Can we setup two different broadbands, from two different suppliers, in the same house, joined together using a router

yes sure.

TP link TL-R488T is all you need. Easy to setup and not expansive.
you can setup load balancing to 50/50, 60/40...... as u wish.

http://www.tplink.com.pl/doc/06281ie.pdf

Any old PC with two interface cards

Install pfsense on it and enjoy :)

https://www.tecmint.com/how-to-setup-failover-and-load-balancing-in-pfsense/

https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28817679/Request-a-simple-step-by-step-guide-how-to-setup-pfSense-in-Vmware.html

https://www.tecmint.com/how-to-install-and-configure-pfsense/

There are many options available. Look for "Dual WAN router" - that's what you need.  My preference is Untangle. An old PC with two network cards will suffice for that and they give you a 2-week trial with full capability (including the DUAL WAN capability).  If you like it, you can buy the home license for $50/year, IIRC.

this is what we do using a peplink balance 710 and works well
one ISP has an outage, switches traffic to the other

https://www.peplink.com/products/balance-series/

Hi all,

Thanks for your useful information.

We use a Huawei B535 router to provide internet to the network;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUAWEI-B535-235-Unlocked-Antennas-Worldwide/dp/B08B43CHVZ

At the moment, we use one mobile broadband sim in this router to provide internet.

We have devices connected wired to this router such as a PC and devices connected to WiFi via our connected access point.

You mentioned things such as Dual WAN router and load balancing to be able to use two different broadbands, from two different suppliers at same time.

Would the Huawei B535 router mentioned above work for this?

Thanks,
Robbie

It seems not supported .

there is another series of huawei routes support dual wan

https://www.mifi-hotspots.com/huawei--B535-232-cat-6-dual-wan-router-300-mbps-white

no sure it's doesn't support load balancing.
TP-link TL-R488T support that, very efficient and not expansive. You can configure load balance between 2 or more links.

In case you can afford buying a better quality router, Fortinet and Cisco are the best, but in your case TP Link is more than enough.

Hi,

The Huawei router we have is the Huawei B535-235;
https://www.mifi-hotspots.com/huawei--B535-235-cat-6-dual-wan-router-300-mbps-var

Is that not Dual WAN?

Also, does the router above support load balancing?

Thanks,
Robbie

Yes this Huawei doesn't support load balancing. Ive tried TL-R488T TP link and worked perfectly 

Hi Elie,

We are located in Ireland but can buy also from UK.

The device you mentioned is not easy to find available anywhere in Ireland or UK.

Can you provide a link to this product?

Also, is this a new product? If not is there a newer version of this product?

Thanks,
Robbie

yes you can find below the new series TL-R470

https://www.tp-link.com/us/business-networking/load-balance-router/tl-r470t+/

Check in Ireland who's the provider/Partner of TP-Link, otherwise you can purchase them from Amazon.

Easy to configure and you can find lot's of features inside it, I have tried the load balancing between 2 links and worked perfectly.

Best Regards,

Hi all,

We are still looking into sourcing TP-Link device in Ireland that does load balancing and where we can use two sim cards.

We have another idea which we are considering.

1. In the same location, could we setup two routers each with a sim card but from different broadband suppliers?

In this way we could have one house with one broadband and the other house in same area with a different broadband.

2. If the main house broadband loses internet connection, we would like to connect the devices in main house, connected via switch, to the second house broadband. Would this work?

Thanks,
Robbie

If the main house broadband loses internet connection, we would like to connect the devices in main house, connected via switch, to the second house broadband. Would this work? 

yes it will work

i prefer to use same network subnet for both house and same ip address for the routers ( default gateway ) this to minimize downtime and don't change ip addresses when broadband link is down 

Can you advise about the connectivity, how the user will access the internet through wireless or wired?
Does each house has it's own switch/infrastructure?

Hi,

Each house has its own switch and one wireless access point connected to switch in each house.

The devices are connected wired to the switch or via wireless to access points in each house.

At present there is one router with both switches in each house wired to it.

The plan is that each switch would be connected to their own router and if we lose internet connection in main house, we could wire switch in main house to router in second house.

What do you think? Would this work okay?

Thanks,
Robbie

• Connect each router to a switch
• Connect both switches together.
• Assign the same range of IP's for all the PC's for example 192.168.1.0/24
• use 192.168.168.10-->50 for the first house
• use 192.168.168.100-->100 for the 2nd house
• add the default gateway for all the client toward router 1 (192.168.1.1)
• In case of failure change the client default gateway for router 2 on the same subnet for example (192.168.1.2)

If you don't want to change anything, you can setup router 2 same internal IP configuration DNS, Gateway... and just replace remove the cable from router 1 and plug it to router 2.

To note that these methods are not used anymore, once you purchase the load balancer, these will run automatically without any change, moreover you can use both internet connections at the same time.

Hi,

Thanks for that information.

We would like to have the broadband in both houses working at same time with devices not conflicting.

Assume we are using two Huawei B535-235 routers for this.

1. If we connect the two switches together, would the networks not conflict?
2. If one broadband stopped working, would the devices automatically connect to other working broadband?
3. Elie, if we used the one router that you mentioned with load balancing could we just plug the two switches into it using two different network provider's sim cards instead of two routers?

Thanks,
Robbie

1. If we connect the two switches together, would the networks not conflict? 

You cannot use both broadband at the same time. If you give the PC's static IP's and you set the default gateway of both houses to go through 1 Huawei router. Let say you have RTR1 (192.168.1.1) you can set router 2 (192.168.1.2) on the same network. But you have to put all the user default gateway to 192.168.1.1, in this case the users will browse the internet passing through RTR1. In case router 1 disconnected for a reason you can change the user default gateway to 192.168.1.2 so the user will browse the internet through router 2. This method is a headache since you have to always change the default gateway of the users. That's why better is to configure RTR2 same setup as RTR1, but still you have to disconnect the cable from R1 and connect R2. Both are bad designs, and required the administrator to intervene manually to do the change. So I suggest to leave the design as it is and try to check another type of load balancer if you cannot find TP-link.

3. Elie, if we used the one router that you mentioned with load balancing could we just plug the two switches into it using two different network provider's sim cards instead of two routers? 

In the case of load balancer, you can plug both ISP's connection to it and then connect the load balancer to your internal switch. BTW you can configure load balancing,DNS, DHCP, NAT, some basic firewalling.

Hi Elie,

I think you are answering based on the fact that we would have both broadbands connected at same time with all switches connected with each other and all devices connected on same network.

I was saying we would like to have the broadband routers in both houses working at same time with devices in main house connected to one broadband router and devices in second house connected to other broadband router.

These devices would be separate from each other as if to be on different networks but may be connected if broadband in main house stopped working.

I am assuming this would cause IP conflicts if no static IP set.

So if we had both switches, that are connected to their broadband routers, connected together we would have to have the design as you recommended, correct?

Thanks,
Robbie

Hi,

At the moment we have a Modem/ router, switches and Access points connected on our network.

If we wish to use a Dual WAN Load balancing router such as the following, will we require also to have a Modem;

1. TP-Link (TL-R470T+) Multi WAN Router;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SafeStream-TL-R470T-Ethernet-Broadband-pass-through/dp/B005SYQBN8

2. TP-Link TL-R605 Multi-WAN VPN Router;
https://www.tp-link.com/uk/business-networking/vpn-router/tl-r605/

3. TP-LINK TL-R480T+ Multi-WAN Router;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-R480T-Balance-Broadband-Business/dp/B001VFS5B4

Thanks,
Robbie

Hi,

We are looking to fix the issue with our network as it is not too reliable.

With the TL-R470T+ Load Balance Broadband Router you mentioned it can use two broadband provider's sim cards at same time.

If one of the sim cards in the router fails and internet disconnects for it will the other sim card in router continue to provide internet to the network?

Thanks,
Robbie

If one of the sim cards in the router fails and internet disconnects for it will the other sim card in router continue to provide internet to the network? 

for sure it will work 

With the TL-R470T+ Load Balance Broadband Router you mentioned it can use two broadband provider's sim cards at same time 

Since you are using a router that has the capability to load balance then it one connection is down the other will take over, that the purpose.
It's depend on the setup, you can configure 1 active link and one redundant or you can configure Active/Active with load balancing 50/50 or 60/40 and so on.

Hi,

Thanks for getting back to me on this.

Are there any advantages/ disadvantages to using Active/Active vs 1 active and 1 redundant for Load balancing setup?

Thanks,
Robbie

yes sure if you're using active/active, then you're consuming internet from the 2 connections, however if your using active/standby then you're not using your second connection unless the first goes down. Long time ago they used to have an active DSL connection and standby dial-up, but nowadays the connection is becoming more faster, that's why I suggest to use active/active in you scenario to get better user experience and at the same time to not waste your second connection in the idle state.

Hi,

Thanks for that information.

We are using a Huawei B535 router to provide internet to our network;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/HUAWEI-B535-235-Unlocked-Antennas-Worldwide/dp/B08B43CHVZ

We use this Trans-Data LTE Antenna with the above router;
https://www.atcsupplies.ie/product.php?id=002979

We want to buy and setup a TP-Link Dual WAN router using two sim cards such as the following;
- TP-Link (TL-R470T+) Multi WAN Router;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SafeStream-TL-R470T-Ethernet-Broadband-pass-through/dp/B005SYQBN8

The problem is that we can't connect the antenna to this router and may need to connect this router to our Huawei modem.

1. Can we connect two different network provider's sim cards into the above TP-Link Dual WAN router?
2. Will we get internet on our network if we connect the TP-Link Dual WAN router to our Huawei modem but have no sim card in Huawei modem and put a sim card in the TP-Link Dual WAN router?
3. If the answers to above questions are no, I am assuming that to use two network broadbands at same time, we connect two modems to each WAN port on the TP-Link Dual WAN router with each modem using a sim card. Is this correct?

4. Of the following TP-Link Dual WAN routers, which would you say is newest and best for us to get;

- TP-Link (TL-R470T+) Multi WAN Router;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SafeStream-TL-R470T-Ethernet-Broadband-pass-through/dp/B005SYQBN8

- TP-Link TL-R605 Multi-WAN VPN Router;
https://www.tp-link.com/uk/business-networking/vpn-router/tl-r605/

- TP-LINK TL-R480T+ Multi-WAN Router;
https://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-R480T-Balance-Broadband-Business/dp/B001VFS5B4

5. Is there a TP-Link Multi-WAN router that has a built-in antenna and acts as modem/router. If so, what would you recommend?

All help greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Robbie