Using 2 ISPs to ensure 100% uptime, possible??

has anyone thought of you using the wireless usb dongle cards you can get from Vodafone or T-mobile etc?

Would be interested to see if these can handle a Level 2 platform. Unfortunatley most of the providers require a 12 month contract to sign up to them and i don't want to do that with out seeing it can handle a platform.

Another way is to rent a PC in a data center close to the exchange/data feed you are using a state of the art data center. Then connect to the PC/server remotely...that way, your connection can go down but you still have the PC/server up and running. Plus it will be connected to multiple ISP providers, power backup, etc, etc. What I do not know with this approach, is the latency of the display from the server to your screen which could be an issue when you have fast changing screen content like quotes.

Depends if your trading style is all manual/discretionary or some automation.

I have one and it works well. The data transfer rate is 7.2Mbit/s which is comparable to fixed line broadband. Streaming data does not use much bandwidth at all. I have opened DOM during a very active period of the market at it rarely peaked above 7Kbit/s. I can't imagine you would hit any limits with Level 2.

Have one also & recommend its use as a backup / travelling system. Note that 7.2 speed is only available at small no. of locations (eg airports) but normal speed if your're in a 3G area is quite adequate though not as good as the best of the high speed ISP providers.

Virtual Private Server services are much cheaper these days and they can notify you in case of an outage, that's what I'm going to do at some point. Trying to get continuous connection is very pricy and inefficient

mobile broadband, - internet pass through - the top handsets should all do it fine through USB

Then that's truly independent two connections, apart from of course, electric, which if it goes it zaps your PC whether its hooked to phone line or mobile......

So for that, always on PC backup power! Uninterruptable power Supply. Good security measure in general even if you're a one connection man, as you never know what position you've got on when the storm hits

Would be my solution and cheap too as the mobile's usually a contract, so worry about the UPS as your immediate outlay

edit - generally speaking inverse relationship between power of processor and how long a UPS stays up