backup internet connection at home

jamesleecoleman

We currently have two connections at home. Comcast and AT&T.
What I would need to make AT&T a backup connection? If possible
without unplugging and pluggin in cables.
We used to have Comcast go in and out in our old apartment unit and
we just moved across the court so I'm not sure if we will have the same
problems. Don't ask why we have two connections. My dad did that.

veritas_libertas

jamesleecoleman wrote: »

Don't ask why we have two connections. My dad did that.

I certainly wouldn't be complaining

broc

We need a bit more information, it is certainly possible but it depends of your setup and the type of router you use.

Forsaken_GA

It all depends on what you're using for a router. I don't think you'll be able to do this with any consumer grade routers, but it's easy enough if you're using a real router, just have to do some routing table voodoo.

arwes

We've got a MikroTik router here at the office and our networking guys have a Comcast connection set up as our backup. It's not an instantaneous switchover, but if our primary has a major outage we're back up and running in a few minutes.

Last time we had to use it was because our wireless provider has his transmitter on a local news antenna. Their new owners didn't pay the electric bill for the tower and everyone lost power to their equipment. Smart people.

GAngel

I'm pretty sure 2 nics and server 03 could do it just never seen anyone actually try it.

Easiest way is probably to get a second cheap home router and get one connection through it and the second from the first router. Aka 1 wired one wireless. A standard home router won't be able to do what you're asking because it only has one wan port.

Forsaken_GA

GAngel wrote: »

I'm pretty sure 2 nics and server 03 could do it just never seen anyone actually try it.

Oh, it's easy enough, and I've seen some implementations. It's also a snap to do with any modern flavor of unix (most consumer grade routers are running either linux or VxWorks). I don't think he's wanting to setup another computer to do this though, sounds like he just wants a small appliance type.

Easiest way is probably to get a second cheap home router and get one connection through it and the second from the first router. Aka 1 wired one wireless. A standard home router won't be able to do what you're asking because it only has one wan port.

Well sure, but how are you going to connect them together so that the traffic goes out Comcast by default, and only switches to AT&T if the Comcast connection isn't available (that would be the purpose of making AT&T a backup connection). A second router means his hosts would have to have second NIC's as well, and then you'd have to manipulate routing on each host, not an ideal situation. He's better off aggregating the two connections to one device to handle the routing, so he's looking for something with a minimum of three interfaces (one for each ISP, and one to go out to his home network).

Something simple like a Cisco 1721 with a pair of WIC-1ENET's would probably serve his needs, assuming he has a switch to link the FastEthernet port to.

Or he could just use a 1721 without any WIC's and connect the router and ISP CPE to a switch and do it all via vlans with routing on a stick, but then you need a switch capable of vlans, and I'd consider that setup less than ideal

GAngel

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

Oh, it's easy enough, and I've seen some implementations. It's also a snap to do with any modern flavor of unix (most consumer grade routers are running either linux or VxWorks). I don't think he's wanting to setup another computer to do this though, sounds like he just wants a small appliance type.



Well sure, but how are you going to connect them together so that the traffic goes out Comcast by default, and only switches to AT&T if the Comcast connection isn't available (that would be the purpose of making AT&T a backup connection). A second router means his hosts would have to have second NIC's as well, and then you'd have to manipulate routing on each host, not an ideal situation. He's better off aggregating the two connections to one device to handle the routing, so he's looking for something with a minimum of three interfaces (one for each ISP, and one to go out to his home network).

Something simple like a Cisco 1721 with a pair of WIC-1ENET's would probably serve his needs, assuming he has a switch to link the FastEthernet port to.

Or he could just use a 1721 without any WIC's and connect the router and ISP CPE to a switch and do it all via vlans with routing on a stick, but then you need a switch capable of vlans, and I'd consider that setup less than ideal

You missed the most important part of his question which was without doing much setup.You're adding all kinds of devices into the equation when in essence what he's asking cannot be easily done from the perspective he's looking at. Sometimes the easiest answer is the right answer.

Forsaken_GA

GAngel wrote: »

You missed the most important part of his question which was without doing much setup.You're adding all kinds of devices into the equation when in essence what he's asking cannot be easily done from the perspective he's lookng at. Soemtimes the easiest answer is the right answer.

He's not going to get that kind of functionality without some cable movement. As I said, if he uses two different routers, then his hosts are going to need dual NIC's (or he's going to have to let one router sit unused and then manually move cables from one router to the other in order to change connections. This also takes any kind of automatic failover out of the picture).

A 1721 with two ethernet wic's is not all kinds of devices, it's one device with a couple modules. Connection providers cable to one WIC, connect another providers to the other, connect the fast ethernet to a small switch that his hosts can access, and then it just takes a little bit of brain power. A 1721 isn't much bigger than most consumer grade routers, and something like a little 4 or 8 port dlink switch (depending on how many hosts are in use) doesn't take up much space at all. Of course, all of his hosts may be wireless, which also presents additional challenges.

I actually haven't looked at the consumer grade replacement OS'es like DD-WRT in awhile. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd put something together that actually would allow all hosts to connect to something like a linksys and then be able to route between two ISP connections, and if so (and if whatever he's using as a router will support such an image) that's probably his best bet, and may accomplish his goal with just a little bit of brain power.

It's a simple question, but it's not necessarily a simple answer, especially without knowing what devices are currently in use, how many host computers are involved, what their access methods are and so on.

tiersten

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

I actually haven't looked at the consumer grade replacement OS'es like DD-WRT in awhile. I wouldn't be surprised if they'd put something together that actually would allow all hosts to connect to something like a linksys and then be able to route between two ISP connections, and if so (and if whatever he's using as a router will support such an image) that's probably his best bet, and may accomplish his goal with just a little bit of brain power.

It would involve some work but you could probably repurpose a WRT54G style device into something that would do what you want. The later generation WRT54Gs only had 1 ethernet interface built in. They just used a switch which put VLAN tags onto everything to make it appear to have a WAN and LAN port. If you altered the configuration so that there were 2 WANs and 1 LAN and did the necessary work to detect when the primary connection was down and then bring up the secondary connection then you'd be okay...

Its not ready out of the box and you're pretty much replicating what a Linux server would be doing but instead of a big PC you're just using a little WRT54G. Probably not worth the effort...

jamesleecoleman

I have a WRT54G hooked up to comcast. I do have cisco routers and switches.
I have two wic1dsu t1 dsu/csu cards. i have two serial cards. If this helps to know/?

exampasser

Here is a website I have found that contains software that may allow you to use both Internet connections at the same time:NAT32 Windows Software Router Home Page (26. December, 2009)