Working With 2 ISPs For Home Networking?

An anonymous reader writes "This is, I think, a simple question — but one which I can't get the answer to. As a typical, but perhaps high-demand home user I would like to use 2 separate ISPs. ADSL is pretty cheap nowadays, and 2 x ADSL seems a better value than one fast one — especially in terms of reliability. If one breaks, at least the other will work. Using an old box as a router/firewall, how can I configure a system to use two completely separate ISPs in a sensible manner? Ideally, I'd like the load of my browsing to be balanced, but at the minimum, I'd want some kind of 'fail-over.' If I leave torrents running over night, I'd like the router to use whichever connection doesn't block the traffic — and preferably for it to reset the errant connection. Ideas?"

Comments

Astrocom

[Drakin020]

http://www.astrocorp.com/

The Astrocom box. I have one here at work for our 2 ISP's. It's like a FatPipe but much cheaper. Our was around 4 grand but I'm sure they have one for home users.

Re:*nix on old hardware

[zerocool^]

yeah, the problem with 2 IP's is multiple gateways, or more specifically, traffic coming into 192.168.1.40 goes out 192.168.1.20 and doesn't get to its destination or something. The answer is in the LARTC under iproute2 source routing.

Basically, edit /etc/iproute2/rt_tables to show a number of arbitrary table names with which you can add rules.

Then use the ip command (ip rule add blah blah table blah and ip route add default via blah device blah table blah) to specify where traffic goes when it hits a certain IP.

Seriously, though, just buy one of those linksys 4 port VPN router thingies - they have 2 wan ports and a fancy web interface. They're $300, but meh, you'll spend that on a linux router, plus the time setting it up.

~W

~X