Way OT - home router/networking Dual WAN geekfest question

[uwmcscott]

I know there are some techies out there like me, hoping to throw a scenario out there to see if anyone has attempted what I'm about to undertake.

I currently have 2 separate ISP's - we had a new provider run fiber all through our municipality last summer and we signed up for a 2 year deal at a much lower rate than our old provider. I played the "I'm cancelling" card with the old provider and got them to match the rate the new guys were providing. So now I have a 300mb fiber connection and 400mb cable for the price of what I paid for just a 200mb cable connection previously.

Since I've been working from home and the kids have been doing part-time virtual school, it's been quite handy to have the additional bandwidth. But the current setup is a little messy as I basically have 2 completely separate networks - separate provider modems and separate router/wifi devices with unique SSID's for each. I notice some interference between the wifi signals at times, and one of them is a bit older anyway and needs to be replaced.

My newer router is a higher end residential ASUS that does have a dual WAN interface ( ASUS RT68U ), but the load balancing config is not good. It works OK in failover but the load balancing is a no go, and I confirmed on the ASUS forums that it's just the way it is, no real solutions.

So my plan is to purchase a decent Dual WAN router that supports Load Balancing and use the ASUS basically as the access point/internal WIFI router. Anyone here have an experience with these devices?

TP-Link Safestream TL-R600VPN
Ubiquiti EdgeRouter X

The 2 listed above are under $100 but both seem to have some fairly decent reviews of true load balancing and failover that actually works. I've also done a little reading on DD-WRT and other open source type devices, but honestly I'd prefer a commercial product that I don't need to mess with as much. I don't need any of the VPN or additinal features, mainly just a working loadbalance solution. I'd also like to avoid a commercial grade router as they are a lot more expensive and usually a PITA to configure - I have enough of that crap to worry about at work

[mozz]

2cents worth.
Had a new TP link router once, AC band i think. Still here but not used. I will never buy that brand again. Full of bugs and little to no support/updates. Problems after problems, you get sick of rebooting after a while. Not familiar with adding 2 devices together so i can't help you there.

[uwmcscott]

2cents worth.
Had a new TP link router once, AC band i think. Still here but not used. I will never buy that brand again. Full of bugs and little to no support/updates. Problems after problems, you get sick of rebooting after a while. Not familiar with adding 2 devices together so i can't help you there.

Thanks, and yes TP-link has put out some cheap stuff. This partcular device seems to have a decent following on their forums but it is still a consumer grade product. The Ubiquti is a much newer product line and also seems to have pretty good reviews.

[ronnx]

Well uw I'm no help as I'm still on DSL. Wish I had your problem.

[bleys21]

I'm thinking this is going to be one of those situations where this is super simple with a commercial firewall, but going to be a pain in the ass with consumer equipment. I haven't done this in a while at home, so I'm hoping the TP-Link stuff does what it is supposed to do, but last time I did it, I had to use Linux on a computer to handle the routing and load balancing the two links. Nowadays, you can get much smaller computers that I had to do back then, but you may have to think outside the "standard" router box to make this work.

Good luck!

[uwmcscott]

I'm thinking this is going to be one of those situations where this is super simple with a commercial firewall, but going to be a pain in the ass with consumer equipment. I haven't done this in a while at home, so I'm hoping the TP-Link stuff does what it is supposed to do, but last time I did it, I had to use Linux on a computer to handle the routing and load balancing the two links. Nowadays, you can get much smaller computers that I had to do back then, but you may have to think outside the "standard" router box to make this work.
Good luck!

Yes, there's definitely some promise and videos/accounts of people getting this to work. The Ubiquiti stuff seems to be pretty polished and has an active user community. I think perhaps since these are dedicated routers ( and not access points/etc ) it might be at least more likely. Way back in the day I tried my hand at the linux (LRP?) firewall that ran off a floppy and was an old PC with 2 NIC's. There are definitely some small business class devices that can do this, but looks like they start out around 200 and go up from there. I'd probably just get a better wifi router and run them separate/tweak the radios before dropping that much coin.

[bleys21]

Yeah, that's the one I was thinking of! It ran off a single 3.5" floppy, and supported multiple NICs and gateways. I can't remember what it was called anymore...

I've got a Palo Alto Networks PA-2500 sitting in storage at work... I can't give it away, as the used market doesn't want anything that doesn't have a Cisco logo on it. :-/ Problem is, PAN doesn't support it anymore, and its about as noisy as your typical 1U server...

Yes, there's definitely some promise and videos/accounts of people getting this to work. The Ubiquiti stuff seems to be pretty polished and has an active user community. I think perhaps since these are dedicated routers ( and not access points/etc ) it might be at least more likely. Way back in the day I tried my hand at the linux (LRP?) firewall that ran off a floppy and was an old PC with 2 NIC's. There are definitely some small business class devices that can do this, but looks like they start out around 200 and go up from there. I'd probably just get a better wifi router and run them separate/tweak the radios before dropping that much coin.