Hello! This is a guide to setting up a home network with either Load Balancing or Auto-Failover between 2 or more ISPs. The emphasis is on having a relatively low cost way to make a relatively high availability connection from your house to the Internet.
Many of us work from home these days, so having reliable broadand Internet access has gone from nice to have to must have. Also, many of us are "cord-cutters": no Internet connection = no streaming films, TV or music.
ISPs do a great job, but downtime happens. Some ISPs provide backup 4G "dongles", but the author's experience is that these are low speed. And for many households, 4G coverage is not good enough to rely on them as a backup connection.
- I'm based in UK, so the ISPs I mention and some other things may be UK specific.
- This is all based on consumer grade hardware. And there are some single points of failure in this setup (for example the main router used). If you need the highest levels of availability, then you should get proper pro-grade equipment, and have your network professionally designed and installed.
- Despite the previous point... although this guide is intended for home network set ups, it may also be suitable for small businesses, shops, restaurants, etc. as well.
At some point, we all decided that router is the generic term we use for a wide range of network equipment. For example, we often call the "hub" devices that ISPs provide routers, when really they are combos of modem, router and Wi-Fi access point (and maybe some other things too). In this guide, I'll try to use name things according to the purpose we're using them for... but there will be times when I say "router", because I'm human.
So, in general, I'll try to stick to this terminology, Router: Things that are really do the classic work that routers do. Hub: The combo devices that ISPs typically supply. Access Point: Wi-Fi access point. In my set up I repurpose TP-Link routers with lots of antennas on them for this purpose. But you could use proper, dedicated acess points. And you probably should.
They're all much the same, aren't they? On some level, I think that true. But... for our purposes the key idea is for the 2 that you choose to be as different from each other as possible. For example, I use BT and Virgin Media. One important difference is that BT enters the house from a telegraph pole, high over my front garden. Whereas Virgin have their cables underground, coming to my house through a trench.
This difference is... great! There are real-world disasters (eg. truck demolishes BT telegraph pole) that are unlikely to damage the Virgin underground cable at same time. Similarly, road worker cutting through underground Virgin cable with drill is unlikely to damage BT cable at same time.
Where applicable, TP-Link equipment / model numbers are listed. This is what the I used, but other brands, models, etc. should work just fine.
- Router with multiple WAN port capability. I'm using this TP-Link ER7206 router. Its key features are,
- Up to 4 WAN ports (we need at least 2... 1 per ISP).
- Data transfer rate: 1 Gigabits Per Second. More would be better, and make it future proof. But higher speed is more expensive.
- Access point(s). The ER7206 is great, but it is "just" a router. We'll need some things with antennas on them to get Wi-Fi working. And we can't use the Wi-Fi functionality built into the ISPs - we're going to turn that off. So, we'll need at least 1 Wi-Fi access point. In my set up, I've repurposed a few of these TP-Link Archer AX72 to be access points.
- In order to configure the ISP hubs, routers, etc. you'll need a way to make a wired connection between then and your laptop. Modern laptops generally don't have a built-in Ethernet socket (because they are too thin?), so you'll need something like this USB C to Ethernet Adapter.
- Category 6 (Cat 6) cables, terminated at each end with connectors. We'll need these for patchning things together. Half a dozen should be enough, and they are often included in box with routers.
+----+ +----------------+
| BT |------------->| Router | +---------------------+ +-----------------------+
+----+ | TP-Link ER7206 | | Access Point | ) ) ) ) | Wireless Devices, |
| |--->| TP-Link Archer AX72 | ) Wi-Fi ) | Phones, laptops, etc. |
+--------------+ | | | | ) ) ) ) | |
| Virgin Media |--->| | +---------------------+ +-----------------------+
+--------------+ +----------------+
OK - let's go for it!... these are steps to set everything up.
First we need to configure the Router ports to ensure that 2 of them are in "WAN" mode. The TP-Link ER7206 has 1x RJ45 port that is dedicated to WAN use, but the other ports are flexible LAN/WAN ports.
Use a patch cable to connect your laptop to one of the LAN ports of the router.
+----------------+ +--------+
| Router | LAN Port ------> | Laptop |
| TP-Link ER7206 | | |
+----------------+ +--------+
In a browser, go to the web interface of the router. On Network / WAN / WAN Mode change 1x of the LAN/WAN ports to WAN mode.
At the end of this stage, we have 2x RJ45 ports configured for WAN use (labelled WAN2 & WAN3). The remaining RJ45 sockets are still in LAN mode.
This step disables the router functionality (NAT, DHCP, firewall) of each ISP hub. We need to do this because our new router will be taking over these duties. This step needs to be repeated for both ISP Hubs.
Use a patch cable to connect your laptop to one of the LAN ports of the ISP hub.
+---------+ +--------+
| ISP Hub | LAN Port ---> | Laptop |
+---------+ +--------+
In a browser, go to the web interface of the hub.
Look for a mode setting to change from "Gateway" to "Bridge" mode. There are some ISP specific notes about exactly how to do this later in the guide.
Check that ISP hubs WiFi is turned off. We're going to use dedicated hardware for WiFi, so we no longer need the WiFi capability built into ISP's hubs, hence we want it turned off. Bridge Mode usually turns it off automatically, but use web interface of each ISP Hub to check this.
Be sure to repeat this step for both ISP Hubs.
Connect patch cables from ISP Hubs to Router, as follows. Note: in my case I connected the router's WAN 2 port directly to their ONT.
+----+ +----------------+
| BT | LAN Port-------------- WAN 2 Port >| Router |
+----+ | TP-Link ER7206 |
| |
+--------------+ | |
| Virgin Media | LAN Port --- WAN 3 Port >| |
+--------------+ +----------------+
Use a patch cable to reconnect your laptop to the Router.
+----+ +----------------+ +--------+
| BT | LAN Port-------------- WAN 2 Port >| Router | LAN Port ---> | Laptop |
+----+ | TP-Link ER7206 | +--------+
| |
+--------------+ | |
| Virgin Media | LAN Port --- WAN 3 Port >| |
+--------------+ +----------------+
Go into the router's web interface and do the following configurations,
- In Network / WAN, configure each of the WAN ports as required. Usually Connection Type = "Dynamic IP", but may be "PPPoE" (see ISP Specific Notes below)
- In Status / Traffic Statistics section, turn on Enable Interface Statistics. This is a great way to check that load really is being shared by the 2 ISPs.
Do either of these steps.
On Transmission / Load Balancing / Basic Setting page Enable Load Balancing. Also enable Application Optimized Routing.
On Transmission / Load Balancing / Online Detection page, check that both WAN ports have "Port Status" = "Online".
On Transmission / Load Balancing / Link Backup page, create a rule with this config,
- Primary WAN = WAN2
- Backup WAN = WAN3
- Mode = "Failover(Enable backup link when any primary WAN fails)"
- Status = "Enable"
Connect a patch cable from one of the LAN ports on the Router to one of the LAN ports on the Access Point (actually a router / Wi-Fi Access Point combo device). Connect another patch cable from another of the LAN ports of the Access Point to your laptop.
+----+ +----------------+
| BT |------------->| Router | +---------------------+ +--------+
+----+ | TP-Link ER7206 | | Access Point | | Laptop |
| |--->| TP-Link Archer AX72 | LAN Port ---> | |
+--------------+ | | | | | |
| Virgin Media |--->| | +---------------------+ +--------+
+--------------+ +----------------+
On laptop go into web interface of the Access Point.
We need to put the Access Point into Access Point Mode. This turns off the router fuctions of the device: these are now handled by the main router that we've set up. On the TP-Link Archer AX72, this is done by going to Avanced / System / Operation Mode and then selecting Access Point Mode. Be sure to connect the patch cable from the main Router to one of the LAN Ports of the Access Point - not the port on it labelled as WAN. This is important, as it tells the Access Point that it is not acting as a router.
Ensure the Access Point has your household's SSID and Password, etc. configured.
At this point, everything should be set up and working. You can disconnect the patch cable from the Access Point to your laptop and access your network via Wi-Fi as usual.
If at any time you want to go into the Web Interface of your main router, you can find its IP address on a Windows laptop by using the command ip config. The router address is shown as Wireless LAN adapter WiFi / Default Gateway.
Use this address to go into the Web Interface of the router, and do some tests. Go to Status / Traffic Statistics / Interface Statistics. This page shows how much data is being received / sent by each ISP. Its a good idea to press the Refresh button before doing tests.
Test your load balancing / failover by unplugging patch cable from 1 of the hub to the router. You still be able to access website, stream video, etc. on your laptop. You should notice on the Interface Statistics page that all data is with the remaining ISP. Reconnect the patch cable and repeat the test for the other ISP.
General notes for putting BT Business Hub into bridge mode, How do I enable bridge mode on my BT Business Hub?
On the Web interface of my BT Business Hub, the Bridge Mode is greyed out. So, I followed this advice and connected my router directly to their ONT, BT Business Smarthub 3 Bridge mode greyed out
This requires configuring the main router so that the BT WAN port has Connection Type PPPoE. See Connect direct to ONT
You also need the Username and Passowrd for this connection. [ISP name and password] (https://community.bt.com/t5/Home-setup-Wi-Fi-network/ISP-name-and-password/td-p/2199627)