subject: Tips On A Router Solution For Any Size Business [print this page] You're in the midst of designing a new or upgraded high bandwidth network to cover all the voice and data requirements for your company. Your priority is of course to deliver reliable internet connectivity.... but with a cost effective solution. Naturally the router configuration chosen is an important piece of the puzzle.
So where do you start.... And what must you consider to ensure all your bases are covered?
The simplest solution is indeed a specialist off the shelf router which handles dual WAN and understands failover with failback and load balancing etc. However there's a problem with most kits currently available in the SoHo market; they're not especially robust and resilient and they often don't have good tech support.
By contrast enterprise market solutions from the likes of Cisco aren't cheap and require a level of Cisco awareness that can take months or years to acquire.
There's another and more complex issue to consider when you have 2 WANs from diverse suppliers; session failure. Packets for a specific session - such as a connection to a web browser - generally travel on only one of the 2 WANs - in other words you make a connection to your bank via only one WAN link and the return packets from your bank come in on the same link. If that WAN fails or becomes unreliable during the session the packets won't magically start travelling down the 2nd WAN. You've lost your session and you have to start again. For some environments this isn't too critical; for others it can be life threatening. Only you can judge the risks.
However if you have 2 WANs from the same supplier then it may be possible to arrange for bonding and failover/failback to take place at their end of the link; in those circumstances the packets WILL continue to flow even if one WAN fails. Some suppliers in both the US and Europe will even supply managed routers to maintain the services for you.
If you decide to go with a diverse supply using 2 or more WANs then the simpler alternative to buying a specialist dual WAN router is to roll your own solution using an older PC [such as a P3 of circa 1ghz with 512mb ram and a small disk] with multiple network interfaces and one or other of Smoothwall or pfSense - which are open source distributions of specialist firewalls designed to do exactly what is described: deliver failover/failback and load balancing etc.
Installation of pfSense in particular is relatively pain free and can be up and running in about 90 minutes or so if one takes the trouble to read the docs carefully [shock horror: an IT professional should RTFM?].
This may all sound very complicated. But don't despair. You don't have to go through it alone. For help navigating the maze of issues to find the most cost effective router solution.... and comparing what is available from multiple vendors (e.g. for T1 Bandwidth, DS3 Bandwidth, etc)... take advantage of the free assistance from DS3 Bandwidth Solutions.
