrier and one DSL carrier. The logic behind this is that if the cable carrier has a technical issue, the DSL carrier is unlikely to be down. If both are down, it could mean a catastrophic event has happened breaking internet pipelines.
Most load balancing techniques are round robin. It means your connection is switched between the two like a baton pass or musical chairs.
This is expensive because you need to sign up two providers but it sure beats getting a dedicated T1 line with a business SLA, Service Level Agreement. The carrier is not going to compensate us if we have a losing trade and the net goes down. Read that carefully. They have protected themselves even though it is an SLA.
High availability using one primary internet connection with another as backup. Not both are active; only one is active. Once with the primary connection fails, the other takes over. As usual, this is another medium.
The most popular secondary connection is a slower wireless connection via 3.5G or HSPA. You can buy these USB transceivers cheaply now and plug in your prepaid SIM for data and use. In case the primary connection goes, the HSPA takes over. This is the cheaper alternative compared to LB.
Next post I will touch on how you would make a load balancing connection. I can't make a HA connection because I do not have a 3G modem stick to try it. Maybe after the load balancing post somebody might be interested to experiment an HA setup.
I am biased to using a particular hardware and software. I am not selling it nor am I having a vested interest in the product.
I use a dual broadband router with DSL and Cable with two wireless routers upstream to provide WIFI hot spots in two different areas. I've tried load balancing and using Cable as primary and DSL as backup only. I never really noticed any difference in performance. My main objective is to not lose internet connection.
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
My router is a dual broadband router. It can control two internet connections simultaneously.I plug the DSL into one "incoming" broadband port and the Comcast Cable into the other "incoming" broadband port on the back of the router. The router manages both internet connections simultaneously. If one connection fails it immediately switches all traffic to the other connection.
I'm just a simple man trading a simple plan.
My daddy always said, "Every day above ground is a good day!"
The 480MHz CPU and 128MB RAM and 32MB flash is the biggest in the consumer routers today.
The original firmware is so-so. So to enhance we need to use 3rd party firmware.
The 3rd party firmware is TomatoUSb DualWAN. ???? Tomato DualWAN ?? This is originally a Chinese UI firmware but some translations were done for a growing English demand.
You plug the WAN port with DSL and LAN port 4 with Cable. And you get Dual WAN access.
Among the features is a PPTPServer to allow yourself to tunnel back into the home network and let you PC outside your home LAN to behave as if it is in the house connected. We will touch on that later after the installation.
I'll continue tomorrow for the installation. 12 hrs in school is tiring. 2 of the class labs today didn't work and I am trying to solve what the hell is wrong with the three Cisco routers.
If you have one internet service provider and two access links, usually DSL is called MLPPP. Multi-Link Point to Point Protocol.
Two to four links can be aggregated as one link.
For example, four links if 6M/800K DSL links can theoretically give you 24M/3.2M link. Download/Upload
Now as traders, upload and download speeds is not what we are after. We want response!!
As a test, we should not use Speedtest.net as a gauge for our internet quality. We should use Pingtest.net.
Always select Chicago ISPs as your target because that is where CBOT is for futures and New York ISPs for NYMEX.
The lower the value the better.
Why PING? It is like sending in your order quickly to the exchange and confirming it faster than your fellow traders. Have you ever felt that an order placed took like forever to execute and price left your entry or exit without ever filling it? Check your PING.
Don't like it? Change your provider.
Having a VPS or a computer with Ninjatrader next to CBOT is what I would call a competitive advantage.
