2 Internet connections 2 PCs - how to network it together?

[TomSerious]

Hello everybody!

So I have:

• 1 Router with a very slow but stable Internet connection (DSL)
• 1 Router with a fast but not that stable Internet connection (4G/LTE)
• 1 (my) main PC (Win 10)
• 1 PC for my girlfriend who is visiting sometimes (Win 10)

Now my questions are:

Is it better to use a switch and connect everything to there or is it better to connect the

routers directly to the 2 PCs individually and then the 2 PCs together too?? (file transfer)

Are there any other (better) options?

 

For the routers: Would it be better (or even work) if I connect them with 2 cables to the same

network(s)? Since the ports on the routers only have 100mbit.

 

Costs aren't really a problem, and I have to buy everything new either way(networking cards /

switch / whateverelse), since atm there are just the 2 PCs and one of them is connected

to the routers (maybe a NAS will be added).

 

Thank you very much in advance for any replies!

If further Information is needed please ask.

 

Best regards

TomSerious

[mcraftax]

Do you want to have the LTE connection as a primary and the DSL as a failover?

Or do you want load-balancing between the connections?

[TomSerious]

7 minutes ago, mcraftax said:

Do you want to have the LTE connection as a primary and the DSL as a failover?

Or do you want load-balancing between the connections?

How well would the load balance work out?

A moderately fast and stable connection would be optimal, but as I heard from other sources that's not really possible. Or is it?

 

LTE as the primary and DSL as a failover sounds like a good deal too, I am fairly new to networking and don't really have a

clue (yet) how to combine those things or what would be better in terms of stability increase with minimal speed decrease.

[mcraftax]

1 minute ago, TomSerious said:

How well would the load balance work out?

A moderately fast and stable connection would be optimal, but as I heard from other sources that's not really possible. Or is it?

One device get put though on one connection and another on the other eta. But this would probably not be very good as one connection is slow.

5 minutes ago, TomSerious said:

LTE as the primary and DSL as a failover sounds like a good deal too, I am fairly new to networking and don't really have a

clue (yet) how to combine those things or what would be better in terms of stability increase with minimal speed decrease.

I would do it this way with these connections.

You would need a router which support redundant WAN connections with either having build in LTE/DSL modem/conection or having standalone modems which you are connected to the router's WAN ports.

Those modems could be your existing router in some kind of "modem/bridge mode" or things like NAT, DHCP and DNS off.

You would have the LTE connection as the primary and if that one fails it uses the DSL connection.

[mcraftax]

12 minutes ago, TomSerious said:

How well would the load balance work out?

A moderately fast and stable connection would be optimal, but as I heard from other sources that's not really possible. Or is it?

 

LTE as the primary and DSL as a failover sounds like a good deal too, I am fairly new to networking and don't really have a

clue (yet) how to combine those things or what would be better in terms of stability increase with minimal speed decrease.

There is another way of having multiple gateways on the same subnet but that is complicated as hell and i don't know have it work. And is really only used in enterprise situations

[TomSerious]

1 minute ago, mcraftax said:

I would do it this way with these connections.

You would need a router which support redundant WAN connections with either having build in LTE/DSL modem/conection or having standalone modems which you are connected to the router's WAN ports.

Those modems could be your existing router in some kind of "modem/bridge mode" or things like NAT, DHCP and DNS off.

You would have the LTE connection as the primary and if that one fails it uses the DSL connection.

My routers don't support that option unfortunately, do you have any recommendations?

Thank you so much btw for your help!

 

Additionally what I found out was that a lot of routers don't work well with both of my providers since there is a daily reset of the connection.

[mcraftax]

3 minutes ago, TomSerious said:

My routers don't support that option unfortunately, do you have any recommendations?

Thank you so much btw for your help!

 

Additionally what I found out was that a lot of routers don't work well with both of my providers since there is a daily reset of the connection.

What country?

 

What you could do is have your existing routers as routers on either different subnet (e.g DSL is on 192.168.0.x/24, LTE on 192.168.1.x/24 and the main network on 192.168.2.x/24) and the load-balancing/redundancy setup router on another as the subnet everything connects to.

[TomSerious]

6 minutes ago, mcraftax said:

What country?

 

What you could do is have your existing routers as routers on either different subnet (e.g DSL is on 192.168.0.x/24, LTE on 192.168.1.x/24 and the main network on 192.168.2.x/24) and the load-balancing/redundancy setup router on another as the subnet everything connects to.

I am from Austria.

 

I just found out, that my LTE router has a "LAN1/WAN" port! I just plugged my DSL router in there.

[mcraftax]

1 minute ago, TomSerious said:

I am from Austria.

 

I just found out, that my LTE router has a "LAN1/WAN" port! I just plugged my DSL router in there.

That's good, it probably support load balancing of some sort which is send data to the connection with the most bandwidth available. If it is isp equipment i don't know how much you will be able to configure it and how smart it will be. But that great

[TomSerious]

2 minutes ago, mcraftax said:

That's good, it probably support load balancing of some sort which is send data to the connection with the most bandwidth available. If it is isp equipment i don't know how much you will be able to configure it and how smart it will be. But that great

Thank you so much for helping!

I will test it further.

Unfortunately it is ISP equipment and the settings tab is very limited.

 

[mcraftax]

1 minute ago, TomSerious said:

Thank you so much for helping!

I will test it further.

Unfortunately it is ISP equipment and the settings tab is very limited.

 

np

 

isp equipment...       i have to use it though, my parent can't understand the limitations.

[TomSerious]

3 minutes ago, mcraftax said:

isp equipment...       i have to use it though, my parent can't understand the limitations.

That's sad to read, but I would have the capabilities to change it in my home here (budget and so on) :x.

 

Could you recommend me any device, with 2 WAN ports or something, so I might have more options?

[mcraftax]

8 minutes ago, TomSerious said:

That's sad to read, but I would have the capabilities to change it in my home here (budget and so on) :x.

 

Could you recommend me any device, with 2 WAN ports or something, so I might have more options?

No sure but I will post a thread, i'll tag you in it