Redundant Internet Connection Solution 1

[B1naryPro]

I was looking for a solution to have fail over internet connection. if my primary internet goes down i want it to automatically kick over the the backup. I have windows 2000 a layer 3 switch and a firewall. Does anyone know any hardware or software to take care of this? Also how would my MX record and other addresses that are published to the public be solved in going to the backup ISP. Thanks in advanced

JPBinary
MCSE, MCSA

 

[MattWray]

I am going to be implementing something similar soon. I was just thinking of adding a second route to 0.0.0.0 out the other Internet connection with a higher metric. That way if the first line is down, the router should route out to the second line...

Thanks,

Matt Wray
MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CCNA

http://www.sss-steel.com

 

[FredUG]

There are a few ways to do it, some are quite expensive and the others may not work for you.

Multi-links from different ISPs: With the right router (Cisco 3660, with a lot of memory, or better) using BGP you can use 2 different ISP's and if either link is down the traffic flows through the other. You'll need other things and it's quite complicated to setup but that's why GOD made CCIE's.

Multi-links from the same ISP:
You can get 2 links from the *same* ISP and ask them to make sure that if one is down that the other will take over. In order to provide more redundancy you should ask them to make sure each link goes through different NOCs. Since both links come from the same ISP you shouldn't have different IP addresses. (can be bonded or multi-plexed)

Other:
There are also a few routers that will accept 2 broadband connections and do failover/load balancing but that wont help you with hosted domains and mail, it's more for people who share bandwidth and want 2 cable modems so they can download more (not faster because they're not bonded in any way) at once.

If I were picking the proper and best method, BGP is the way to go but it's also the most expensive and complicated.

Hope that helps,

FredUG

 

[FredUG]

"I was just thinking of adding a second route to 0.0.0.0 out the other Internet connection with a higher metric."

Mattwray:
That wont help him (or you) with hosted services like web/ftp/dns/smtp/etc. You'll be able to get out to browse and such but that's about it. For example.

http://www.yoursite.com

points to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and your backup link is yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy. When xxx goes down and you start using yyy people trying to access

http://www.yoursite.com

won't know about yyy. Make sense? Now throw in NAT plus your firewall and it's become more complicated.

Hope that helps,

FredUG

 

[MattWray]

That is more for my solution than for JP. Thought it could get him thinking. Our Disaster Recovery makes sure all sites can get back to our HQ to access our Unix box that is mission critical for our business. We don't have a web server accessible from the Internet. The only thing that would become a problem is our mail server, and I'm glad you made me think of that (Star for that). I had overlooked it, but the Unix box is priority numero uno...

Thanks,

Matt Wray
MCSE, MCSA, MCP, CCNA

http://www.sss-steel.com