Automatic switching between two networks when one is down ?

[Si3Rra_7]

My family's small hotel is located in the countryside so the internet connection here isn't great. We have two lines that go inside the hotel from different ISPs each having their own modem and router.

 

• ISP #1 has a very stable almost never fails service that is more reliable than the electricity company honestly. Sad thing is that it's a very bad connection ( 40 ping 8-down 0.9 up ) and it's always maxed out by a couple youtube videos running at the same time.
• ISP #2 has a very strong service ( 4 ping 100-down 100-up ) but if the sun shines too hard or if the wind blows a leaf off a tree it's down at the random-est of times. 

 

My question is, outside of looking for new ISPs how can i have a box that automatically switches in between them whenever ISP #2 is down. Right now i manually change the cable, in between the routers, that goes to the switch with all the rooms and WiFi APs. And that means at least 2 minutes of downtime and at most a couple hours if i'm not on watch.

 

 Can you do it without some sort of $500+ enterprise grade multi-router-thingamajig¹ ?

 

PS: Forgot to mention we share that internet connection with our personal computers since we live on site.

PPS: It's okay if the internet goes down for under a minute if you need to reassign everyone new stuff since you change ISPs and such¹  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

__________________________________________________

 

1 : ( read : "i don't know shit about networking" )

[KuJoe]

Here you go:

1. Go grab a $100 Ubiquiti Edge Router Lite.
2. Hook one ISP to the first port.
3. Hook one ISP to the second port.
4. Hook your switch up to the third port.
5. Follow this guide: http://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeMAX/802-3ad-failover/m-p/768682#M26442
6. Done.

[Si3Rra_7]

4 minutes ago, KuJoe said:

Here you go:

1. Go grab a $100 Ubiquiti Edge Router Lite.
2. Hook one ISP to the first port.
3. Hook one ISP to the second port.
4. Hook your switch up to the third port.
5. Follow this guide: http://community.ubnt.com/t5/EdgeMAX/802-3ad-failover/m-p/768682#M26442
6. Done.

Thanks a lot !

[brwainer]

Just now, Si3Rra_7 said:

Thanks a lot !

Just to add something productive - if you used the exact setup shown in that guide, then you would want the Fast ISP on the first port, and the Reliable ISP on the second port.

[KuJoe]

Also, Ubiquiti has a more advanced tutorial for setting up load balancing so both ISPs are live at the same time (more bandwidth!) and if one goes down the other takes over. It's not horribly complex, but I figured a failover setup like I posted would be easier for a networking novice.

[CiscoFan]

You can even use Cisco equipment, it is really cheap on eBay.

 

What you need to configure on the LAN ports is:

R1

interface f0/0 or g0/0

ip address 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0

standby ip 192.168.1.1

 

R2

interface f0/0 or g0/0

ip address 192.168.1.3 255.255.255.0

standby ip 192.168.1.1

[The Benjamins]

7 hours ago, KuJoe said:

Also, Ubiquiti has a more advanced tutorial for setting up load balancing so both ISPs are live at the same time (more bandwidth!) and if one goes down the other takes over. It's not horribly complex, but I figured a failover setup like I posted would be easier for a networking novice.

I think you can just use the wizards for both setups. I see the options on my router.