Enable multiple device dialing
Applies To: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 7
You can use this procedure to configure your computer to use multiple modems or ISDN links to connect to a remote network. Doing so combines multiple physical links, which increases the aggregate bandwidth of your connection. Windows can also dynamically dial and drop multilinked lines as bandwidth demands rise and fall, keeping your performance at the level you want, while minimizing your phone costs.
Any user account can be used to complete this procedure.
To enable multiple device dialing
Open the Network Connections folder and view available connections.
Right-click the connection on which you want to enable the dialing of multiple devices, and then click Properties.
On the General tab, under Connect using, select the check box next to each modem you want to include in the connection.
Clear the Dial only first available device check box.
Do one of the following:
If you want to dial only the first available device, click Dial only first available device.
If you want to use all of your devices, click Dial all devices.
If you want to dynamically dial and hang up devices as needed, click Dial devices only as needed, and then click Configure.
In Automatic dialing, click the Activity at least percentage and Duration at least time you want to set. Another line is dialed when connection activity reaches this level for the amount of time that you specify.
In Automatic hangup, click the Activity no more than percentage and Duration at least time you want to set. A device is disconnected when connection activity decreases to this level for at least the amount of time that you specify.
Additional considerations
If you selected Dial devices only as needed, the last multilinked device ignores the Automatic hangup setting, and a 20-minute time-out is used for the last device.
If you use multiple devices to dial a server that requires callback, then only one of your multilinked devices is called back. This is because only one number is stored in a user account. Therefore, only one device connects and all other devices fail to complete the connection, and your connection loses multilink functionality.
You can avoid this problem if the multilinked phone book entry is an ISDN with two channels that have the same phone number.
Multiple device dialing is available only if multiple adapters are available on the computer.
If you select Dial all devices, dropped links in the multilinked bundle are not automatically reinitialized. You can force links to reinitialize by selecting Dial devices only as needed, then Configure, and then setting easily achieved Automatic dialing conditions which cause another line to be dialed. For example, set Activity at least to 1 percent and Duration at least to 3 seconds.