IP Route metrics

[Morrack]

Hi all got an interesting challenge.

I'm using an SOE and have two possible routes to the internet: one slow and expensive (1x cellphone data connection); one fast, cheap, and unreliable (wireless internet, fringe service area).

I've got LAN1 on my SOE going through a PIX to the wireless modem. LAN2 goes through a netgear router to the cellphone network. My PC's are connected to the other LAN1 ports.

I can set the default gateway on the SOE to LAN1 (and the appropriate IP) and I get out on the wireless network (if it's up). I can set the default gateway on the SOE to LAN2 (and the appropriate IP) and I get out on the cellphone network. No probs.

So, here is the challenge. I thought I could create two default gateway IP routes, the wireless with a metric of 1 and the cellphone network with a metric of 2 and get it to automatically fallback to the cellphone network when the wirless is down. But, no joy.

Any clever ideas on how I can get automatic fallback working? I know I could probably setup a service and use shortcodes but life would be oh so sweet if I could get it to happen automatically.



Peter Sherwood

Morrack Consulting

http://www.morrack.com

 

[RePetE815]

A challenge you'll likely face is that regardless of whether either route is down, the default gateway IP's you'll be entering are neighboring IP's which will respond even when the upstream connection to the Internet is down. I believe you may be better served to go with a multi-point router which could effectively failover in the event one of the upstream connections goes down. Your IP Office would have its default gateway point to the multi-point router (MPR), while the MPR will manage the two upstream connections. Check out HotBrick's Firewall LB2 at

http://www.hotbrick.com.

Another nice feature of the HotBrick route is bandwidth aggregation when both connections are up.




Erik