Alpha4043
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Can I have multiple gateways on a SBS 2008
Can I have multiple gateways on a server.
I have business cable for SBS and exchange. I also have a DSL line that I use very little for another application. Can I add a gateway on SBS for the DSL?
Is there a better way to do this? I just want a backup to get to the internet if I lose the primary internet connection. I understand my email will not come if the cable is down is there a way to fix that too?
I have business cable for SBS and exchange. I also have a DSL line that I use very little for another application. Can I add a gateway on SBS for the DSL?
Is there a better way to do this? I just want a backup to get to the internet if I lose the primary internet connection. I understand my email will not come if the cable is down is there a way to fix that too?
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Can you name a few routers that will do this? Thanks
Here is one particular model...
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=452
Dual link load balancing - then the server is protected a little more by being behind the NAT and it only accesses the one gaetway.
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=452
Dual link load balancing - then the server is protected a little more by being behind the NAT and it only accesses the one gaetway.
To answer your first question - yes, you can have two default routes on your server. They need to have different "metrics" - since only one will be used at a given time, it will be the accessible route with the lowest metric.
Although, that's not likely to be 100% seamless backup - i.e. if the cable goes out your cable modem will still be running, so the server is going to believe it's still a viable route - you would probably need to manually power-off the cable modem in order for the server to switch to the backup route.
At a command prompt you can run route /? for info on using the route command, the backup route would likely look like:
route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 w.x.y.z metric nn
Where w.x.y.z is the IP address of the DSL modem/router, and nn is a number higher than the metric of your primary gateway.
Although, that's not likely to be 100% seamless backup - i.e. if the cable goes out your cable modem will still be running, so the server is going to believe it's still a viable route - you would probably need to manually power-off the cable modem in order for the server to switch to the backup route.
At a command prompt you can run route /? for info on using the route command, the backup route would likely look like:
route add 0.0.0.0 mask 0.0.0.0 w.x.y.z metric nn
Where w.x.y.z is the IP address of the DSL modem/router, and nn is a number higher than the metric of your primary gateway.
Higher end less SOHO than the other two I listed -
http://www.sonicwall.com/us/products/TZ_210.html
http://www.sonicwall.com/us/products/TZ_210.html
ASKER
tgerbert
So what would you suggest as the metric for the cable? And the for the DSL?
Will the DSL ever be accessed or only if the cable modem is switched off?
I will know when the cable is off because my email to exchange will stop.
The other suggestions are great too!
Will the load balancing routers use both capacities of the cable and the DSL connections?
So what would you suggest as the metric for the cable? And the for the DSL?
Will the DSL ever be accessed or only if the cable modem is switched off?
I will know when the cable is off because my email to exchange will stop.
The other suggestions are great too!
Will the load balancing routers use both capacities of the cable and the DSL connections?
ASKER
tgerbert
Do I need to change anything in the DNS on SBS 2008?
Do I need to change anything in the DNS on SBS 2008?
Using multiple gateways will not work in practice with a Windows server. The theory is when the primary gateway is not available it switches to the secondary (higher metric) and then switches back when the primary is available again. However with Windows it will never switch back unless you reboot the server. Windows will also warn you when trying to set a second gateway that it is not supported.
As others have suggested a dual WAN router is your only option. However there are problems with this in many situations:
-if you cannot switch off the load balancing feature and limit it to fail-over the way it works is the first client connection uses gateway 1 and the second gateway 2, and so on. If the two connections do not have similar upload/download speeds 1/2 of your users may experience reduced performance.
-Dual WAN routers work fine for most out going services but generally will not work for incoming connections like Exchange, RWW, VPN's.
As others have suggested a dual WAN router is your only option. However there are problems with this in many situations:
-if you cannot switch off the load balancing feature and limit it to fail-over the way it works is the first client connection uses gateway 1 and the second gateway 2, and so on. If the two connections do not have similar upload/download speeds 1/2 of your users may experience reduced performance.
-Dual WAN routers work fine for most out going services but generally will not work for incoming connections like Exchange, RWW, VPN's.
@Alpha4043:
>Will the DSL ever be accessed or only if the cable modem is switched off?
Most likely only if the cable is switched off or disconnected. Also, what are you running for a firewall on the Windows server? In my experience you'll be safer if you deploy a hardware firewall/NAT solution.
@Alpha4043:
>Will the load balancing routers use both capacities of the cable and the DSL connections?
Yes, they load balance the data across the two connections. When means you not only get redundancy but a speed boost. The more expensive solutions from Watchguard and Sonicwall will have more data throughput.
>Will the DSL ever be accessed or only if the cable modem is switched off?
Most likely only if the cable is switched off or disconnected. Also, what are you running for a firewall on the Windows server? In my experience you'll be safer if you deploy a hardware firewall/NAT solution.
@Alpha4043:
>Will the load balancing routers use both capacities of the cable and the DSL connections?
Yes, they load balance the data across the two connections. When means you not only get redundancy but a speed boost. The more expensive solutions from Watchguard and Sonicwall will have more data throughput.
It's been my experience that Exchange will work behind a dual wan link, however, if you use your ISPs SMTP server as a relay, when the one link goes down you may run into relay issue. You can fix this by having your domain hosted with SMTP or not using relaying. The Cisco RV082 supports VPN, I didn't' read anything in it's documentation that it's VPN doesn't work in a dual connection setup.
You may run into some issues with incoming port forwarding due to the ip changing. So if a user tries to come in on an IP from the cable modem and it's down, they won't get connected. If they then use the secondary IP, they get in.
You may run into some issues with incoming port forwarding due to the ip changing. So if a user tries to come in on an IP from the cable modem and it's down, they won't get connected. If they then use the secondary IP, they get in.
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These are the types of routers we use...Very Good and user friendly.