Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of crp0499
crp0499Flag for United States of America

asked on

Multiple ISP's and failover

One of our clients is an insruance agency.  Since Friday, their DSL has been down and AT&T can't fix it.  The owner is asking me, and I am suggesting, bringing in RR and keeping both and running them into a dual WAN port router that will provide failover in the event that one ISP is down.  My questions are this:

I've googled some routers that will combine the bandwidth of BOTH ISP's broadband so that the users can access all bandwidth provided by both internet connections.  Is this for real?  I'm looking at a 3COM model.

Since our mail is hosted off-site and the users access it via POP3, we're not worried about SMTP or anything.  The only thing they need is internet access and failover.  I was thinking though that if the router combined the bandwidth of both lines in, even better.

Your thoughts?

Thanks

Cliff

PS:  Recommendations on dual WAN routers that combine bandwidth?  We're looking at 3COM.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of KVR_Solutions
KVR_Solutions
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of Les Moore
Linksys RV042/RV082 is another potential solution for you..
or Peplink
http://www.peplink.com/productsLoader.php?productName=balance

Netgear, Hawking, Xylink, all also have a dual WAN capability..
Avatar of dempsedm
dempsedm

Secure computing's SnapGear products do this:

http://www.securecomputing.com/index.cfm?skey=1556

The cheapest one (sg300) is under $250, and I'm not sure if it does broadband failover, but I know the sg560 does it, and it is aroung $300-350.
P.S. the reason I like these routers, is they don't require user licenses that you have to purchase seperately.
Think of this from a business owners standpoint.

If this is an insurance company, what does it cost them to be down for an hour.. or a day.. or a week? If you buy one of these off brand devices, you risk having more downtime if it fails. I realize that the SonicWall TZ170 is slightly more costly (we're talking 300-400) than the devices the other people have mentioned.

We roll out network solutions for hundreds of clients. I've worked with all types of firewalls and routers. In this scenario, you'll have the best luck (long term, east of use, quality company for warranty work) with the TZ 170.

FYI, the only other firewall/router with WAN failover and Load Balance that I would recommend would be the Watchguard x10 or x20.. but they're much more costly and they don't have the ability to to a port based NAT. (ie incoming 3389 goes to 3378 for instance)...

Ira @ KVR
Depends on what you think is "off brand" I suppose.
I know some people who think anything that isn't Cisco, is off-brand!
Lol.. I am not one of those people. I know what true brand snobbery is.. but in this case, I'm just speaking from experience. Our company has a packaged network product that we roll out hundreds of clients a year. I've worked with lots of routers and firewalls and I've found the TZ 170 to be the best bang for the buck, with the longest shelf life.

Ira @ KVR