What equipment to switch internet connection between 2 ISPs (Failover and Redundancy)

net4hack

Hi,
I have 2 ISP's providing internet service in the company I work. One is to be used as the main ISP while the second one as a backup in case the first one fails. What equipment I should use to switch ISP automatically if one connection fails. I dont want to use a costly / complicated server to switch the connection. Is there a device to do this? What is the cost and how to connect it?

Appreciate any help...

White Heart Loon

net4hack wrote: »

Hi,
I have 2 ISP's providing internet service in the company I work. One is to be used as the main ISP while the second one as a backup in case the first one fails. What equipment I should use to switch ISP automatically if one connection fails. I dont want to use a costly / complicated server to switch the connection. Is there a device to do this? What is the cost and how to connect it?

Appreciate any help...

You need a decent router like a Mikrotik rb750 configured with a dual wan failover script. A decent networking knowledge will be required.
http://www.interprojekt.com.pl/mikrotik-routerboard-rb750level-32mb-5xlan-p-560.html

degsie

Draytek offer failover solutions also.

AmilcarAlho

Do you have a firewall in place? Most recent entry level firewalls allow for fail-over or even load balancing.

Another alternative is a Peplink multi-wan router, the entry level models cost around 250€ but are quite easy to manage.

net4hack

I have Juniper firewall in place. It was installed by a 3rd party IT company. The Internet connections are with ISP's irish Broadband and Eircom eFibre.

Is there some thing with the form factor of a network switch which automatically switch 2 internet connections by just connecting LAN out from two ISP router in to that device?

Would the MIKROTIK RouterBOARD RB750+Level 4 router do this?

White Heart Loon

net4hack wrote: »

I have Juniper firewall in place. It was installed by a 3rd party IT company. The Internet connections are with ISP's irish Broadband and Eircom eFibre.

Is there some thing with the form factor of a network switch which automatically switch 2 internet connections by just connecting LAN out from two ISP router in to that device?

Would the MIKROTIK RouterBOARD RB750+Level 4 router do this?

Yes, it's exactly what you need, but it's not likely something you'll be able to configure yourself unless you are very well up on networking. There is a wealth of info and scripts on the Mikrotik wiki and forum.
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Two_gateways_failover
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Advanced_Routing_Failover_without_Scripting
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Failover_Scripting
http://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/Improved_Load_Balancing_over_Multiple_Gateways

It could possibly be done by the Juniper firewall, have you asked them?

net4hack

I only have entry level knowledge in networking.

Is there not a device to which I could connect both the routers, which in turn would do the switching automatically in case one connection goes down?

AmilcarAlho

For entry level, the peplink is probably the easiest.

I would however check for existing rules for services such as email, remote access, etc. These rules must be added to the new load balancer, otherwise you might lose access to said services.

ronan675

JunOS (Juniper) should be able to do Multi-Wan depending on the model of firewall you currently have in place. I would speak with your IT company to see if a multi-wan scenario is supported using your existing firewall.

net4hack

About dual wan router? Could I plugin the WAN out from the two existing routers to a dual wan router? Would It serve my purpose without any scripting or extra configuration?

crawler

You will need to do a bit of manual config on the DHCP side of it (unless tyou have 2 X static IP addresses and you will need to make sure you can support IPSec tunnels if you are using them etc...

There are a few good dual or multi WAN routers out there - Billion make one pretty cheap http://www.billion.com/product/ssl-ipsec-vpn/BiGuardS6000-SSL-VPN-Gigabit-SME-Security-Gateway.html

But a quick google will find you a pile of them.

Top end you could configure up a Cisco box to do the same thing using a few WAN interfaces.

Usually with dual WAN devices you keep the existing broadband routers from your ISP(s) and NAT internally - you just plug a stanard RJ-45 into each WAN port from the two routers.

Not really a big job with a bit of planning

Alternatively if you just want a simple load balancer http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-TL-R480T-Load-Balance-Router/dp/B001VFS5B4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395174458&sr=8-1&keywords=dual+wan+router

ED E

net4hack wrote: »

About dual wan router? Could I plugin the WAN out from the two existing routers to a dual wan router? Would It serve my purpose without any scripting or extra configuration?

No matter which way you go OP this won't be something you can do yourself. Anything you place in front of the juniper would very likely limit/block its access.

Get your 3rd pafty to determine if the current hardware can do it and cost the job.