[SOLVED] Dual WAN, two ISP's and combining the two network segments

[ronenj]

Hello,

I have two ISP's in my house (small office).
Let's say one of them is on a segment 191.168.10.1 and the other is on 192.168.14.1.
I also have a dual WAN router which I can use if needed (UTT ER518).
Two questions I'd like to ask the forum:

1. For performance purposes, is it better to keep the two ISP's separate (each ISP router/modem with its own clients) or to plug the two modems into the dual WAN unit and do full load balancing?
2. If the answer to #1 is no (i.e. keep them separate), how can I "bridge" the two network segments (I assume it's static routing) so that the two segments can communicate between them (for example, use shared printer, streaming, etc.)?

Thanks,
Ronen

 

[bill001g]

You can't really do full balancing. You can just make it easier for all the devices to be on the same lan.

You can do it manually say assigning the routers 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 and then use static ip and gateways to ensure the machines use the proper internet.

Using a dual wan there is only 1 lan gateway. You then put in lists of mac/ip addresses and tell it which ISP to send the data to. So instead of doing all the gateway stuff on the end clients all the work is done in the dual wan router.

The example I give to illustrate the problem of full balancing is many online games. Lets say it uses ISP1 to go to the login server. It then uses ISP2 to go to the actual game world server. The game company will see this as 2 different IP addresses and assume there is hacking or something else going on and prevent access. It is not just games that have this issue.

 

[ronenj]

You can't really do full balancing. You can just make it easier for all the devices to be on the same lan.

You can do it manually say assigning the routers 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 and then use static ip and gateways to ensure the machines use the proper internet.

Using a dual wan there is only 1 lan gateway. You then put in lists of mac/ip addresses and tell it which ISP to send the data to. So instead of doing all the gateway stuff on the end clients all the work is done in the dual wan router.

The example I give to illustrate the problem of full balancing is many online games. Lets say it uses ISP1 to go to the login server. It then uses ISP2 to go to the actual game world server. The game company will see this as 2 different IP addresses and assume there is hacking or something else going on and prevent access. It is not just games that have this issue.

==> You can do it manually say assigning the routers 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 and then use static ip and gateways to ensure the machines use the proper internet.
Can you provide more details on what to exactly do? I just connect both of them to each other using LAN port, and make one of them the DHCP server?

 

[bill001g]

Yes just connect the lan ports. The DHCP is the huge problem with this option.

You could if you want leave 1 router do dhcp and then give static ip and gateways to the machines that are to use the other. That way any new or guest type of device would use the DHCP router.

If you where to run DHCP on both then you get random results. Both routers will respond to the end clients and it all depends which messages gets to the client first.

It tends to be simpler to just use all static ip assignments but you can use DHCP to partially reduce the number of clients you must manually configure. Only you will know which is more effort.

Now if you had a actual server running DHCP you can have the server give out different gateways based on mac address. Consumer routers have extremely basic DHCP function.

 

[ronenj]

Yes just connect the lan ports. The DHCP is the huge problem with this option.

You could if you want leave 1 router do dhcp and then give static ip and gateways to the machines that are to use the other. That way any new or guest type of device would use the DHCP router.

If you where to run DHCP on both then you get random results. Both routers will respond to the end clients and it all depends which messages gets to the client first.

It tends to be simpler to just use all static ip assignments but you can use DHCP to partially reduce the number of clients you must manually configure. Only you will know which is more effort.

Now if you had a actual server running DHCP you can have the server give out different gateways based on mac address. Consumer routers have extremely basic DHCP function.

Thanks, I'll try that and let you know!
But, let's say, for sake of experiment, that I want to keep the two LAN segments separate, and using a 3rd router (let's call it Router3) make the bridge between them. Is this possible? How to connect all three routers physically?

1. WAN port of Router3 connected to LAN of Router1 (which is also the modem to ISP1)
2. LAN port of Router3 connected to LAN of Router2 (which is also the modem to ISP2)

Which routing rules should I add to each of Router1, Router2 and Router3?
Thanks!