Connecting both DSL and Cablemodem simultaneously

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smw

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I currently have a cable modem connected to a router in my house, and recently added DSL as well since it was so cheap when I put in a home phone. What I would like to do is still use the cable modem service, and connect the dsl to a different router and have that act as a secondary (backup connection) for my computer whenever my Cox Cable service goes down (which is a lot lately).

Is this possible?

Is this as simple as connecting the dsl to another wireless router, getting a wireless usb card and have my pc connect and get a second ip address?
 
No, it is just a nature of how ip address work. You can only do if you are routing both of your traffic to another proxy server. Then, you will use IP address of your proxy server to connect to others.

You can have two gateways and change route as you move. Also, you can have multiple VM to route to different gateways and use VNC or RDP to each VMs.
 
requiemnoise said:
No, it is just a nature of how ip address work. You can only do if you are routing both of your traffic to another proxy server. Then, you will use IP address of your proxy server to connect to others.
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This is incorrect.

It is possible to do, you'll need a multi-wan firewall which is capable of basically load balancing your connections and failing over to one if the other goes down. There are some open source FW distros that do this (I believe monowall is one, but don't hold me to that) plus there are commercial products from netgear, etc that do this as well.

My advice to you? Don't bother with it. It will be overly complicated and will give you basically no gain. If your cable service sucks, why not just ditch it and go with the DSL? You've now got better reliablity (so it seems anyway) and you've now saved yourself the money for the monthly cable cost. :) Take your spouse/significant other/your best friend out with that money you've saved and enjoy life! :D
 
He will not make initiated connection with 2 different IP address. That's how TCP/IP works. Yea, sure he can use both connections. When he is browsing, he will either use one or other.
 
Thanks for the fast response. I hope I am in the right place to ask these basic networking questions, I am hoping there is a different way I could use the dsl whenever the cablemodem goes down in a simple fashion.

I assume the easy way to use the dsl when the cable goes out would be to manually disconnect the cable router, then force the wireless connect to the dsl router? Is this going to create any headaches for me in Vista64 if I am switching once a month or so when my cable modem service gets poor?

EDIT - I don't want to switch over to the dsl just yet, because I have heard it's even worse than the cable service, but it was just so damn cheap I had them add it when the phone line was brought in. There is nothing more frustrating than 2-3 days of a flaky cable modem connection (this happens every couple months), so I didn't mind spending $10 more a month to have a backup in place.
 
Yes it's possible....

Several choices..here are 2 quick ones.

1- Many motherboards have 2x NICs. Setup your primary NIC to your cable routers network. Setup your secondardy NIC to your DSL modem..which is most likely a combo modem/router that already does NAT/DHCP, etc like a regular router. Leave this second NIC disabled...until you need it.

2- You can have 2x routers on the same network..same IP range even, just..have one at a different LAN IP address, like 192.168.1.2 if your first router is 192.168.1.1. Ensure DHCP is disabled on the 2nd router. When cable goes down (on your first router, .1)...you can switch your network settings so that the DSL router (.2) is your gateway to the internet. Several different ways of doing this..either via DHCP, or static LAN IP addresses, etc.

3- Get a multi-WAN router.



smw said:
I currently have a cable modem connected to a router in my house, and recently added DSL as well since it was so cheap when I put in a home phone. What I would like to do is still use the cable modem service, and connect the dsl to a different router and have that act as a secondary (backup connection) for my computer whenever my Cox Cable service goes down (which is a lot lately).

Is this possible?

Is this as simple as connecting the dsl to another wireless router, getting a wireless usb card and have my pc connect and get a second ip address?
Click to expand...
 
smw said:
Thanks for the fast response. I hope I am in the right place to ask these basic networking questions, I am hoping there is a different way I could use the dsl whenever the cablemodem goes down in a simple fashion.

I assume the easy way to use the dsl when the cable goes out would be to manually disconnect the cable router, then force the wireless connect to the dsl router? Is this going to create any headaches for me in Vista64 if I am switching every couple of days when my cable modem service gets poor?
Click to expand...

There are home routers you can buy that have two WAN ports as a disaster recovery. It will switch over to a different port when the router can't reach its first hop. You can also build a router from an old PC and manually route and segment your networks, so you can route your internal network as you surf. I would choose the first suggestion as the simplicity.
 
requiemnoise said:
When he is browsing, he will either use one or other.
Click to expand...

That is his goal, as he stated..."back connection" for when his primary one goes down. When his cable goes down, he can switch to DSL...which is clearly "one or the other"..he doesn't have a choice..as one is down..out of commission.
 
requiemnoise said:
He will not make initiated connection with 2 different IP address. That's how TCP/IP works. Yea, sure he can use both connections. When he is browsing, he will either use one or other.
Click to expand...

Of course he won't use two different IPs, but there are other ways to acomplish the task besides a proxy server or multiple VMs with different routes... they certainly aren't the only options besides that there are much better ones available to a home user.

To the OP- if you keep both and you want to move the cable off of your router to the DSL modem when the cable goes down you can certainly do that. Provided your router is acting as a DHCP server your client PCs will not notice any difference unless they are actively doing something when you perform the switch. Depending on your router you may need to power-cycle it when you switch from one to the other.

EDIT: Wow, holy responses while I was typing this one...
 
requiemnoise said:
There are home routers you can buy that have two WAN ports as a disaster recovery. It will switch over to a different port when the router can't reach its first hop. You can also build a router from an old PC and manually route and segment your networks, so you can route your internal network as you surf. I would choose the first suggestion as the simplicity.
Click to expand...


I see, I'll look into these, but now I am in the dilemma of the cable modem in one room and the dsl modem in another. I was hoping to just get a usb wireless card for the dsl connection to avoid any cabling and I already have a second wireless router I was about to connect to the dsl and try to make this work.

Very helpful advice though, thanks.
 
You could do that, just disable the wireless NIC when you're using the cable, enable it when cable drops..and you'll hop in the DSL.

Now..Windows should "roll with the flow" just fine....may need to disable your LAN NIC. May need to look into how you adjust your network "metric" settings. Experiences vary.


smw said:
I see, I'll look into these, but now I am in the dilemma of the cable modem in one room and the dsl modem in another. I was hoping to just get a usb wireless card for the dsl connection to avoid any cabling and I already have a second wireless router I was about to connect to the dsl and try to make this work.

Very helpful advice though, thanks.
Click to expand...
 
What is your goal here? Do you have a server that you're running that needs to be reachable all of the time?

The computer (Windows XP) I'm typing on has dual NIC's and I'm routing across two networks, but I put some iproute statements in place on the computer to send specific traffic over one network connection rather than the other one. Again it sort of depends on what you are trying to keep alive and where it needs to go on the Internet as to how this could be done.
 
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