Home network setup with 1xADSL router and 1x4G router

  • Thread starter Thread starter MrM
  • Start date Start date

MrM

MrM

MrM

Associate
Joined
19 Dec 2002
Posts
849
Location
London
By way of background, I live in a rural area which fibre has yet to reach. I have a BT ADSL line which returns <2Mbps and I have a 4G router which returns greater speeds (up to 45Mbps) but is limited to how much I can download per month. Until recently this has not been a viable "all in" solution, but last week I moved to a new provider and data plan that should be sufficient for all of our household needs to the extent that longer term Id like to leave the ADSL connection altogether.

Prior to this new data plan, the 4G connection was only really used to watch TV on demand. All other services were generally linked to the ADSL connection, since, albeit slow, the service being unlimited was more robust and reliable. Linked to the ADSL router and its network I have 3x Sonos speakers in different rooms (via wifi and happy to keep the data provided by the ADSL connection for now), and an NVR with 4 cameras (via cat 6 with static IPs) connected to it via a switch, in addition to a Sky box and Amazon Fire TV. Internet connectivity to the switch is provided by the ADSL connection, so if I am on the wifi network for the ADSL connection, I can view the cameras without issue.

Needless to say, the 4G router has a different IP address and I would like for this new connection to provide the internet connectivity to all the devices connected to the switch. The issue I have is if I simply disconnect the ADSL connection to the switch in favour of the 4G connection, I lose access to viewing the NVR and cameras. Interestingly, it seems the cameras continue to record perfectly (using their static IPs) even when the ADSL router is disconnected from the switch in favour of the 4G router. This is an area of confusion for me since I have devices from 2 different IP ranges attached to the switch, which appear to be functioning fine, albeit that the cameras are not "visible" on the network. If someone is able to explain to me why this is, I would be interested to know?

I fully admit my knowledge of networks is poor. What I would like to do is to be able to view my NVR and cameras with the 4G router providing connectivity to the switch. I realise I could go and re-assign IP addresses for the NVR and all my cameras to the range of my 4G router, but this would be quite a time consuming process. I would be grateful if anyone could advise a more efficient and elegant way so that I can essentially link the IP address ranges for the 2 routers to allow me to view the cameras on the wifi network broadcast by the 4G router.

Thanks for reading.
 
I was hoping I might find a quicker, more elegant solution to use the existing setup, but I will change them if required.
 
You need a router or a layer 3 switch to be able to *route* between your IP subnets.

If you're not bothered about failover to whichever router has the active internet connection, a simpler solution would be to have both routers (adsl and 4g) use the same ip subnet, but configure them for different dhcp ranges. Also ensure they have different ip addresses (eg. adsl is 192.168.0.1 and 4g router is 192.168.0.2).

Then everything can talk to one another, but the dhcp clients for the adsl router use it for their default gateway and the dhcp clients for the 4g router use it.
 
Simplest solution would arguably be a router that supports both ADSL and 4g e.g. something like:
https://www.draytek.co.uk/products/business/vigor-2862l

Ideally you would then flatten all your IP's onto the same subnet, and use rules on the router to specify which IP addresses use which connections.

You can also set up a Data Quota on the 4G so that you get notifications when it's low etc (looking on my Draytek at work it's called "Wan Budget")
 
Agree a new router would be great, but I need to be sensible with the outlay as I have just added a dedicated 4G antenna in our loft space to try to maximise the 4G signal. I am hoping fibre will come to me in the not too distant future as I have hoped for a while, hence I invested in a standalone 4G router (at half the price of the Draytek unit above) and at the time a dual connection router crossed my mind. I tried an Asus one, but my 4G card wasnt recognised, so I returned it. Our ADSL is so slow that its hard for me to now justify buying another new router, more sensible to keep the ADSL as a failover, and I suppose I need to just bite the bullet and reassign all of the camera static IPs.
 
Do you either have an old PC lying around or a machine you can leave on 24/7?

If so you can make a pfSense router (physical or virtual) if you don't mind reading up and have it run with two WAN connections. It will sit behind both your existing 4G and ADSL routers and then you can have all your devices managed by the pfSense device on the same network and use pfSense's firewall rules to route traffice from certain devices on your network to 4G or ADSL. I ran this configuration for a long time until fast fibre came to my village. Everything internally on the network talks to each other fine but devices use different internet connections as needed.

The only downside is you'll be double NATd which can be a problem if you're a gamer or serve media via Plex to the outside world. 4G uses CGNAT anyway so it shouldn't be a problem there and you can fix it on the ADSL side by buying a £20 BTOR modem to replace your existing ADSL router.
 
That's a lot of effort to achieve the failover the OP is talking about.

I'd configure both routers to use the same subnet and other setting and physically swap the connection if and when needed.
 
What are you trying to achieve here.
  • 2 separate networks, one with ADSL, one with 4G
  • 1 network with failover from ADSL to 4G (4G picks up when ADSL can't connect)
  • 1 network with both ADSL and 4G dependant on the device being used
  • 1 network with both ADSL and 4G intelligent making the choice of which internet method to use
Either way, I wouldn't run 2 DHCP servers as this leads to all sorts of troubleshooting issues to work out which one is doing what.

Also.. what is your current router?
 
2 separate networks, nothing fancy. What I am trying to avoid is having to reset all the static IP details for the cameras and the NVR. So given they are already running on the subnet of the ADSL router (old Billion router) I am wondering if there is an easy way they can be accessed from the subnet of the 4G router (Huawei B525)?
 
MrM said:
is an easy way they can be accessed from the subnet of the 4G router (Huawei B525)?
Click to expand...
Configure a PC on the network with a static IP that's in the same subnet as the cameras. You'll then be able to connect to the cameras. Change it back once done.

Edit: just realised you're after a permanent solution.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom