[iptable] distributing network requests over multiple interfaces by size

[iptable] distributing network requests over multiple interfaces by size

[Will Macfarlane]

At the school where I am working we have 2 internet connections.  We
have a high latency, high bandwidth satellite connection and a low
latency, low bandwidth ISDN connection.  The network connects to the
internet through our linux server running Squid.  The interface eth0
connects to the satellite modem and the virtual interface eth0:1
connects to the isdn modem.

Basically, I would like for all small requests (normal web browsing)
to be directed to eth0:1 and for all requests for large files to be
directed to eth0.

Is there a way to balance these two connections in this way?  It seems
like a spectacularly good idea to me, if I could just figure out how
to make it work.  Do I want to be looking at iptables to do this?  Or
can I do something in squid?

thanks,
Will

RE: [iptable] distributing network requests over multiple interfaces bysize

[Rob Sterenborg]

> Basically, I would like for all small requests (normal web browsing)
> to be directed to eth0:1 and for all requests for large files to be
> directed to eth0. 
> 
> Is there a way to balance these two connections in this way?  It seems
> like a spectacularly good idea to me, if I could just figure out how
> to make it work.  Do I want to be looking at iptables to do this?  Or
> can I do something in squid? 

*If* it can be done, you'd need a content-filter and netfilter/iptables
isn't one.
For netfilter there's no way of knowing if a request is a normal
web-page request or a file request ; all requests go to port 80 and all
are GET requests.

Maybe with squid you can check the file-extensions in the GET request
and if it matches : use a different inferface.. But I'm not sure about
this.


Gr,
Rob