Dual DSL Router

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weasel2htm

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 8, 2004
Messages
332
Here is the Deal, My church is getting SBC DSL (PPPoE) and will be moving the website over to SBC webspace. Our Old DSL ISP (Non PPPoE) has offered to let us continue the DSL w/o the webhosting for a VERY good price.

Does anybody know of a DSL router with two internet ports for dual ISPs (I saw one in a tiger direct catalog like four years ago or something.) Or a way to set up a smoothwall or Linux router of somesort. I'm not good with Linux by any means but if you tell me what to do I can somewhat figure it out.
 
The question should really be, Why? Are you that intent on having an ALWAYS up connection that you need a backup system in place for it? There are legitimate reasons for this in larger client installations but for a single church? Or do you wish to COMBINE the DSL lines for an even faster connection which for a single church, I doubt will see any benefit both on your end and your web surfers.

I think the money for the second DSL would be better off spent elsewhere in the church.
 
The Idea is to use both connections for faster internet as well as redundancy should one fail. We have around 20 PCs+ In the building.



I have found a couple on eBay that I'll show to the pastor who handles technology.
No decision has been made yes or no on whether to keep the old connection. I'm just kinda gathering info at this point.
 
weasel2htm said:
Does anybody know of a DSL router with two internet ports for dual ISPs (I saw one in a tiger direct catalog like four years ago or something.) Or a way to set up a smoothwall or Linux router of somesort. I'm not good with Linux by any means but if you tell me what to do I can somewhat figure it out.
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Router and not modem correct?

Linksys has one:
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=34&scid=29&prid=589

Netgear has one:
http://www.netgear.com/products/details/FVX538.php

I'm sure Hawking has one as well, just look thru the sites for "dual wan".
 
I know of two somewhat affordable dual Wan routers. One is made by Hotbrick and the other by XiNCOM. I have heard good reviews for both but I don't remember the model numbers. I'm sure that if you google both companies you can find their website and thus browse the product catalog. You'll most likely need two DSL modems for the setup you want.
 
They aren't cheap, over here in the UK the cheapest I've seen them for is $300, not sure about the US though

Do dual routers actually combine the speeds or just give 2 parralell connections?

Example:
If I had 2 x 1mb/s connections implemented into one of these dual connection routers, could I download at 2mb/s? Or could I just download 2 files at 1mb/s each?
 
I've seen both the Xincom and the Hawking on eBay, Gotta look into the Netgear one as he is a big fan of Netgear. The Gigabit Uplink port is a huge plus too as we have a gigabit switch. (may seem excessive for a church be we USE it!)

The Linksys is also on Ebay.

I've never heard of Xincom or Hawking though.

Yes we have two DSL modems, actually three, we have a spare (long story)
If we don't go Dual DSL, we will have two spares though.
 
Steel Chicken said:
grab and old PC, stick linux on it and make it a custom configurable router.
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I've thought of that too I'm not that good with linux but I plan to see what I can do with it as well as getting a friend to help me.

I showed the pastor this thread and he read it liking this option the best for obvious reasons.
 
weasel2htm said:
I've thought of that too I'm not that good with linux but I plan to see what I can do with it as well as getting a friend to help me.

I showed the pastor this thread and he read it liking this option the best for obvious reasons.
Click to expand...
While it can be done, you are delving into some deep voodoo here. I would recommend a store bought solution over this unless you really feel like dealing with queues and qdiscs and packet prioritizing and the like in linux. Here's a hint: It's not even remotely easy to understand.
 
L0s7 4 Lyf3 said:
You can't use two dsl modems on the same line at the same time.
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I'm sure he has another line, otherwise that'll be more $$$ spent.
 
Zxcs said:
I'm sure he has another line, otherwise that'll be more $$$ spent.
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He'll need another physical line. Not another phone line. Since there's still only one line coming out of the building, and he's using that with DSL and phones.
 
L0s7 4 Lyf3 said:
He'll need another physical line. Not another phone line. Since there's still only one line coming out of the building, and he's using that with DSL and phones.
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most buildings and residences are pre-wired for 2 lines
 
XOR != OR said:
While it can be done, you are delving into some deep voodoo here. I would recommend a store bought solution over this unless you really feel like dealing with queues and qdiscs and packet prioritizing and the like in linux. Here's a hint: It's not even remotely easy to understand.
Click to expand...

some of that stuff you dont need to mess with, but yeah your trading off cash for brain power/time. go buy a decent linux router/firewall book and save money, AND learn some new skills

but dual dsl routers will cost some serious cashola
 
Steel Chicken said:
most buildings and residences are pre-wired for 2 lines
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Ya, but that's different. It's a technology they use to make 2 lines happen.

They still use 1 physical line.
 
Ok Let me confirm a few things. We have three phone lines total. We put the New DSL on another phone line so our current DSL service would remain uninterrupted while the new was being set up. That was the origional Idea, and then our old provider gave us this good offer to think over and that's what started this whole bucket of worms. :D :cool:

Too bad Windows XP's Internet Connection Sharing will only let you share one internet connection at a time. Otherwise I could have that set up in no time.
 
L0s7 4 Lyf3 said:
Ya, but that's different. It's a technology they use to make 2 lines happen.

They still use 1 physical line.
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No it isn't. Most houses are wired with 2 pair wire for telephone wire. 2 pairs = 2 phone lines. There might need to be an additional line run from the pole to the house, but it is all very low-tech, and it uses two physical phone lines(even though they are bundled together).
 
I think everybody is getting off the subject. Apparently, Weasel is going to have to DSL circuits and will probably have two DSL modems supplied by the telephone companies. Just make sure they have ethernet ports. The rest of this post is addressed to Weasel. The simplest way to handle this is to use a dual-WAN router. Two of these that I know of are the Netgear FVX538 and the Linksys RV016 (mentioned in an earlier post). Both of these have two WAN ports and also can be set up to act as a VPN server if you want to try this in the future. I bought the Linksys, and it worked fine splitting the load over two DSL circuits that we have coming into our office, but I couldn't get the VPN server function to work. I've returned the Linksys for this reason and ordered the Netgear. The Linksys costs about $460 -- the Netgear somewhere around $400. The Netgear seems to be out of stock everywhere I check, so it may take two weeks or longer to get it. The Netgear has one gigabit ethernet port, so you could plug your gigabit switch into that. If you're ever going to need more than two WAN ports, up to five of the Linksys LAN ports can be set up as WAN ports for a total of seven.

With a dual-WAN router, you won't get twice the download speed, but you'll get twice the capacity. On another subject, it is possible to have several voice circuits come in over one physical line (multiplexing, VoIP, other technologies), but with DSL it gets more complicated although that could be done, too. I won't go into detail here because it will take too much space and time, but for all practical purposes for home and small business use, it will take two physical lines for two DSL circuits.

Glen
 
I'll have to keep an eye on this thread. I'm looking to do something similar to this shortly although we'll have a little more budget to work with. I had been thinking I'd probably go with the Fortigate 60. I read a review on dual wan routers and of those, the Sonicwall TZ-170 did the best. However, that may cost a little too much once you pay the licensing for 50+ users.
 
rosco said:
I'll have to keep an eye on this thread. I'm looking to do something similar to this shortly although we'll have a little more budget to work with. I had been thinking I'd probably go with the Fortigate 60. I read a review on dual wan routers and of those, the Sonicwall TZ-170 did the best. However, that may cost a little too much once you pay the licensing for 50+ users.
Click to expand...

TZ are very nice routers, but there around $500 a pop brand new. I ordered a SonicWall SOHO3 off ebay for $100.
 
Dual WAN router we're using at work to provide redundancy and load balancing. Xincom makes great equipment. Check DSLreports for more information. Be warned, upstream load balancing will cost you quite a bit more than that model above.

Also....
http://xincom.com/
 
Does anyone have any links to reviews or comparisons between the Hotbrick and the Xincom etc?

I've found this page which lists several more options for dual-wan routers.

The price of the Xincom DPG502 and the Hotbrick LB-2 are right. I just want to make sure they're not crappy. It seems like I've heard a lot of good things about Xincom, but not many actual recent reviews.

I'd like to get more opinions and read more info from people who have tried them out.
 
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