Windows 2000 Quick Fixes

Use multiple connections at one time to improve performance

If you’ve ever used a direct Internet connection, you know how nice a fast connection can be. Trying to download a large file or remotely manage another computer over a dial-up connection can be a real pain because of the relatively slow connection (even at 56K). Windows 2000 offers an option called multilink that can help you boost your connection speed. A multilink connection combines two or more individual connections to provide an aggregate speed equal to the total of all individual connections. If you have two dial-up connections that each connect at 50Kbps, for example, your overall throughput will be 100Kbps. Add another connection and you get 150Kbps, and so on.

Use multilink to combine connections

Assuming you are using modems to dial your connection, the following is a list of the items you’ll need in order to use multilink:

• A modem for each connection.

• A phone line for each connection.

• An ISP or dial-up server that supports multilink. Many services allow multiple connections with a single account and track utilization based on total connection time for all logons for the specified account.

• Phone numbers to dial. Some services require that you dial separate numbers for multilink, while others let you dial the same number for all connections (typical of an ISP).

Use the following procedure to configure multilink for a connection:

1. Install the additional modems so they are recognized by Windows 2000.

2. Open the Network ...