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

Point of failure

[tepples]

ADSL is pretty cheap nowadays, and 2 x ADSL seems a better value than one fast one â" especially in terms of reliability. If one breaks, at least the other will work.

When your DSL is down, it's likely that your neighbor's DSL is down too. Consider cable + DSL, not cable + cable or DSL + DSL.

Re:Point of failure

[mikkelm]

That's because you're in Sweden, and the infrastructure there, especially urban infrastructure, is typically much less vulnerable than here in the southeastern US, for example. We frequently have last mile outages due to storms, flooding and lightning, and when a tree hits a phone mast, you lose your DSL, no matter how many different providers you have.

It all depends on the local conditions, so suggesting separate last-mine access technologies as a way to optimise your redundancy is not such a bad idea.

Re:Point of failure

[br549777]

Get DSL and Cable then buy a Xincom dual wan router. This will support 2 different internet connections or 2 of the same. You can have static ips or DHCP or PPoe on one or both wan ports. It does load balancing etc and its relativly cheap. It works great in a business enviroment or for home use. The router is less than $200 and work good if you set it up correctly. It will work with ADSL DSL Cable T1 Satalite etc.

Re:Point of failure

[jettoblack]

You know, this is something I haven't been able to figure out. I live in Japan where we are hit by strong earthquakes at least a month, and typhoons (like hurricanes), thunderstorms, minor flooding, etc. almost every day during the rainy season. And no I don't live in central Tokyo, I live in the middle of a farming town and have to walk through flooded rice paddies to get from my apartment to the station. But my power and internet have NEVER gone out once in the 6 years I've lived here. We don't have anything special... the power and phone run on overhead lines on metal poles just like most places in the US.

Meanwhile, at my mom's house in the DC Metro area, USA, the power & internet go out every time there is anything more than a gentle breeze. What's going on?

DSL+Cable

[certain death]

You can get a "Firebox" VPN/Firewall/Router pretty cheap on ebay. They are running about $75.00US for the Firebox 1200/2. The "/2" part means it has 2 WAN ports and you can load balance across both, it is setup to be redundant, so if one goes down, it moves all traffic to the other automagically. I use one and it works like a champ. There are more expensive solutions, and probably "Roll your own" solutions, but as most of us know, that can provide months and months of aggravation!

Re:DSL+Cable

[kesuki]

" SmoothFirewall 4.0 - Update 3

Download Update 3 Update 3
516 KB (528,827 bytes)
MD5: 85ac7940504a0fe7eef2b91016cf80f6

This update adds Load Balancing abilities to Advanced Firewall systems. It also corrects a problem with IP address sorting on some pages and updates the DHCP client to fix a theoretical vulnerability. Problems with PPTP and PPPoE clients have also been corrected.

Please install core Update 2 prior to installing this update.

Detail:

        * Load Balancing
            It is now possible to load balance outbound proxy requests and other network traffic in Advanced Firewall. Primary and secondary external connections are 'pooled' using the Firewall / connectivity and Firewall / secondary addresses pages."

smoothwall4 supports load balancing out of the box, no hassle, no mess, no fuss, but then, smoothwall is only free as in beer, but i find it works well enough.

Re:DSL+Cable

[wolf12886]

and even if you have ups's for both, your house could be destroyed, better have a back up house,

but make sure its not in the same neihborhood as your primary...

Re:DSL+Cable

[dotancohen]

and even if you have ups's for both, your house could be destroyed, better have a back up house

Or, you know, a laptop.

Linux distros

[santix]

There are little Linux distributions like Brazilfw which run on old hardware and work out of the box with features like QOS, load-balancing, port forwarding, etc. Maybe that's what you need.

Dual WAN router

[ribit]

Isn't a dual-WAN router the simplest/cheapest method, whatever you are planning to put downstream of it? http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2004/0913rev.html

Re:From the "I don't use google" Department.

[kannibal_klown]

God, not another person saying this.

Slashdot articles aren't just posted for the question, but for the discussion. Yes, anyone can find an answer to anything they want with Google+Wikipedia+etc.

The point here is that maybe someone will take an interest in it that never thought of it before or cared enough to dig around Google.

Obviously from the author's point of view, multiple viewpoints by the readers would be helpful. However from the Slashdot mods (and community in general) it's an interesting enough topic to read on their own.