I guess my ISP uses some subpar hardware because the connection keeps dropping at peak hours. I want to implement a failover system without having to buy some expensive router which I would not be able to justify with my normal usage.
Wanted to know some other ways how people do it .
Change ISP
Already did it once . No ISP is my area is 100% reliable.
This.
There are two fiber to the home providers in central Mississippi: AT&T and Cspire. As far as I know, Cspire is a Mississippi only ISP.
Before I moved 2 years ago, the Cspire connection was rock-solid. It never went offline.
After we moved, I could wake up on any random day and Cspire would be down for half a day. I guess I can’t complain too much since their synchronous 1GB fiber service is $85/mo, but when you have a teenager that will worry you to death about the internet being offline… well you get the idea.
So I added ATT 1GB synchronous fiber for $80/mo. I like the Cspire Ethernet handoff better than using the ATT modem (even with IP passthru). The ATT service has been stable since adding it 18 months ago. My router (EdgeRouter 4) easily does load-balancing, so I’ve kept both services.
No more downtime, I have a dedicated UPS for the network gear (separate from servers) and I can keep internet up for 8+ hours after a power outage.
Main ISP is fiber, house is part of HOA that has cable internet included, so that is my failover.
Main is 2gbps symmetrical
Failover is 300 down, 10 up
Edgerouter 4 with 1 Gb symmetric fiber primary and cable 500/20 backup. Network is setup so most media devices that are down-only come through the backup so I have regular verification that it’s functioning. Essentially two ports in the house supply separate networks, each with a dedicated outside line, but set up to fail over to the other outside line.
I thought they had completely dropped the Edgerouter line, but I just popped over and it looks like they’re actually in stock and reasonably priced. If I had to replace the ER4, I’d probably go to an ER12, which as far as I can tell is an ER4 with a built in switch (the ER4 doesn’t act as a switch between ports - each port has its own address space).
The only time my network is down is when the power is out
100% up time obviously
I have 5G LTE modem with unlimited data plan on UPS. It is not bad ISP here but power outages…
My router is x86 linux, so I can just usb tether to my phone like a frugal king.
I use an cheap EdgeRouterX to detect failover events then route all traffic out secondary WAN (Teltonika 4G) and I have a nice failover script where I get notified via pushover of the events.
One of those travel routers sharing the connection from my neighbors Xfinity Hotspot ($20/mnth) as my second uplink to my main fiber
Mikrotik do inexpensive routers and their RouterOS is wonderful.
It can even do connection-based load balancing over two connections, although I don’t have the mastery to set this up yet.
Xfinity now has a router with a 4G backup
A Raspberry Pi with two network interfaces (one can be a USB-to-Ethernet or USB-to-WiFi adapter) can be set up as a failover router. Just write scripts to check the internet connectivity regularly and switch between connections as needed.
A pile of shame, consisting of all the books I bought and haven’t read yet.
OPNsense running on a 4 port Protectli. I use 2 ports for WAN connections with load balancing. I have it set to failover to using just one if there is packet loss or high latency on the other.
I’ve wanted one for a long time but don’t have time to deploy it.
So no fall over for mine. 💀