How does a load balancing router work with VPN tunnels?

[killennextdoor]

The Internet connection I use breaks a few times a day. I'm not a big fan of that. It seems most Internet connections break at times. None that I've tried have been perfect. I've had five ISP's during the years and all have had connection breaks, at least once a week.

Now I'm thinking that the best solution for me would be if I could use two Internet connections all the time. So if one connection dies the other will still be alive. I've heard that this can be done using a ”load balancing router”. A router that accepts two Internet connections.

That makes me pretty happy. But it doesn't make me completely happy yet. I still have one thing I'm not sure of. I'm hoping for your expert knowledge on privacy issues.

The thing I haven't figured out yet is how these load balancing routers work with VPN tunnels. I use VPN tunnels for all my Internet traffic. It allows me to have privacy and I believe it adds a layer of computer security against hacking and things like that. What I haven't figured out and need help finding an answer to is if my VPN tunnel will stay active after one of my Internet connections has died. Will the VPN tunnel stay active and use the other Internet connection? Or will I change of IP occur (I don't know) that will cause the VPN connection to drop?

If the VPN connection drops whenever the Internet connection it is on (if it is on one Internet connection, I don't know) then I will have no use of a load balancing router. If on the other hand the VPN tunnel will stay active even though a connection dies I will become totally completely happy and I'll buy a router and get another ISP subscription as soon as I can.

Thanks for your work and for helping!

 

[burtsbees]

Cisco routers (NOT LinkSys!!!) load balance by default---as long as you VPN into something using the same credentials all the time, it does not matter where you are tunneling from.
I think what you want is failover, not load balancing. Load balancing means that all traffic going through the router is evenly distributed among users, unless otherwise specified.
A decent Cisco router (with two outgoing interfaces) will do what you want, and you may need extra equipment, depending on your internet service.
Also, I posted an answer in your other post---you are doing a LOT when you can accomplish internet security with a product like Norton 360---I use it, and it works GREAT! I also use Zone Alarm firewall, which gives you the option of encrypting outgoing credit card numbers, account numbers, etc. with a one-way unbreakable hash (MD5).

Burt

 

[killennextdoor]

You're right, fail-over is what I want! Cool that the VPN doesn't break just because I (presumably) change IP all the sudden. That makes me happy I hadn't even considered Cisco (since they don't get reviewed on Newegg). I'll check Cisco's routers out. Thanks for the recommendation on Norton 360. I'm reading about it now.