Misc. Ramblings

This is going to be a mini-review because I'm spending most of my time working on finishing my Masters in Public Administration.

As Internet access has become a necessity and not a luxury, so too has the need to have reliable service increased. However, even today, just having broadband access is something to be happy about. Hence, having two broadband inputs from two different providers is something even rarer still.

But as the price of broadband access decreases, and the service areas increases, reliability will become more of a concern. While it would be great if you could have so-called five-nine reliability (i.e., 99.999 percent), my own experience with RoadRunner is not even close to two-nines.

Perhaps one-day, Internet access will be as reliable as phone or electricity. But until then, you can either live with what you have, or do what I did.

First, know that this is not something new. The larger service providers use multiple routes to the Internet via different providers. The intent is to have diverse paths so that there isn't any single point of failure that can bring down the service.

So while the concept is not new, there aren't a lot of hardware out there for home users who want to do the same. If you are lucky enough to have multiple broadband access, you either had to switch things manually, or use one of the two devices below.

The Hawking Technology FR24 Dual WAN Broadband 4-port Firewall Router (see it here) is one of two consumer grade dual WAN routers (the other is the Nexland Pro800turbo - see it here). As with the large providers, the purpose of having a dual broadband inputs is to increase reliability through redundant access.

These devices provide automatic switchover should one or the other of your broadband sources go down. Note that you may need to reboot your clients PCs but otherwise, the switchover is seamless to the user.

Assuming here that anyone attempting to setup this kind of access knows their way around an IP address, setting up the FR24 is fairly simple. Turn off your modems, connect their outputs to the WAN1 and WAN2 ports. Plug in the FR24, turn on the modems and the connections are done.

Using the built in web server, you access the FR24 with a browser at 192.168.1.1. For me, all of the defaults were correct and most will probably be OK with you.

There is a setup wizard that takes you through the entire process starting with setting the time and date. Step 2 is confirming the routers default IP address [192.168.1.1], subnet mask [255.255.255.0], gateway [192.168.1.1], Network Address Translation enabled (part of the firewall), and port number for accessing the setup [80].

Step 3 has places for inputting host name, domain name, and MAC address but I don't need to set any of those and most people won't either unless your ISP requires this information or you are running a server. This step also asks if you want your DNS to be assigned automatically by your ISPs DHCP server (you probably do).

Step 4 is setting your WAN2 settings. The most important question is the criteria for switching over from WAN1 to WAN2. You can choose always disconnected (I guess for those who don't have dual access); switch over when the primary WAN1 is disconnected; or switch only when the primary WAN1 is busy (based on adjustable throughput levels).

From what I understand from Hawking technology tech support, if you have two different ISPs, you can only use option 2 above. They did not explain why, just that it is the only way it will work.

Assuming your client PCs are already stepup to get their IP addresses and DNSs automatically from DHCP, you are done. Reboot the FR24 and any client PCs currently online and you start surfing.

The above instructions will work for most people, but if your situation is more complicated, the FR24 should be able to handle your needs. For example, if you don't use DHCP in your local LAN, the FR24 can work with static IPs. If you have a server that needs access outside of the firewall, you can setup an DMZ. If you want to have your servers behind your firewall, you can map incoming requests to a designated host. If you use Microsoft's VPN access, the FR24 supports one user being able to pass through the firewall. If you need it, you can modify the routing table to fit into your particular LAN. And finally, if you use dynamic DNS, so that your server with a dynamic IP address can be reachable by domain name, the FR24 can be setup to work with www.dyndns.org.

So far, the only problems I've had is to remember to reboot the router and the clients when I make changes to it. Otherwise, it seems to work just fine. The only thing I have not had time to check is how well it works in switching over. When I get a chance, I'll pull the plug on the primary WAN1 modem and check to see if the switchover occurs as it should.

Aloha!