Dual WAN Broadband Load Balancing advice? BT Fibre 16MB+ Virgin Media 100MB

saayinla

saayinla

saayinla

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Hi All,

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year in Advance.

Here goes, I currently have Plusnet broad band fibre with 16MB on a 78MB connection due to distance to the exchange. I am having Virgin 100MB installed next week. I 2 4K TVs, Netflix 4K, Amazon Prime and Have 4K home movies I have uploaded which I would like to stream. I believe the 100MB Virgin will be fine, I just need to be able to use both connection when needed I am not after BONDING both speed, just like a fail opver setup incase one is not available but would give preference to the faster connection (Virgin) I was initially looking at the Draytek Vigor 2860 and the I realise I could just have a Dual WAN router instead while still keeping the Hardware from Both ISP.

PS: This any Good ? TP-LINK TL-R470T+ Load Balance
What would people recommend to achieve this please, and any other other advise.

Thanks in advance
 
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So unless you're having a second physical line installed, or you're getting Virgin cable in addition to your ADSL down your phone line you can't keep both suppliers.

Regardless, If you know this already keeping both lines for a hypothetical outage seems a little crazy given reliability these days compared to the added cost.

Anyway to each there own - I recommended Speedify in another thread and it appears to have gone down well: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18762349

Well worth giving it a shot first - just be aware of the yearly cost (edit: free to try though!)
 
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RoyMi6 said:
So unless you're having a second physical line installed, or you're getting Virgin cable in addition to your ADSL down your phone line you can't keep both suppliers.

Regardless, If you know this already keeping both lines for a hypothetical outage seems a little crazy given reliability these days compared to the added cost.

Anyway to each there own - I recommended Speedify in another thread and it appears to have gone down well: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18762349

Well worth giving it a shot first - just be aware of the yearly cost (edit: free to try though!)
Click to expand...

Thanks for your response.

I said in my opening post that I currently have plusnet via BT line and getting Virgin Media Cable Broadband Installed also.

I am already in Contract with Plusnet and the speed I am getting is not very good although reliable, hence I am getting Virgin Broadband to take full benefit of my 4K streaming and Downloads (I download a lot regularly, not really interested in uploads)

I think I prefer a hardware solution over a software monthly subscription solution, I work in IT and work from home in a way so I can afford to pay for a hardware solution rather than software. And it looks like this solution will only work for a PC unless I am reading it wrongly, but I want the Full 100MB/16MB speed available to all the devices on the network not just via a laptop or desktop with speedify installed

Thanks once again.
 
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Yeah, sorry you didn't specifically say cable, Virign do to ADSL as well.

Regardless yeah, hardware solution is the route to take long term - let us know how you get on!
 
RoyMi6 said:
Yeah, sorry you didn't specifically say cable, Virign do to ADSL as well.

Regardless yeah, hardware solution is the route to take long term - let us know how you get on!
Click to expand...

Thank you!

Any recommendation on Dual WAN router would be appreciated.
 
How much meddling do you want to do? If you can bridge your PlusNet router somehow to avoid double-NAT, and drop the Virgin router into modem mode, then you could do a lot worse than an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter - be aware that the failover/load balancing/policy routing will require you to dig into the command line, and there's no Wi-Fi built in.

But you can get it set up so that your streaming and web browsing goes out over Virgin, and the gaming is done on the (likely better latency at peak times) PlusNet connections, for example.
 
Most if not all of the Mikrotik range will do failover/load/balancing/policy routing; however the setup isn't as "easy" as you would imagine.

I've currently got the RB951G-2HnD doing line bonding but there are always guides around the 'net as well as the community forum will is full of things.
 
Caged said:
How much meddling do you want to do? If you can bridge your PlusNet router somehow to avoid double-NAT, and drop the Virgin router into modem mode, then you could do a lot worse than an Ubiquiti EdgeRouter - be aware that the failover/load balancing/policy routing will require you to dig into the command line, and there's no Wi-Fi built in.

But you can get it set up so that your streaming and web browsing goes out over Virgin, and the gaming is done on the (likely better latency at peak times) PlusNet connections, for example.
Click to expand...

I should be fine with some medling as long as its just required at setup I wouldnt want to continously meddle with setings every now and then. I do not require Wifi, I have a dedicated Business EAP handling my Wifi traffic. I am looking at the Ubiquiti EdgeRouter Lite also.

Quartz said:
Take a look at the Draytek range. They're not cheap, but a mate swears by them.
Click to expand...

My search started from the Draytek Vigor range specifically the 2860, I am considering that as well.

Praetorian said:
Most if not all of the Mikrotik range will do failover/load/balancing/policy routing; however the setup isn't as "easy" as you would imagine.

I've currently got the RB951G-2HnD doing line bonding but there are always guides around the 'net as well as the community forum will is full of things.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I looked up your model, looks like a standard switch
 
Edgerouter a Lite will be the cheapest and be able t handle it. Draytek dual WAN products are a good shout as well and finally if you have an old PC about you could use something like pfSense or IPfire
 
Given the original post this appears to be a situation where the OP is stuck with an existing contract and trying to find some benefit from it. According to that post he's only interested in fail over between the connections.

The new Virgin connection should be reliable enough for home working. In the unlikely event that it does fail for more than a few minutes the connections could be easily swapped by moving a couple of Ethernet cables.
 
The new Virgin connection should be reliable enough for home working. In the unlikely event that it does fail for more than a few minutes the connections could be easily swapped by moving a couple of Ethernet cables.
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True, but I think for a home worker there are some advantage to making use of both lines at the same time. I know when I'm working at home that if I had a second connection I'd be sure that certain traffic was routed over one connection or another. I'd get much better video and conference calling if I could keep the rest of the family downloading and streaming on a different connection. I know QoS can help to a certain extent but two lines would be much better. In fact when BT put a cabinet nearer my house in the new year and I get more than 3mb/s on fibre then I will order a second line and do this.
 
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I think to avoid issues like Double NATing etc, might be best to stick with the Draytek Router or can the Edgerouter do PPPoE etc as well?
 
That thing between the router and the phone line should be a Huawei modem from eBay - there's no point buying things like the DrayTek 130 unless you need something with warranty (e.g. you're a service provider). All other VDSL modems from what I can tell are trash.
 
Caged said:
That thing between the router and the phone line should be a Huawei modem from eBay - there's no point buying things like the DrayTek 130 unless you need something with warranty (e.g. you're a service provider). All other VDSL modems from what I can tell are trash.
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IF you are referring to the Huawei HG612, I might have one from a previous BT Contract, I ll look around. Will try to see if I can unlock it.
 
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