One network, two segments, one with dual WAN

[vb543]

Hello. Just wondering if a setup like this is possible and how I would go about setting it up.

My goal is the following:

Network access across the entire network for files, DLNA, RDP, etc, etc.
Segment B should use part of WAN A as well as all of WAN B.
Segment A should only be able to use WAN A.

What's the best way to set this up? Multiple NICs? Separate pfSense box for Segment B? Any ideas would be awesome! I'm just playing around with my home network. Thanks!

 

[choucove]

This is a pretty complex setup, and may only be partly feasible from what I can tell.

First, instead of Segment A and Segment B, these are actually VLANs. Think of it this way as you will find much better information about how to create this network that way. Now, generally you're going to have a single router as a default gateway to any network, but here you have a need for two routers with two separate WAN connections. For this kind of thing you will need actual business grade routers, simple home gateways will not do the trick. VLAN 100 will use WAN A by having its default gateway throughout that VLAN set to outside IP address of WAN A. Likewise, VLAN 200 will use WAN B as its default gateway by having the outside IP address of WAN B set throughout the network. VLAN 100 and VLAN 200 will need to be in separate network ranges of each other. For example, VLAN 100 could be 192.168.100.0 and VLAN 200 could be in network range 192.168.200.0. To allow network access between these two VLANs, you will need to build a trunk between the two routers. Connect each router together, and configure a static route on each router to the other network. If you want to allow and disallow access to certain things, you're going to need something more like a firewall which can give you control over allowing and blocking specific traffic to and from specific devices or network ranges.

However, I think the problem you are going to have with your original plan is having the second network be able to utilize the first network's default gateway. With these two networks being in two separate network ranges, you can only have one default gateway, so it's only going to be using WAN B. With more complex routers or firewalls you may be able to set up WAN failover to utilize the static route back to the first router in the event that the primary WAN connection fails, but I don't know if this is exactly what you want.