Dual ISPs

[byalexandr]

Hey all,

 

I have been pretty fed up with the downtime I regularly get with AT&T Fiber (and the really crappy equipment they give you that is ancient and locked down), so I added Verizon 5G Home Plus to my house. For starters, this is the current setup:

 

- AT&T Fiber is 1Gbps, currently wired to a 16-port switch and distributing LAN to each room in the house

- Verizon 5G is 300Mbps, currently just by itself with a couple devices connected to WiFi that get better signal than from the AT&T router due to proximity

 

My AT&T service regularly has couple minute long service interruptions throughout the day, and sometimes extended service interruptions that can last 1-2 days. In most cases all I can do is wait and hope AT&T resolves the issue. The Verizon 5G internet has historically been (when I had it in my old apartment) very reliable as it uses the cell towers, despite not being Gigabit speeds like the AT&T Fiber.

 

Ideally, I would like all the devices (both over LAN and WiFi) to connect to one network that has both of the ISPs connected. By default, I want it to use the AT&T service since it is faster, but whenever there is a service interruption I want it to switch over to the Verizon 5G service.

 

Is this possible? Is all I need a dual WAN port router? Would I need to plug in a WAP into the new router to have one WiFi network? I am pretty new to this stuff so I'm not sure how to make the best of utilizing both ISPs with the goal of minimizing downtime.

[HanZie82]

Yes very possible, and yes you need a router that supports it.
https://www.draytek.com/support/knowledge-base/5734 (Failover is the one where it uses another internet when main one goes down)

[byalexandr]

45 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Yes very possible, and yes you need a router that supports it.
https://www.draytek.com/support/knowledge-base/5734 (Failover is the one where it uses another internet when main one goes down)

Awesome, yeah I just ordered a TP Link WiFi router that has WAN failover. I am pretty new to how it works, is there a lot of configuration to setup on the new router (besides the basic stuff like setting up the SSID and all) for the failover?

 

Will it just default to the faster WAN connection or combine them for a 1.3Gbps throughput? And how does it recognize when one of the WAN connections are down and switch to the one that is working? Also, since I got the WiFi router, I can just turn off WiFi broadcasting on both of the individual routers and this one will broadcast on the 'combined' ISP network on a single SSID?

[byalexandr]

This is the one I ordered: https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-Festa-FR365-Self-Organizing-Seamless/dp/B0D8M44Q91

[NobleGamer]

3 hours ago, byalexandr said:

Awesome, yeah I just ordered a TP Link WiFi router that has WAN failover. I am pretty new to how it works, is there a lot of configuration to setup on the new router (besides the basic stuff like setting up the SSID and all) for the failover?

TP Link seems like its interface is at least a bit more user friendly than my Ubiquiti Edgerouter-X. However, look up the reviews or manual for yours and you'll see more info about how many or which settings it really depends on.

 

3 hours ago, byalexandr said:

Will it just default to the faster WAN connection or combine them for a 1.3Gbps throughput?

If you set it up to do load balancing without failover (or whatever TP Link calls it), then it can distribute different unique connections between WANs. It likely cannot split a single TCP/IP connection between WANs, nor can it more formally bond two WAN connections together.

 

3 hours ago, byalexandr said:

And how does it recognize when one of the WAN connections are down and switch to the one that is working?

It likely pings an IP of your choosing, and/or pings the gateway address (defined by WAN's DHCP settings) of each WAN. That's how it works for my ER-X.

 

3 hours ago, byalexandr said:

Also, since I got the WiFi router, I can just turn off WiFi broadcasting on both of the individual routers and this one will broadcast on the 'combined' ISP network on a single SSID?

You could as long as you have a way to connect to each ISPs gateway/modems by other means. I personally leave the 5 GHz band on for each of my ISP devices and turn down or disable 2.4 GHz, because I don't have any neighbors but I want to minimize 2.4 GHz interference with my primary SSID + network. You do you.

[byalexandr]

21 hours ago, NobleGamer said:

TP Link seems like its interface is at least a bit more user friendly than my Ubiquiti Edgerouter-X. However, look up the reviews or manual for yours and you'll see more info about how many or which settings it really depends on.

 

If you set it up to do load balancing without failover (or whatever TP Link calls it), then it can distribute different unique connections between WANs. It likely cannot split a single TCP/IP connection between WANs, nor can it more formally bond two WAN connections together.

 

It likely pings an IP of your choosing, and/or pings the gateway address (defined by WAN's DHCP settings) of each WAN. That's how it works for my ER-X.

 

You could as long as you have a way to connect to each ISPs gateway/modems by other means. I personally leave the 5 GHz band on for each of my ISP devices and turn down or disable 2.4 GHz, because I don't have any neighbors but I want to minimize 2.4 GHz interference with my primary SSID + network. You do you.

Ah, I was hoping it would be able to bond both ISPs together to make a 1.3Gbps throughput. But as long as the failover works then that's all I need it to do. 1Gbps over the fiber connection is plenty fast. And this one has WiFi 6E which should yield higher speeds than the crappy AT&T BGW-210 gateway so I will probably see some improvements over wireless at least.

 

If needed I can just connect to LAN at one of the routers that I need to access. Otherwise I don't think I will need to touch them at all.

 

Thanks for the advice, hopefully it works well. Currently waiting on the router to arrive with Amazon.