Can I use more than one internet provider at the same time? [duplicate]

Usually a home router has only one uplink connection, enabling a single internet provider at a time. But suppose I hack my router (ie. installing linux), could I use 2 internet providers then?

Solution 1:

You could use a linux router to load balance and share 2+ connections across a LAN.

This article explains how to edit your route tables and /etc/rc.local file to do this.

Solution 2:

"hacking" the router may not suffice, you'll need 'load balancing'.

a spare old computer with 2 NICs and Vyatta Community Edition is certainly cheaper solution than a modern Multi-WAN router.

When you run Vyatta on a standard x86 hardware system, you'll create a powerful network appliance that can run circles around proprietary systems.