Two WANs, one LAN... but no load balancing

K

KatalDT

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 28, 2010
Messages
2,567
Basically... there are too many people in my house now.

My fiancee and I game a lot, so we need good latency. But the other people in my house (sister moved in with her kid, etc) makes Youtube/Netflixes running all at once.... everybody lags. So I want to pay for a second internet connection.

Computers:
PC1: My gaming desktop
PC2: Fiancee's gaming desktop
HTPC: My room
HTPC: Living room
Server: Handles the main downloads for... stuff... and is the file server as well
Desktop: Extra desktop in the living room, +1 for my sister's 'gaming' desktop
Wireless crap: One laptop that's on a lot, plus a couple tablets, and a few cell phones


So basically what I want is PC1 and PC2 to go through Internet 1 *only* and that's it. Everything else goes through Internet 2. HOWEVER... I want everything to remain on the same LAN, so we can still access file shares and the HTPC shares etc. etc.

Here's a crappy image:
11jpto3.jpg


Any tips? What do I need to buy to do this?
 
Assign static IP's to everything. Point some to one device as the gateway, point the others to the other device as the gateway.
 
bigdogchris said:
Assign static IP's to everything. Point some to one device as the gateway, point the others to the other device as the gateway.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing I'll need a dual WAN router? Any suggestions on which ones can do this? Gigabit is a must, since we might have 1080p streaming to 2 or 3 places at once from the server.
 
Probably don't really need a dual WAN router, though if you want to spend the money you could

Router 1, disable DHCP, connect PC1 and 2 with static IPs for Gateway 1/Internet 1.
Router 2, enable DHCP, configure DHCP gateway as Gateway 2/Internet 2, plug in everything else.

As long as both configured networks are in the same IP range/subnet with no IP conflicts, just plug a cable between the two switch ports on the routers, and it should do exactly what you want.
 
JBark said:
Probably don't really need a dual WAN router, though if you want to spend the money you could

Router 1, disable DHCP, connect PC1 and 2 with static IPs for Gateway 1/Internet 1.
Router 2, enable DHCP, configure DHCP gateway as Gateway 2/Internet 2, plug in everything else.

As long as both configured networks are in the same IP range/subnet with no IP conflicts, just plug a cable between the two switch ports on the routers, and it should do exactly what you want.
Click to expand...

Well let's say my current router is on the way out (overheating, have a fan on it.. lol). So I'm looking for two routers, gigabit, one with N wifi - or one dual wan that has all those features.

Any suggestions?

And thanks all for the info!
 
KatalDT said:
Well let's say my current router is on the way out (overheating, have a fan on it.. lol). So I'm looking for two routers, gigabit, one with N wifi - or one dual wan that has all those features.

Any suggestions?

And thanks all for the info!
Click to expand...

I think you'll find that a dual wan router with those feature starts to get really expensive. I'm actually not sure if one even exists, if it does you probably looking at a couple hundred dollars. If you want to go the dual wan router route, you'd probably want to look at the Linksys/Cisco RVxxx line, and then add in separate switches and APs. It's the "proper" way to go, but probably more than I would want to spend for a home setup.

That's why I'd probably go with the two regular consumer routers and just disable/enable the feature you need on each.

There's always the DD-WRT path as well, I'm sure it has a dual WAN feature which would let you turn any DD-WRT supported router into a dual WAN one, but that's not something that's going to be simple to configure.
 
No need to buy a commercial solution or jerry-rig something. Just run pfSense on an old machine. If you dont have a spare machine you can buy plenty enough for under $100. pfSense is fairly easy to get running. I dont have a ton of experience setting up dual-WAN with it but the instructions I have seen make sense.
 
Just to add. The easiest thing in pfSense to setup is just plan old round-robin with a few clicks.
 
If you are paying for the internet I'd just set up QoS to prioritize your own traffic and say screw their youtubez.
 
The simplest solution would be to put second NICs in PCs 1 and 2 with no router to router communication. Connect PCs 1 and 2 to both routers. Make sure you use 192.168.x.x for one router and 172.16.x.x for the other! Then set the interface metric to prefer your router.

If you want a dual-port router, a friend recommends the Draytek Vigor range http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2830.html but I have no experience of them.
 
Quartz-1 said:
The simplest solution would be to put second NICs in PCs 1 and 2 with no router to router communication. Connect PCs 1 and 2 to both routers. Make sure you use 192.168.x.x for one router and 172.16.x.x for the other! Then set the interface metric to prefer your router.

If you want a dual-port router, a friend recommends the Draytek Vigor range http://www.draytek.co.uk/products/vigor2830.html but I have no experience of them.
Click to expand...

+1 for the Draytek 2830. Using one at work (not for load balancing though) for our backup WAN and it's worked flawlessly for months.
 
Quartz-1 said:
The simplest solution would be to put second NICs in PCs 1 and 2 with no router to router communication. Connect PCs 1 and 2 to both routers. Make sure you use 192.168.x.x for one router and 172.16.x.x for the other! Then set the interface metric to prefer your router.
Click to expand...

That's probably the simplest solution and I can't believe I didn't think of it. We both have dual gigabit ports on our PCs, so the only thing I need is the extra routers. Thanks, haha.
 
You could keep the entire setup on one network. Use two routers, set one's LAN interface to 192.168.1.1 and the other router's to 192.168.1.2. You could wire them together with a switch, or just plug a switch port from one router to the other. Disable DHCP on one of the routers. Finally, set the gateways of your devices to point at whichever router you want them to use.

Connection 1:
Router 1
192.168.1.1
DHCP Enabled
Set gaming device gateways to 192.168.1.1

Connection 2:
Router 2
192.168.1.2
DHCP Disabled
Set video device gateways to 192.168.1.2

All of your devices will still be able to talk locally and get out to the Internet on the connection you choose. Remember that devices only talk to a router when they need to change networks. Any request on the 192.168.1.x network will never make it to a router. If a request is made to an address outside of the network, like google.com, the lookup gets forwarded to the devices gateway.
 
I do something similar to this with my Mikrotik 450g router. On my main computer I route port 80 and a few other ports to my cable connection and everything else to my DSL. The other computers in my house go to the cable connection so they don't hinder my gaming DSL line.
 
Im using this badboy and im very satisfied thus far.

TL-R470T+-01.jpg


I can play BF3 while downloading something thru uTorrent just fine.

It can get problematic sometimes, but it well worthed the price.
 
Electrofreak said:
If you are paying for the internet I'd just set up QoS to prioritize your own traffic and say screw their youtubez.
Click to expand...

Do this. Most routers these days offer QoS out of the box, or can use a third party firmware that supports it. This will be cheaper since you won't need to pay for another internet connection, and the router will use less power than a dedicated PC.
 
Why not setup some QOS action as well as some rate limiting?
 
Zyxel USG series 50 and higher can do all that you are asking and more.

2 wans with all users in the same DHCP. Some users directing their internet to WAN1 and some to WAN2. The feature is in the DHCP reserve section.

You can also define your QOS per port or protocol.

I should warn you the interface is not for those whom need to take internet 101, or even networking 150.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top