Recommendations for backup internet connection?

Duke said:
Don't worry, nothing gets much love on here unless its Ubiquiti ;)
Click to expand...
It has nothing to do with Ubiquiti, it's the fact Draytek seem to just make up networking terms and for more complex installs nothing is where you'd expect it to be. With one customer I worked with we just got rid of the kit in the end and ran it off a Cisco ASA.

I also thought the Draytek home router I had was terrible. pfSense was leagues ahead.
 
ChrisD. said:
It has nothing to do with Ubiquiti, it's the fact Draytek seem to just make up networking terms and for more complex installs nothing is where you'd expect it to be. With one customer I worked with we just got rid of the kit in the end and ran it off a Cisco ASA.

I also thought the Draytek home router I had was terrible. pfSense was leagues ahead.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with pfsense or ubiquiti kit - what would be needed from them to achieve the same :
- Load-balancing/fail-over between 2 WAN connections (Virgin cable modem via ethernet + USB 4G modem)
- Wifi (to replace the SH3 wifi)

- Will probably need to be physically located near the cable modem for ethernet access (different location would currently require it to go over powerline adaptors)
 
Squid Vicious said:
I'm not familiar with pfsense or ubiquiti kit - what would be needed from them to achieve the same :
- Load-balancing/fail-over between 2 WAN connections (Virgin cable modem via ethernet + USB 4G modem)
Click to expand...

There is nothing wrong with the Draytek solution you have decided upon, but just to answer your query, it's going to be a LOT more expensive. Like £450-£600.

If you want to do proper failover then any EdgeRouter will do it, but failover on Unifi is flakey as a very flakey thing. On pfSense, anything with more than 2 network ports will do load balancing and failover out of the box.

Squid Vicious said:
- Wifi (to replace the SH3 wifi)
Click to expand...

pfSense is only a router, so you would need a WLAN solution separately. Ubiquiti has the Unifi line of access points, which are arguably the best value access points on the market. That said, they are designed to compete with Cisco Meraki so although they are cheap in a way, they look REALLY expensive for a home user. And they are PoE only, so

Squid Vicious said:
- Will probably need to be physically located near the cable modem for ethernet access (different location would currently require it to go over powerline adaptors)
Click to expand...

It's all connected up with RJ45's so it would all work with whatever interconnects you like.
 
Squid Vicious said:
Too late - I'm committed now :p

Expecting a complex ui and setup but hoping the hardware/software itself is quite robust
Click to expand...

The UI is functional and menu's make sense, telnet command are easy to use also. It's a bit daunting at first but then you realise the UI is actually well thought about.

Re hardware/software there solid, as said they can power whole business's with various requirements simultaneously. Used them at work and at home and once setup other then occasional firmware updates they can run unattended and require very little attention.
 
Draytek bleurgh! I have no idea why they are top of the market or why almost all small office users I come into contact with have a Draytek sat in the corner. Blooming awful things but they must be a "go to" for a reason I don't see.

Ubiquiti gets love on here as the product is a nerds dream, great performance for the price and something to tinker with a lot.

pfSense also a good option as is my "go to" MikroTik.
 
samcat said:
Worth considering VM Business? 24hour response times for issues etc? Not sure if it would fix your issue, but gets them looking at it quicker.
Also gets for 350Mbps down ;)
Click to expand...

The business service is much better, has decent UK support, and usually with a fault an engineer will be with you in a couple of hours.
 
Steveocee said:
Draytek bleurgh! I have no idea why they are top of the market or why almost all small office users I come into contact with have a Draytek sat in the corner. Blooming awful things but they must be a "go to" for a reason I don't see.
Click to expand...
They're relatively cheap, they're easily available, they have a good feature set, and they work. You can set one up and never need to touch it apart from updates. It's also nice that they don't really need any special knowledge to configure.
 
It's now all installed with the SH3 setup in modem mode and the 4G USB modem successfully installed and working well in fail-over mode at 20Mpbs - an external antenna coming tomorrow to see if I can improve that.

All the wireless stuff is connected OK, all the home automation stuff still appears to work once wifi updated where needed.

As expected needed documentation to get things set up but wasn't difficult and plenty of stuff both on draytek site and elsewhere.
 
JasonM said:
Why don't you like them, just trying to understand why some people dislike them so much.
Click to expand...

My only entanglements with them have been removing them due to faults. I've worked at ISP level for at least the past 8 years and whilst I'm not stupid enough to assume all Draytek kit is faulty, it's hard to see them in a good light when you've spent years replacing them for other branded equipment.

Having said that, I've not actually deployed one due to situation and company preferences so my 100% exposure probably accounts for a small % of the ones out there that do/have developed faults.

Maybe I'm traumatised but it's enough to have soured my opinion.
 
Steveocee said:
My only entanglements with them have been removing them due to faults. I've worked at ISP level for at least the past 8 years and whilst I'm not stupid enough to assume all Draytek kit is faulty, it's hard to see them in a good light when you've spent years replacing them for other branded equipment.
Click to expand...

That's quite surprising as Draytek's are generally very reliable. I've only ever had 1 fail and I've bought loads at work in the past 15 years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom